Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1883-02-22


Iy Caves INA Large Amount of water
on the Surface Fills the Mine, and over
Seventy Miners Miserably Perish-A Com
munity of Widows and Orphans.
BRATDwooD H., February I6.
The most awful tragedy which has ever
visited the Wilmington coalfields occurred to-
day at the No. 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.
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 horrible has ever been
chronicled in the history of mining in tho
United States. The destruction occurred in an
instant, and came with overwhelming force
In every home there is weeping and 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 hundred families. In several in-
ST. noes ali the male members have been swept
away, and what VIII be the future of Diamond
it is impossible to forecast.
LIST OF MARRIED MEN KNOWN TO BE LOST.
John Huber, wife and four children; Adam
McQuistiOn, wife and five children; Robert
MoQuistiOn, Isaac Pierson, wife and one
three children; John Boyd, wife in the old
country; H. Eddy, John Neil, wife and six
children; A: Orr, wife and three children; p.
G. Redmond, wife, and two children; p. H,
Wall, Fritz Koe, Samuel Atkins, wife and six
f1n ehdr enn e6r M H9GSa wife ana
ButskOnskey, Larry Sullivan, John Brokman,
wife and four children; A. Fulton, K. GI alter,
Pierson, John Pierson, Harmon Unger, wife
and one child; Joe Mathew A. GolIngberg,
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
Defbroskey. F. Murray, H. Ramsey, F. Soup,
Matt Brett, P. Seek
John Huber. Frank Huber, Willie McQuis-
ton, Adam McQuistion; lr., John Piersop,
Adam Stewart. Jr., Frank stewart, Hughes
Nesbit, A. BibingtOn, Simon Stumps, John
Mathew, w. S. Sec0ra. H. Giles 'er, j. SEM, John
French, John Johnson, o. Oster,ow, John An
ders0n, William McCulley, Thomas Rodgus,
I'm the list of the married men known to be
lost, the surviving family is given where there
are more than the wife.l
THE CAUSE.
The tragedy of to-day was as unique as it
was devastating. section of prairie-land,
forty by ninety feet, over which the floods had
extended until the water stood three or four
feet deep, suddenly caved 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 to night 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.
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, wheE the water
poured into the last-named shaft, and the work.
men were compelled to abandon their last dos
perate attempt at the salvation of theirfellows.
The Diamond cOal-mine is located in the ex-
treme corner of VIII County, the little village
where the miners live being just over the line
in Grundy County.
A 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-combed by the mfne-wOrkiDgs,
many of which have been worked out and
abandoned 1t was through break in one of
the abandoned workings that,the flood poured
in to-day.
SCENES AT THE MINES.
About 1l:30 the rumor spread among the
population of the mining village that the
ground had caved in over the main roadway
Ats
that stood in 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 children 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 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
devise some means of salvation for the poor
creatures who were penned up never to be
rescued alive.
HEARTREEDING SCENES.
Little by little the terrible character of the
catastrophe became apparent Then It was
that the most heartrending scenes occurred.
A wife 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
gone to save the body OF his son, fell back into
the pit Efeless corpse, and has not since been
seen.
young German maiden saw her lover
brought out of the shaft in almost lifeless
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
~ injured.
THREE-FoURFHs of the terror which at
taches to smallpox, says the Springfield
CAass-) Globe, is Legendary. Most OF the
other fourth comes from carelessness.
THE famous British soldier, General
WolseIey. recently took the oath as
member OF the House Of Lords amid the
oba IF the neerg