CHUMS FROM BOYHOOD DIED SIDE BY SIDE IN HANNA COAL MINE WHILE VAINLY TRYING TO RESCUE COMRADES WHO HAD BEEN CAUGHT IN LAST SATURDAY’S EXPLOSION
The Denver Times: Friday Evening, April 3, 1908
Page and Research Provided by Lynne Kuderko Hanna Basin Museum Volunteer
CHUMS FROM BOYHOOD DIED SIDE BY SIDE IN HANNA COAL MINE WHILE VAINLY TRYING
TO RESCUE COMRADES WHO HAD BEEN CAUGHT IN LAST SATURDAY’S EXPLOSION
The Denver Times: Friday Evening, April 3, 1908
By C. R. Conner
Times Staff Correspondent
HANNA, Wyo., April 3 – Mine No. 1 came near adding to its list of dead late yesterday afternoon when seven miners engaged in cleaning out the entrance to the east slope were seriously overcome by gas.
Will Tate, foreman of No. 3 mine at Cumberland; Matt Medill, foreman of No. 6 at Rock Springs; and Arthur Ward and John Kabler of Rock Springs were in such bad shape when pulled out of the narrow portal by their fellows into the daylight that they had to be hauled into town and put to bed in the large room over the company store. Tate could not be removed to the store at once, but was taken into one of the east slope buildings and attended by Dr. McArthur, one of the company physicians. All will recover.
Yesterday afternoon’s work was undertaken for a double purpose. Assistant General Manager Bradbury wished to make the sloping thirty feet in from the entrance so secure that no fresh air could enter to rekindle any fire that might possibly be burning within and he hoped to find a body or two in removing the debris from the floor of the slope. This dirt and dust was about five feet thick - enough to bury a body completely - but no corpses were found.
It is expected that the body of Gus Raimey, a negro killed in the first explosion, and several of the men who were carrying him out, will be found a short distance beyond the present sealing when it is possible to continue the search. Beyond the search the ground is so badly caved it will take some time to dig through to where the bulk of the bodies are supposed to be - between the first and tenth entries. There may be several bodies buried under the cave, but it will be several days before another attempt is made to proceed further into the mine.
Chums Die Together
It was a strange trick of fate that placed Richard Wilson, better known as Dick, and Frank Collins side by side in the east slope of mine No. 1 when the second of last Saturday’s explosions occurred.
Wilson, a cripple, and Collins had been close friends since their boyhood. They had been chums in Chorley, Lancastershire, England, thirty years ago; they had married girl chums in Chorley, their weddings taking place within a year; they came to America almost at the same time; and their humble cottages in Hanna were within a stone’s throw of each other.
Wilson, who was 37 years of age, was born in Durham in the north of England and Collins’ birthplace was in Dorchestershire in the south of the kingdom, but both moved to Chorley, Lancastershire, at an early age. When Collins was married twelve years ago the ceremony was performed at Wilson’s house in Chorley and Mr. and Mrs. Wilson “stood up” with them. Wilson came to Wyoming coal country eight years ago and Collins soon followed them.
Wilson leaves only a widow, Mrs. Esther Wilson, but Collins had a family. A little boy less than 2 years of age played about the chair of Mrs. Mary E. Collins this morning as she sat in the kitchen of her neighbor’s house and sadly discussed the recent explosion. Another child, a boy of 11 years, was out playing with some other youngsters of the neighborhood in the space which by courtesy is called a street in Hanna. This street is the vacant prairie between the long rows of company houses, all alike and equally unpretentious and uninviting from without, but neat and tidy and possessing a certain amount of cheer within. “We’re livin’ hin ‘opes; that’s hall as we can hexpect,” replied Mrs. Collins in her “Lanky” dialect, when asked if she ever expected to see the body of her husband again.
Both of these women, Mrs. Collins and Mrs. Wilson, ran all the way from the homes to the entrance of the east slope, a long two and a quarter miles, through the darkness and the cold, when they heard the report of the second explosion. They peered into the depths after their husbands, who had been the first to the rescue after the first catastrophe, but were ordered back and returned to their homes to await developments. And they are still waiting; hopefully, as they say, but with small chance of ever being able to recognize the dead if they are ever brought to the surface.
Collins was recently employed in mine No. 1, but Wilson had not worked at all since February of last year, when his hip was broken by falling coal in a mine at Big Muddy.
It is easy to detect a feeling of bitterness in the hearts of these women against the coal company for allowing their husbands to enter the mine after the first explosion. It is well enough to talk about heroes and heroic deeds, but these two women - and they are but typical of the majority of the thirty-five widows made by the disaster - are left alone and helpless and a workman’s duty to his fellow and man’s duty to man do not impress them forcibly when they contemplate their present plight and the causes thereof. If “self-presentation is the first law of nature,” then the selfishness of these women is certainly pardonable.
Women Reluctant to Place Blame
The women here are reluctant, as a rule, to talk of the accidents or to give their theories of the causes and fixing of responsibility. Many of them must receive aid from the coal company and there are few of the men even so assertive as to forget their dependence upon the wage that the coal company gives them for the risks undergone in the bowels of these Wyoming sand hills that cover the coal seam.
But both Mrs. Collins and Mrs. Wilson declared today that accidents such as the one of Saturday, which may forever close one of the largest mines in this section, are a rare occurrence in the mines of England, where their husbands gained their first experiences in coal mining.
“In England,” said Mrs. Wilson, “men learn coal mining from the time they are boys. They grow up in the mines with their fathers and older men to constantly instruct them. Every miner is experienced and no one can go into the mines without safety lamps. Here they let everyone into the mines.”
The report that there is a movement started to bring suit against the coal company by the relatives of the victims did not interest Mrs. Collins or Mrs. Wilson particularly. “We are thinking more about them has his bin the mine than habout hourselves just now, but we ‘ave nothin’ to depend hon,” said one.
Live From Hand to Mouth
It seems that the men in the Hanna mines have had small opportunity to save money, although their wages have been high. According to Assistant Manager Bradbury, most of the men earned between $4 and $5 a day and sometimes more under the present wage scale. Bradbury says the men have been working on a four-day week for the past six or seven weeks on account of the oversupply of coal and general retrenchment everywhere following the financial depression, but the women named claim that the weeks have oftener contained only two and three days.
The company charges between $12 and $14 per month for the two and three-room house in which the men live, and the prices for supplies - all furnished by the company store - are none too moderate. Coal is about the only thing that is cheap. It is sold by the company for $2 a ton. Steak costs 25 cents a pound for any kind that is chewable. Potatoes retail at $2 per 100 and other prices are in proportion. With deductions for hospital fees to the company and the necessary union dues, the men do not have any too much left when working on short time and when they have three or four hungry mouths to feed and little folks to clothe against the relentless Wyoming blasts.
The wind never stops blowing in Hanna. It may rest for a time in other sections of the state, but the zephyrs are ever on duty and the snow of Elk Mountain and adjoining peaks sees to it that there is no warmth in them. The sun shines, it is true, but its heat is blown away.
Mrs. Robert Warburton, whose husband's body was the first taken out of the mine, was in the midst of her week’s washing this morning. She lives at the extreme west end of No. 2 town. The house has a number - all the houses have a number - but to locate a house by the number, a stranger has to first consult the diagrams of the town in the coal company’s office and then embark on his search, like the ancient mariner, with chart in hand.
Widow Has Seven to Care For
Mrs. Warburton’s family consists of seven children and herself. The oldest child is 18 and the youngest is about 2. There was a fair representation of the family grouped about the mother’s washtub this morning. Mrs. Warburton has not put in any requisition with the relief committee for supplies yet. “I want plenty of time to think out what I had better have,” she said.
Her husband’s funeral has been held and the [text not legible] routine of the household is going on as before. She is confident that her family will be taken care of in some way and is not worrying.
Today she told of her husband’s injuries in the explosion of 1903. He was brought out that time but more dead than alive. “He was black as a bat for several days and could not get the damp out of his eyes, and it was a long time before he could work,” she said; but she did not give way [not legible] and took her misfortune as a matter of course.
Warburton’s brother-in-law, Thomas Flint [text not legible] the mine. Flint leaves a widow.
Not [not legible] Warburton’s in No. 2 Town [not legible] three towns in all, scattered [not legible] prairie and containing about [not legible] cottages is the home of Mrs. Robert Herron. She has four children, two of which are just large enough to toddle about. Their names are Richard and William [not legible] ages 3 and 2 years. They seem to realize that their father has gone somewhere and will not return, but to them the day is for play and the night for sleep and little else interests them. A neighbor woman was in charge of the family where Mrs. Herron was visiting. Mrs. Herron said the neighbor could not bear to stay at home, because she was too inclined to worry when left alone with her little children. (The Denver Times: Friday Evening, April 3, 1908)
Map of the Underground Workings of Union Pacific Coal Company Mine No. 1
Examine closely for the location of the three explosions (1903 and 1908)
and progress toward recovery of the bodies.
Examine closely for the location of the three explosions (1903 and 1908)
and progress toward recovery of the bodies.
Tags: Warburton, Parry, Raimey, Munson, Tennant, 1903 explosion
