The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1900-02-08
IN THE GO "a b REGIONS.
STORY OF EXPLOSION IN
pennsylvania CoLLlERY.
One of tho Worst Mine Disasters In the
History Of the state Quilted the Glad
denins Ynletids-Twenty Lives Lost
Many Injured.
Especial Letter.)

y d s
Especial Lottery
The Christmas season OF 1899 will
long be remembered by the Inhabitants
OF Fayette county, Pa, as one of sor-
row and horror, for 1t ushered In one
of the most appalling colliery disas-
tiers in the history of that section of
the state. Not since the Mammoth
mine disaster in the neighboring coun-
ty of Westmoreland several years ago,
when Ito miners persisted by an ex-
plosion. has such a tragedy visited
that portion of Pennsylvania as that
of Saturday at the Braznell mine of
the Stockdale Coal Company, near
Brownsville. Without the slightest
warning an explosion of gas occurred
in the Braznell mine and almost in
twinkle 20 persisted and II were in
1ured. The Braznell colliery has been
running less than a year, having been
opened up on Washington's birthday,
1897. last. The mine is reached by
shaft, 107 feet deep, in which double
cage, or elevator, works, SO that when
one cage is ascending the other is de-.
scending. North of the main shaft
and distant $50 feet is the air shaft,
also 107 feet deep. Some SO miners and
their helpers descended by the cages
IN the mine. They had not been long
at work in the gloomy chambers be-
meath when there came terrific ex-
plosion that shook the ground for
miles and spread ruin and death with
in the mine. The cages in the main
shaft were reversed, the bottom one
being shot to the top of the shaft,
where it lodged, and the other one
crashing to the bottom, where it also
became wedged. The iron roofs on
the cages were ripped off and blown
over 200 feet. The tipple, which ex-
tended from the top OF the shaft, was
damaged in places and the air shaft
was literally torn to pieces, not one
timber being left on another.
.Wreckage of all kinds was blown
out Of the main shaft. Dinner pals,
miners lamps and pieces of timber and
coal were shot upward to the surface.
The bottom Of the shaft was choked
with wreckage which the explosion
had hurled before it. There were
splintered. coal cars and mangled
mules and twisted iron rails. The
formed into ruin.
The shock of the explosion was suf-
ficient evidence to the miners scattered
over wide territory that a disaster
had occurred, and soon the mouth of
the Shaft was surrounded by fearful,
distracted crowd-the friends and rela-
tives of the imprisoned men. Rescue
parties were at once organized and
preparations made to enter the col
Iliery. The first person to descend into
the mine was the pit boss, William
Jones, who slid down a rope in the air
shaft. He found the interior mass
Of wreckage, with here and there the
bodies of the injured strewn around.
Volunteers soon Joined him and de-
spite the after-damp, which filled the
mine and almost suffocated the res
cuers, the brave men worked on and
succeeded in sending to the surface
IL men, some in the last stages of ex-
haustion. One of the rescued was a
young lad, Albert Meese; but relief
came to him too late. Hardly had he
reached the surface when he gave a
gasp or two and then fell over dead.
His father, too, persisted.
Having rescued all those who could
be reached through the air shaft en-
trance, the rescuers then applied them
selves to fitting UP the main shaft so
the work could be carried on through
it. After reaching the bottom Of this
shaft the rescuers found piles of
Wreckage, which it was necessary to
remove before further progress could
be made. By this time it became a
certainty that all the imprisoned men
were dead, as no one could long sur
vive In the deadly after-damp that
filed the mine and frequently forced
the rescuers back to the surface. When
one shift of rescuers was exhausted an
other took its place and thus hour
after hour and day after day the work
of reaching the dead and recovering
the bodies was continued. The bodies
found near the foot Of the shaft were
fearfully mangled. One body had
been decapitated; several bodies were
almost torn In two: many were minus
leg or an arm; one was twisted
around one Of the timbers OF the mine.
In one case foot and an arm had
been blown up the main shaft and was
found on the ground 60 feet from the
entrance to the mine. While this sor-
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