Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-11-25
1853 BODIES FOUND.
CONTINUED From Page one.)

men have been accounted for. The
bodies were found 500 feet from the
main shaT on an elevated surface
where they had retreated before the
advancing water and fatal black damp
They died after a struggle that may
have continued for two days..
Messages scrawled on wood and the
natural slate cropping from the wall.
placed the number of dead at $50 or 1853
One message read, 1--WE are here 20 die
together"
This is accounted for by mine work.
ers by many men in the second weir
being cut off by fire and descending tc
the lower level and that less than q
dozen bodies will be found in othe,
sections of the mine.
To take out the bodies Wednesday a
skin has been brought from the Illinois
river, seven miles away, and will be low.
cred SEQ feet to the vein in which the
bodies were found. 1t will be rowed
across the four feet Of water in the vein
will be transported to the main shaft
for removal to the surface.
The exploring party Of four, led by
Anton Lodiychi, were in the gallery
for more than an hour before the bodies
were found. They had waded in water
waist deep through the circular tunnel.
They told their story as follows:
when we climbed up on the ridge
we almost stepped upon the bodies piled
up on top Of each other in heaps. Some
had their heads rested, on folded arms as
II sleeping. Others were lying across each
other and some were sitting as If resting
against the wall.
Mailed to the wall were two fans
made. out OF tinbering tied about pick
handles. Under the fans the largest heaps
Of bodies were found
Zone man had his hand up holding the
fan. think he died as he was turning it..
Another had bucket in his hand. He
was fiat on his back and must have died
as he climbed up on the ridge. The bucket
was half filled with black water that he
must have gone some distance to get.
THE black damp surely killed them
long before the water reached them. We
had been in the shaft more than an hour
then and though the air was fairly good,
we knew2it vas time for US to get out.
I'VE did not stop9to examine any of
the bodies or try to identify them, al-5
though we probably could have if we had
had more time Tom Mulligan, one of
our party, picked up a piece of natural
slate on which was written:
We are here together, 1881
THAT must have meant the number Of
number. He put the slate in his pocket
ysvlA
on It, but as we climbed up to the shaft
to the second level it fell out Of his
pocket.
ION a wooden box used to hold tools,
I saw written with lead pencil, We are
here to die together. Some figures were
scratched under it and I read it as 16O
but am not sure as the writing was
wavering as If done by someone who
was mighty weak"
No evidence that the men had attempt
ed to barricade themselves from the black
damp was seen. Many of the former
workers in the mine protested angrly
after they discovered that the men would
have been safe from the deadly gas
had not the ventilating shaft been re-
vrrsed shortly after the discovery of
IRE. ney assert tHat the men naO re-
curse to the bridge where under ord-
nary conditions the noxious gas would
not have reached them.
The fans fashioned by them. they as
sert, would have dispalled this gas which
would have formed in small quantities
and have given the men enough fresh
aii to sustain them for weeks. With
the reversal Of the fan. they assert. the
deadly gas forming in the second gal
ery and creeping out OF the escape shaft
n ent into the lower level and the men
were suffocated before they had opportun-
W to seek shelter or erect entertainments.
The aanounccd intention of mine Of
fcIals o. ,un,p out the water in the
oWor lcV,l before the arrival of the
akin was baked by the refusal of ma
hiuists to aid them. The connections
# t. pump have been disconnected
nea, the second level. Machinists who
were called upon declined to risk their
lives in repairing the machinery.
Robert Shaw, a third member of the
exploring party that found the bodies.
told of an attempt of men to build a
TO hold back the black damp. The wall
was only few feet high. the builders
apparently having abandoned the at
tempt or being overcome by gas before
Il had afforded them any protection