Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1888-11-15
. MANY People Buried Aliye.

A Kansas City journal special OF the 9TH
Inst. says The most dreadful disaster in
the history Of Kansas occurred at 5 o'clock
this evening. When the men were prepar-
ing to leave of their work in shaft No. 2
at Frontenac, q suburb of Pittsburg,
terrible explosion occurred that shook
the earth for great distance and
completely shattered the shaft. Up
on investigation it was found that
160 men were within the mine at the
time Of the explosion, being 112 feet be-
low the surface. 1t is almost certain that
all are dead at this writing with only two
exceptions men who were in the car
coming up and near the top Of the shaft
managed to escape.
Pittsburg is the center Of the coal mines
Of southeastern Kansas and about 100
miles south Of Kansas City, on the Fort
Scott and Gulf railroad.
A special to the st. Louis Post Dispatch
from Pittsburg, Kan, gives the details of
the horrible holocaust in the shaft of the
Pittsburg and Cherokee mine near that
place Friday night. The company had
more orders than they could fill and in
their attempts to keep up had been run
ming an unusually large force of miners.
Friday morning 164 men were lowered into
the mine. At $50 in the afternoon ter
rible rumbling noise was heard above and
black cloud of dirt, slate and dust shot
into the air from the mouth of the shaft,
tearing away the tracks upon which the
cages were hoisted, and filling the shaft
with debris. The explosion occurred on
the east side and is attributed to the mex
perience OF some of the men. Before the
men outside could recover their senses,
one Of the miners appeared at the air shaft
nearly suffocated. He was followed by a
large number Of others who escaped. The
number is not known. About 10 o'clock
the fan house was repaired and fresh air
was pumped into the mine, driving back
the poisonous gases and averting suffoca-
ton. Attention was then turned to rails
ing the cribbing SO that the cages could be
lowered.
At a. m. the cage was ready to descend
and the first party was lowered in the
shaft. Owing to the bad air there they
could not stay very long On the first re-
turn of the cage it contained a number of
uninjured but badly demoralized men.
The bottom of the shaft was badly dam
aged and it was difficult to get at the dead,
as it was found that they were piled to-
gether at the bottom. The living and
Uhuly WOuuucu WCiC iiloO i4OiobCu W tuO
top, and at / a. m. nine had beed rescued.
About this time the party struck an entry
containing twelve more dead. By 2
o'clock Saturday afternoon twenty five
dead and nine wounded had been found,
with twenty-five missing, who are sup
posed to be dead. A large number of the
killed are French and Italian miners. A
temporary hospital was improvised in a
blacksmith shop near by, where the most
heartrending scenes were witnessed as the
mangled and badly burned men were car
ried in. Two men died while being car
ried into the hospital. The casualties are
now placed at fifty-two dead and eight in
jured.
LATER-A special from Cherokee, Kan,
to the Post Dispatch says: Ninety bodies
have been recovered from the mine, and it
is believed there are still forty-six below
the surface.