Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-01-29
OVER 100 DEAD.
Greatest Accident i'm the His
tory of the Coke Region.
Not One of Those Inside the Mine Es.
capped to Tell the Tale.
Over 90 Bodies Recovered Up
to 9 a. m. "Wednesday.
FlRE-DAMP SUPPOSED TO HAVE
BEEN THE CAUSE
ALTHOUGH NO TRACE or GAS HAD
EVER REEN DISCOVERED.


The Frick Company Spared No Expense
to Make Their Mines as Safe as Expert
enco and Science Could Make Them.
The Appalling Catastrophe One for
which No One Can BE Held RESPONSE
ble-Sad Scenes Around the Mouth of
the Shaft.
SCOTTDALE, Pa, Jan 29.-Shortly
after o'clock Tuesday morning a ter
rife explosion of fire damp occurred in
the Mammoth shaft of the H. c. Frick
Coke company, and it is believed that
over 100 miners have been killed. Up
to a. IN. Wednesday 103 bodies had
been taken out, and the work of explo-
ration still was going on.
A few minutes after 8 o'clock faint
puff Of dust rolled from the mine, dis
solving into thin air, while the puzzled
workers about the mouth never
dreamed the unusual blast of dust and
smoke carried with it over one hundred
souls to eternity. There was no sound,
uO SupGh, anu IlOJlllllS W SIloW tHtSv
anything was wrong but the faint
cloud of dust that first warned the eX-
perienced workers ri the mouth Of the
shaft that somewhere something was
wrong.
Then began the old tale of mine
horror, be the victims ten, or no. except
that in this case it ran over the hundred,
and the scenes about the mouth of the
pit We're 100 times greater, even the fear
full Dunbar explosion being nothing as
compared to the fright at the Mammoth
mines. The curse of all these things is
that it falls, not on the poor 1lG indi-
vidual victims, but upon their families,
many and, in fact, most of the men
being married, with wives and children
TO ado sorrow to the shock SO keenly
felt throughout this entire region.
AT the hour named the cottages of the
miners, scattered over the hills, pre-
sented the usual scenes incident to the
busy housewives duties about the place
Many of the cottages faced the dark
browed entrance to the Mammoth mines
and the keen eyes of watchful wives and
sweethearts scented the danger in a mo-
ment when the unusual stir about the
mouth of the pit showed danger to them
and theirs. Women and girls flew to
the place with shawls hastily thrown
over their heads, perhaps to hide their
white faces, which grew winter when
it was seen that many willing men start
ed down the pit, but that none came up.
Location of the Mine.
The Mammoth mine is located ON
spur of the Sewickly branch of the
Southwest Pennsylvania railroad, and is
one of the largest plants in the Con
nellsville region, in the fall of 1889 it
was purchased from j. w. Moore by the
Frick interest and has since been oper-
ated by that concern. 1t is ten miles
from telegraph office, and correspond
ents were forced to secure a special en-
gine from Mammoth to Youngwood,
where two special telegraph operators
were awaiting the orders.
Supposed Cause
The story is easily told. An unex-
pected flow of gas was struck, and the
miners working in the headings con-
nected with flats No ., and were all
killed. They went to work as usual
Tire fire boss, as is his duty, had been in
The mine and examined the working
places He is supposed to go to the face
of each working, and by a chalk mark
indicates that he has been there.
Whether this was done or not, is not
known, as the fire boss, poor William
Snaith, cannot tell the tale His man
gled body lies at the improyised mo-gue.
The only evidence that he attended to
his duties is the regular certificates of
inspection which General Superintend-
ent Lynch received from Snaith and
others which guaranteed the mines as
safe.
The miners knew that these certih-
Gates had been filled out and went to
work They never returned, Superin-
tendent Keighley, who was mine in
spector in the Dunbar district when
that horror occurred, was at the mine
when the explosion took place He inn
mediately called for aid, Among the
/ physicians who came We're Drs Will
son, Mccormick, Painter, Meyer,
Clark and others from the surrounding
] towns.
Their services were not needed, for
every man in the headings where theex-
plosion occurred was killed None
were injured and lived. Dead bodies
were brought up every few minutes, and
the crowd at the shaft mouth simply
fell back to allow the men carrying the
strechers room to pass. Every corpse
was covered and no one even yentued
to inquire which body it was, for they
knew every one in that part Of the mine
at the time of the explosion was dead
The disaster is the greatest that ever
occurred in the Connellsville coke re-
gion.
Superintendent Keighley was a sorely
distressed man lie has been in three