Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 January 1883 — DEATH IN A COAL PIT. [ARTICLE]

DEATH IN A COAL PIT.

Terrifle Explosion of Fire-Damp la a Mino at Coulterville, HL—Ten Men Instantly Killed. An explosion of fire-damp in Jones A Neebit’s coal mine, near Coulterville, HL, caused the death of ten persona A correspondent at the acene of the explosion furnishes the following particulars of the sad disaster: The excitement in view of the terrible explosion in the Jones A Nisbet mine has sub-, sided. Ten strangled and burned bodies lie In the public hall dressed and arranged for burial Their names are: Nicholas Kohl, Frank Brown, Henry Fury, Thomas Hanson, Henry Starr, Sr.. Robert Dunlap, James W. King, A. H. Combs, Frank Shanford, Henry Starr, Jr. Eight of them were married. Among them they leave twenty-five orphans. The explosion was heard at the top, and when the hoisting cage was pulled up a few minutes later a man and boy staggered from it, blackened with smoke, ana so exhausted that they had to be supported. The man was Sylvester Mason, the foreman of the mine. Ten other men were known to be in the pit The details are meager, the clearest account of the catastrophe being that given by Sylvester Mason, one of the survivors. Mr. Mason said that the shaft was 320 feet deep, and at the bottom a corridor seven feet wide leads eastward for over 200 yards. On each side of the corridor are the mining rooms where the men work during the day, drilling into the seven-foot vein of coal It is customary to fire the biases all together late in the afternoon. Each man lights his fuse, and then all hands run for safety to some niche, the blasts all being fired at a time. Foreman Mason said that he went down the shaft shortly after 4 o’clock and found that thirteen charges wefe ready to be fired. He told the men to light the fuses. After giving the order he started for the foot of the main shaft, 200 yards away, accompanied by William Starr, a boy whose father and brother were at work in the pit “I stood at the foot of the shaft," said Mr. Mason, “waiting ror the men to come out, so that I could check them off and see that none would be left I heard three shots a few moments apart, and then a fourth, followed in an instant by a terrible explosion in the gallery, where the ten men were. Next came a rush of air, followed by a great volume of fire that filled the whole corridor. I was blown against the side of the shaft, and my leg bhdly hurt The boy Starr was stunned. First I thought I would wait and endeavor to save some of the men, but the flames were coming up to me very fast The fumes became almost stifling, even in the shaft, and I felt that it would be suicide to remain any longer. I stepped on the cage, dragged the boy, who was insensible, after me, and rang the hoisting bell When we reached the surface I was almost strangled, and th* boy was apparently dead. Three of the men were badly burned; th* other seven were dead from suffpeation. One of them, Frank Brown, was found crouched upon "jis knees, his head close against the F«or, to get away from the smoke, and hfc> clothes and his flesh were burned trertu his back. The corpses were hoisted up two at a time. At the top of the shaft tie bodies were washed, the legs were tied together, and the victims were carried in spring wagons to the town, where they were laid out in the assembly-room of the Coultervi le Band. It was midnight before the work was over. The town to-day is in mourning. The explosion was evidently caused by fire-damp. The mine was extremely badly ventilated, there being but one opening and no air-shaft at all Nesbit & Jones opened the mine about ten years ago.