Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1885-05-15
BURIED BY FALLING COAL
An Incident Of the First Mine Disaster in


ut Raven Kun and imprisonment of the
ten miners underground, recalls to q
survivor OF the first great mine dis
asterin this country, q most marvellous
escape of some of the miners who
were imprisoned behind wall of fall
en- coal mile thick at the time of that
disaster. The nine, writs a Homes
dale, Pa, correspondent to The Neo
York Times, was one of the Delaware
and Hudson Canal Company's miners
at Carbondale. For several DAYS in
the winter of 1874 it had been giving
warning to the miners by what is
known among them as working
ominous crackings of the roof here and
there through the mine-that thev
were laboring in constant danger, but
with the proverbial recklessness of
their class they continued to work.
Suddenly, while nearly one hundred
miners were below, and most of them
working in the distant galleries, an
immense area of the mine roof fell.
The superintendent of the mine was
aScotchman named Alexander Dryden,
and he had son among the laborers
below. Dryden was at the top when
the fall occurred, and he rushed at
once into the mine to see if it were
possible to rescue any of the workmen.
Before he reached the fallen mass of
coal he met several miners who had in
some way escaped being crushed by
the roof. They told Dryden that it
was not possible that any of the other
miners could be alive. He insisted on
making an effort to work q passage
through the wall in the hope that some
OF the men might be alive behind it
and could be rescued, and the miners
he had met on their way out of the
pit, where top coal was still falling on
every side, refusing to aid him, the
superintendent went on alone. His
lamp threw but dim light on the
scene, but he found small opening
made by the tops of two large slabs
of coal having struck together, with
their bases on the bottom of
the mine three feet apart. Into
this crevice Dryden crawled, and
found the opening continued in
devious course into the depths. 1t
grew so narrow and low that he was
compelled to lie fiat and drag himself
along. Now and then he found it
necessary to remove with his pick an
obstructing lump of coal, and knew
that by so dong he might remove a
support to the mass above that would
bring it down upon him and crush him
to death. In that way he worked him.
self for mile through the wall, and
then found himself at the end of the
choked chamber, where he emerged
from the passage into a small open
space. lie was greeted by shout
that told him some of the imprisoned
miners were still alive. The fall had
extinguished every light, and they had
failed to find any opening in the wall
that lay between them and the mouth
of the mine. Among the miners was
Brydens son. The superintendent
quickly told the men what they must
undergo in order to escape. One of
their number had been crushed by the
fall, and lay moaning with both arms
and legs broken. Dryden took this
man on his back, and, creeping with
him back through the opening, told
the others to follow. Twelve of the
men were able to keep strength
enough to reach the opening on the
other side of the mine without aid,
but eight of them it was necessary for
the others to drag along over the
Jagged floor and sharp edges of the
passage. The ominous cracking could
be heard at short intervals coming
from different parts of the mine, and
everyone of the miners toiling through
the narrow and crooked crevice in the
wall expected every moment to be
crushed by the settling of the mass of
coal They were all saved, however,
and the writer's informant, now an
aged resident of the county, is the last
survivor of the party, the brave Bry-
den haYing only RECENTLY died HE