Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 May 1900 — TWENTY-TWO DIE IN A MINE. [ARTICLE]

TWENTY-TWO DIE IN A MINE.

Colliery Explosion l at Cumnock, N. C., Terrible in Its Effects. Twenty-two miners, ten white men and twelve negroes, lost their lives in an explosion at Cumnock coal mines, Chatham -County, North Carolina, Tuesday afternoon. The explosion is supposed to have been caused by a broken gauze in a safetylamp. Between forty and fifty men were in the mine at the time. About fifty people from Sanford, a town six miles from the mine, started immediately when the news of the disaster was received to assist in the work of rescuing the dead and helping the injured. Within an hour after the explosion the work of rescue began and by night all the bodies except one bad been brought to the top. This is the second explosion this mine has had within the past four years, the former one having occurred on Dec. 28. 1895, when fortythree men lost their lives.