The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1895-09-13
PIT is THEIR TOMB
Thirty Men imprisoned in Mine
by an Incendiary Fire.
EVERY ONE is DOUBTLESS DEAD.

Burning Shaft-smoke Fills the Drifts
and Makes Rescue Impossible-Dead Men
the Victims Principally of Their Own Un-
belief of Danger.
HoUGHToN, Mich, Sept. 8-Huge vol
umes Of smoke are still issuing forth from
the mouths of shafts Nos. l, 2 and 3, which
shows that the awful fire which started in
the Osceola copper mine shortly before
noon Saturday is still raging fiercely and
the bodies of the thirty miners entombed
are still lying somewhere below the sur
face, without doubt dead. suffocated by
smoke and gas. The names of the lost so
far as can be ascertained at this writing
are: Captain Richard Trenbath, shift
boss; Richard Bickle, Richard Grenfell,
William Bryant, Alexander Daniel, John
Cudlip, Thomas Curtis, Robert Johns,
William Donald Barney Gilmore, Anton
! ZycezwicZ, Mike Johnson, Peter Stem
gard, Frank Lander, Walter Dahl, Joseph
Harrington, Frederick Peardon, Isaac
Harlow, Mike Woke, Isaac Mattison, An
drew Rossawick, James Wins, NJ Cook,
!
names are unknown at headquarters.
Would Not Believe Their Danger.
The fire broke out at the twenty seventh
! level of the Osceola copper mine, located
two miles from Calumet. AS Captain
Richard Edwards was making his way TO
No. 3 shaft he smelled wood burning, but
some of the miners working in the levels
there would not believe there was fire in
the mine, as they could not smell any
! smoke or hear flames cracking. On near
ing No. 3 shaft Captain Edwards met
Captain Trenbath and "a party of men
who were looking for the fire, and on
reaching the shaft they found large
quantity of logging on fire. Captain Tren-
bath and party of men were left To fight
the fire below while Captain Edwards
went To the surface TO get hose, but when
he returned he found that the smoke had
made an up draft instead of "a down, and
in consequence he had TO come back to
the surface as fast as possible
Word was Immediately sent TO the men
in the mine for all TO come 20 the surface,
which most of them succeeded in doing but
there still remain in the dry house thirty
suits of clothes. The scene at the Opeeche
shaft, where many of the men came up,
was heartrendng thousands having gath
cred around the mouth Of this shaft, many
women and children standing around
! looking for their husbands and fathers.
! Searching parties were sent down in Nos.
! and shafts TO try and reach the men
from the drifts leading to No. 3shaft above
| the twenty-seventh level, but they were
unsuccessful
Rescuers Have to Fly for Life.
Captain =. Richards, with gang of seven
men, went down No 3 shaft and went
about 200 feet toward No shaft when
they had TO turn and fee for their lives on
account of the smoke and gas. Some of
! these men We're very nearly overcome, only
reaching the surface in time TO save their
! lives. 1t is learned that the place where
the fire caught was the worst place it
could have caught in the whole mine, and
the only place in the mine where fire of
any extent could have caught. Many of
the men that were working several levels
below the twenty-seventh, at which point
! the fire caught, were seen as far up as the
eighteenth level, working their way up.
! Several of the men who escaped claim to
have passed others on the ladders, who
were unable To proceed further on account
|
Charles Wcare, drill boy, went 10 the
bottom of the burning shaft and told the
miners of their danger. They did not
think il was so bad, and some of them
came up the ladders 20 the seventeenth
level, where they thought they would have
| time to eat lunch They were there only
three minutes when the smoke became in
| tcnscly dense. Michael Harrington took
out some matches 10 relight the candles
which had gone out but the oxygen had
been consumed and the candles would not
| burn. Cropping their way In the dark
they went up about 200 feet more, when
they lost hope, but one of the miners,
crawling on hands and knees, reached the
| bell wire and signalled TO lower the skip.
BY the sound they knew when IL was near
and signalled for it to stop. Then they
climbed into il and rang for the engineer
10 hoist. They reached the surface almost
suffocated.
Over 200 Underground.
One old miner over 90 years of age picked
up "a young man who was overcome by the
gas and succeeded in carrying him from
200 TO 800 feet when he felt his strength
giving out and he had 10 drop the young
fellow TO reach surface barely alive him
self. At the time the alarm was sounded
over 200 men were underground, and all
could have escaped had they used proper
precautions. Several miners in their
flight passed group of seven or eight men
who had stopped to rest and were smok-
ing their pipes. They seemed TO be in no
hurry or think of danger When told TO
hurry to the surface they remarked that
they had plenty of time, and not one Of
them reached the surface.
The skips were kept running up ami
down all day Saturday in order TO give
any of the entombed miners "A chance to
TO escape, if they could reach the skip
alive, but none came up. Another attempt
will be made To reach the men. There
! is no danger OF the bodies being burnt, as
it is generally thought that the men es-
capped from the burning shaft TO some of
the drifts leading TO other shafts, and were
overcome by gas and smoke before they
could reach IA place of safety.
This being the case the bodies will be
recovered as soon as the fire is gotten un.
der control and the gases leave the mine.
All hope has cen given up by the officials
of ever rescuing any of the men alive.
Captain y. Richards says that he is posi-