The DeSmet leader. (DeSmet, Kingsbury Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-06-21
A Terrible Explosion.
Thirty-TwO Men In a PennSyl-
vania Mine Strangled by an
Explosion of Fire Damp.
One Of the SaddcSt CalamiticS
That Has Occurred In Penn
syivania for Years.
List Of the Dead and Other De-
tails OF the A flair Given by
Eye Witnesses.

On the 10th inst. at lilo n sullen,
shivering roar shook lowly miners
dwellings on the Hill farm, in Fayette
county, Pa, near Dunbar, and hun
dreds OF affrighted persons, who knew
the sound too well, feared another
mine disaster, and they reasoned far
too well.
. In a 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 and a score OF miners
houses lining the fatal hill, shook tor
a moment and then poured out their
frenzied inmates by hundreds. A
rush was mace to the mouth OF the
pit, but ingress was impossible, as
smoke in dense volumes was coming
forth. Fifty-two miners had gone to
work in the morning and were in the
slope when the explosion occurred.
OF those tifty.two, eighteen were in
the left heading, and thirtytwo in
the right heading. Those in the left
heading got out all right. The retreat
Of the others was cut off, and not one
escaped. Their names are:
Joseph Bringer, married; Richard
Bringer; Milt Farley, married; Bar
ney Maust; Emanuel Maust; Pat
Courtney, aged forty years, married;
Geo. Courtney, son, aged II years: J.
w. Mitchell, aged 40 years, married;
Joseph Biglay, aged 80 years, wife and
two children; Peter EaCen, aged ~
years, married; Robert McGill, single;
Martin CaVene, single; John Cope,
married; Andrew Cope, son; Patrick
Devlin, married; John Delaney, mar
ried; John Joy, married; John Devan-
ney: David Davis, married; Thomas
Davis, son; Pat Cabill, married; VIM.
Cahill; Patrick Courtney, married;
John Courtney, son; Jack Mitchell,
married; Dan Smith, married; DAM.
Shearn, single; VIM. Hayes, aged 10;
James: MCCleary, married; Thomas
McCleary, married; Elmer Denny, sim
gle.
At in the morning the gang turn
ed in At the mines, the smaller gang
drifting off to the left, while the larger.
some thirty five in number, dritted to
the right, and descended some eight
hundred feet from the surface, and at
least a mile from the opening. These
two drifts are connected, but the con-
nection is from the main stem some
hall mile from the entrance. The
mine, it seems, bad been somewhat
troubled with water, and an air shaft
had been drilled from the surface to
the junCture Of the right and left shafts
where water seemed most abundant.
As the miners branChed off from
this point they knew that an air hole
had been drilled there that had not
yet been broken into the mine, but
they did not know that the shalt WAS
to be broken into that day. This
shaft, by the way, be'ngla six inch hole.
\ miner named Kerwin, who had been
left in the right drift near where that
branch Joined the miners exit, and in
the course OF his labors broke into the
perpendicular shalt. The moment
this was broken into flood OF water
gushed out, and Kerwin and a man
named Landy, standing by, yelled out
for some one to save the men in
the right DRIFT az water poured down
the hill III a stream aud he feared
they would drown. Young David
Hayes who had seen the affair leaped
the left drift in a deluge OF water to
warn his endangered comrades below.
Just as he passed the air shaft that
bad been broken into a rush OF waters
had changed to an ugly roar OF fluid
which blanched the cheeks OF the men
who stood behind and towards the
light. The flow Of water had changed
to deadly volume OF fire damp and
As young Hayes swung by the shaft a
fash OF blazing light slid through the
haft. The daring youth carried a
burning miners lamp in his hat and
he had hardly taken a step beyond
the shait when n spark ignlted
the reservoir OF deadly fluid and
the fire damp that had already
accumulated, and he sank corpse
ten feet toward the men whom he had
hoped to save and the men whom he
had certainly doomed. In an in
stant unquenChable fire sprang up in
the nine foot Vein, just between the
main entrance and on the right drift,
forever shutting thirty-two men i'm.
prIsoned there. The fire, famed by
air from the main drift and from the
fatal shaft itself, soon sprung into an
awful conhaGration. Pat Kelly. who
was driving mule car near the place
at the time. says the explosion seem
ed nothing, but binding, strangling
smoke and gas followed him like a
flend to the very door of the shalt
and poured out after him, waving q
black flag OF woe and distress 20 this
hitherto prosperous mining town.