Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1900 — MANY MINERS' KILLED [ARTICLE]

MANY MINERS' KILLED

COLLIERY EXPLOSION CAUSES GREAT LOSS OF LIFE. Accident at Red Ash, \V. Vu., Supposed to Have Been Canned by Fire DampMot One Left Alive to Tell How Disaster Happened. An explosion at the Bed Ash mine, two miles west of Thurmond, W. Va., killed nearly 125 miners. The explosion is believed to have occurred near the mouth of the mine. It was heard on adjoining mountains and coal cars and mules were hurled several hundred yards down the mountain side. The sound of the explosion spread terror in every direction, and rescuing parties were soon on the scene. The .mouth of the mine was found jammed almost full of carts, mules, and a few humau bodies. It is believed that every man in the mines perished. Hundreds of women, wires, daughters and sweethearts of the unfortunate ones, crowded about‘the mouth of the mine and their wails were heartrending. These mines usually employ 150 people, but Sherman Shirkey, the bookkeeper, states that for a week only about threefourths of the men hare been on duty. Fully 80 per cent of the miners were white people and about 60 per cent were married men. John I.aing, the superintendent, came out of the mine not" more than ten minutes before the catastrophe. He is of the impression that the gas in the mines was ignited from ** miner’s lamp. The mine is the property of the Red Ash Coal Company, the principal owner of which is J. Fred Efflnger of Staunton, Va. Portions of a body were found after the explosion hanging to a tree almost sixty yards from the mouth of the mine. Andrew Pritt, chancellor commander of Beury Lodge, Knights of Pythias, was taken from the mine, but was unable to speak and died soon afterward. More than a dozen doctors were dispatched to the scene from the various towns in the vicinity, but their services were unnecessary. All the victims were dead. The mine is in a mountain overhanging the little town of Red Ash, where most of the miners lived. The opening was high upon the mountain wall, about 700 feet above the west side of New river.