The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-02-23
A COAL-MINE HORROR.

Seventy Miners Miserably Perish-A Com
munity of Widows and Orphans.
BRAIDwooD Ill.,, February l6.
The most awful tragedy which has ever
visited the Wilmington coal-felds occurred to-
day at the No. 2 shaft of the Wilmington Coal
Mining & Manufacturing Company, known as
the Diamond Company, three miles and a half
northwest of this city. The little village of
Diamond is scene of desolation calculated
to ring the heart of even the most hardened to
scenes Of misery and woe. n
Sixty-eight men and six boys lie dead in the
mine, and it may be weeks before even the
melancholy satisfaction of recovering their
bodies is accorded. No such calamity has ever
befallen this section of country, or, for that.
matter, nothing as horrible has ever been
chronicled in the history of mining in the
United States. The destruction occurred in an
instant, and came with overwhelming force.
In every home there is weeping ard sorrow
for the Braidwood miners who will return no
more. The whole population of Diamond is
devoted to mining, and this crushing blow car
ries ruin to a hhndred families. In several in
stances all the male members have been swept
away, and what viii be the future of Diamond
it is impossible to forecast. $3.50 YgG l f3s.
LIST OF MARRIED MEN KNOWN TO BE LOST
John Huber, wife and four children; Adam
McQuistion, wife and five children; Robert
McQuistion, Isaac Pierson, wife and one
child; James Carroll B. Schatzell, wife and
country; H. Eddy, John Neil, wife and six
children; A. Orr, wife and three children; p.
Z. Redmond Wife and two children: P. Fl.
Wall, Fritz Koe, Samuel Atkins, wife and six
children; John Atkins, A. Hocka, wife and
two children; George Butskonskey, John
Butskonskey. Larry Sullivan, John Brokman,
wife and four children; A. Fulton, X. Crater,
William Scholts, wife and two children; James
P1erson, John PiersOn, Harmon Unger, wife
and one child; Joe Mathew, A. Gollingberg,
Frank Motto, wife and three children Will
lam Klesser, Joe Smith, G. Clattin, John Gull
lock, Frank Klass, Adam Damn, wife and
four children; E. Damn, Joe Grotes, NJ Ney-
ski, Andrew Butty, John Denbroskey, Anten
Denbroskey. F. Murray, H. Ramsey, F. Soup,
Matt Brett, p. Seek. i
M. UNMARRIED
John Huber, Frank Huber Willie McQuis-
ton Adam McQuistion, Jr., John Pierson,
Mathew Redmond, d. Mcbride, T. Costigan,
| Adam Stewart. Jr., Frank stewart, Hughes
| Nesbit, A. Ellington, Simon Stumps, John
sMm ntsa, II Rat bart II ON Mathew George f
French, John Johnson, 0. Oster,ow, John An
derson, William McCulley, Thomas Rodgus,
ice Ruzek. ssa rs. .
I'm the list of the married men known to be
lost, the surviving family is given where there
are more than the wife,
THE CAUSE. ~
The tragedy of to-day was as unique as it
was devastating. A section of prairie-land,
forty by ninety feet, over which the floods had
extended until the water stood three or four
feet deep, suddenly eaved in, the result being
the instantaneous flooding of mine in which
300 men and boys were at work. Inside of half
an hour the water had extended to all parts of
the workings, and tonight it stands within FIVE
feet of the top of the main shaft. Seventy-four
human beings were choked to death in the
| grim recesses of the mine. ,.a
NO HOPE.
| All hope of the possible rescue Of any of
these unhappy beings by the opening of a
| driveway from an old air-shaft into the work
! ings was abandoned at dusk When the water
| poured into the last-named shaft, and the work.
men were compelled to abandon their last des-
| perate attempt at the salvation of their fellows
| The Diamond coal-mine is located in the ex-
IRENE corner of Win County, The little village
where the miners live being just over the line
| in Grundy County.
| MIRACLE.
| The escape of the majority was almost by a
| miracle. The country around the mines is an
almost dead-level prairie, and the recent
| tremendous rains have covered the whole
| country with water Hundreds of acres of
land are honey by the mine-workings,
| many of which have been worked out and
abandoned. 1t was through a break in one of
| the abandoned workings that the flood poured
| in to-day.
| SCENES AT THE MINES. t
About 80 the rumor spread among the
| population of the mining village that the
| ground had caved in over the main roadway
in the Diamond Shaft No. 2, and that the water
| that stood in a large pond on the sur
| face of the prairie was rushing into the pas
| sages of the mine, cutting off the miners and
| holding them in the passage. Upon the spread
| ing of the rumor large crowds of miners
/ wives, with CHI ldren in arms, rushed toward the
| scene of the catastrophe, anxious to hear of
| their husbands, brothers and sons who were
| employed in the mines. When the crowd
| reached the main entrance of the mine they
/ found everything in a state of the utmost con-
| fusion. Around the shaft were crowd Of
| anxious men and women, eagerly rendering
any assistance that was possible to the half
/ drowned miners who appeared at the bottom
/ of the shaft.
HOW THOSE WHO ESCAPED GOT OUT.
/ To the north could also be seen a crowd of
men collected around an air-shaft, who were
| likewise fishing out the almost perishing
miners who had climbed to the top and would
have sunk back exhausted upon the ground
| had it not been for the assistance of the willing
hands. Women wrung their hands, as, one by
| one, they anxiously viewed each new face that
/ appeared above ground, but found not the
| father or son who was missing, and for whom
some fell down upon their knees and prayed.
The news was upon the lips of every one.
/! Friends anxious for the safety of some lost
! one hurriedly paced back and FORTH trying to
i devise some means of salvation for the poor
/ creatures who were penned up never to be
/ rescued alive
| HEARTRENDING SCENES.
Little by little the terrible character of the
| catastrophe became apparent. Then it was
that the most heartrending scenes occurred
! Awife bent over the shaft as her husband was
/ climbing the ladder in the air-shaft with his
! young son dead in his arms and extended her
/ arms to receive them, but she was doomed to
| disappointment for the man, worn out with
| the desperate struggle which he had under
i gone to save the body of his son, fell back into
the pit lifeless corpse, and has not since be en-
| seen.
young German maiden saw her lover
condition, and, falling upon her knees she
smoothed back the hair and thanked God that
he had been saved
| Mrs. McQuistion, who was on the ground
/ when the news came that her husband and
three sons were dead in the mine, was taken
with nervous prostration and had to be re-
moved from the ground. She is row in pre-
/ carious condition, and her mind is permanent
| ly injured.
/ The precocity OF the London street boy is