The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1890-06-17
Thirty.two Workmcn Lose Their
Lives in tho Drift.
THE DEADLY, 0NIN0US ROAR
Gives Warming 10 Those on Top Of
Gronnd-Terrlhle Scenes Enacted
at the Noalli Of the Pit.
Friends mud Relatives Of
tho Victims Frenzled
With Grief

farm mine at Dunbar. All tho men
were in the pit. Fifteen have been
taken ont badly injured. The other
fifty are thought to be dead, but vol.
unteer party are digging for them.
The 1Iill farm mine Is situated about
two miles from Dunbar and is owned by
the Dunbar Furnace Company. The
mines have no railroad communications
for shipping coal, and the entire output
OF the mines is used by the Dunbar Fur.
mace Company, which is comprised en-.
tirely Of eastern parties, no Pittsburgh.
era being interested in it. Samuel Dick.
son, OF Philadelphia, is the President.
THAT FATAL ROAR.
DUNBAR, Pa, June lG.-This morning
at ll:lO cullen, shivering roar shook
the iowiy miners dwelling on the Hill
farm, in Fayette county, near this place.
and hundreds OF atl'riehted persons, who
knew the sound too well, feared another
mine disaster, and they were reassnred
far loo well. In moment the fearful
news had spread that the Hill farm
mines, owned by Philadelphia parties,
had exploded. The .low.browed hill
from which the slope entered shook
from mouth to pit, aud the score
Of miners houses lining the fatal
hills shook ior u moment, and then
poured out their frienzied inmates by
the hundreds. Arush was made to the
mouth OF the. pit, but ingress was i'm
possible, ms smoke in dense volumes
was issuing forth. Fifty.two mines
had gone TO work this morning, and
were in the slope when the explosion
occurred. OF these fifty.two, eighteen
were in the left heading and thirty.two
in the right heading. Those in the left
heading got out all right. The retreat Of
the others was cut oil, and not one es.
capped. 5s s1
,ea TILE VICTIMS
- Their names were: Joseph Brigner,
Z married.
Richard Brigner.
Milt Farney, married.
Barney Maust.
Emanuel Maust.
Pat Courtney, aged 10 years, married.
George Courtney, son, aged II years.
J. W. Mitchell, aged 10 years, married.
Joseph Bigley, aged 80 years. wife and
two children.
Peter Egan, aged Al years, married.
Robert McGill, single.
Martin Cavener, single.
John Cope, married.
Andrew Cope, son.
Patrick Devlin, married.
John Delaney, married.
John Joy, married. E}
John Devanney.
David Davis, married.
Thomns Davis, son.
Patrick Cahill, married.
William Cahill,
Patrick Courtney, married. '&
John Courtney and son.
Jack Mitchell married.
Dan Smith, married.
y Daniel Shearu, single.
William Hayes, aged 10.
James McCleary, married.
Thomas hlcC!earn, married.
Elmer DenIey, single.
CAUSE OF THE DISASTER.
Att this morning the gang turned in
at the mines, the smaller gang drifting
of to the left, while the larger, some
thirty.iive in number, driited to tho
right, and descended some 500 feet from
the surface, but II mile from the opening.
There two drifts are connected, but
the connection is from the main stem,
some half.mile from the entrance.
The mine, it seems, had been
somewhat troubled with water and
mir, aud an mir shaft had been drilled
from the surface to the juncture Of the
right and left shafts, where the water
seemed to be the most abundant. As
the miners brauched off from this point,
they knew that an air hole had been
drilled there that had not yet broken
into the mine. but they did not know
that tho shaft was to be broken into to.
day. This shat. by the way, being ask:
inch hole, miner named kerwin had
been left in the right drift, near where
that branch joined the fnain exit, and
In the course OF his labors broke into
q the perpendicular shalt. The moment
this was broken into II flood OF water
pushed out and kerwin and man nani-
! cd Landy standing by yelled out for
some one TO save the men iu the right
drift as tho water poured down the hill
in stream. and he feared they would
IS drown. Young David Hays, who bad
seen tho affair, ls2ped forward at
tho call, and turned down the left
drift in deluge of water to warn his en-.
Ionpered comrades below. Just as he
na.sed the mir shalt that had been brok.
em Il, to- the rush OF the waters had
changed to the ugly roar Of a fluid which
blanohed tho cheeks OF the men %ho %h
stood behind aud toward the light; me h
dow OF water had changed to ueauly
volume Of fire damp. 4a Young nays
swung by the shalt a Hash o. olazIns
light Shot through the shalt from ena % .
end itseemed. jijz
A DARING YOUTH.
The daring youth carried an open
burning miners lamp in his hat, and
he Ind hardly taken step beyond the
roaring shalt, when the spark i4nited 9
reservoir OF tho deadly huid hre uamp
1hat had already accumulated, and ne
sank a corpse ten feet toward the
men. whom bio had hoped to save, and the
men whom he had certainly doomed
In an instant, IN unquenchable hre
sprang up in the nine.toot vein, Jus,
hptwren the main entrance and on the
ripht DRIFT forever shutting the thifty'
two men imprisoned there. =, I,
The mines are owned by the Dunoal
Furnace company. and the owners a!t =
Mi eastern men and employ about lol
9 man. The disaster Is the WORT evel
known in the ConnellsViiie reglSh,y ~
nearest approach being the Leislnrinl n :
three we're killed. The rescuers are sun
at work and will continue thr!oasaso'a' t4sa1 s'
the night. ~ ,rJa N,
A large crowd still suriounas raoob th'
month NJ the pit, but all hopes OF Ieacu