Illinois has endured some horrific coal mine accidents

 

December 15, 2021



By Tom Emery

Coal mining has been a key component of the Illinois economy for over two hundred years. Sadly, many men have lost their lives in the process.

The state has endured some of the worst mining disasters in American history, rocking small towns that were dependent on the coal economy and leaving scores of women and children destitute. In an era when safety was not emphasized, coal mining was an even more dangerous job, and hundreds of men paid the price in lives and disabling injuries.

Coal was first mined in Illinois in 1810, and production increased with each passing decade. By 1864, Illinois production topped one million tons. That number increased five-fold by the late 1870s, and in 1885, a reported 685 mines were in operation statewide.

Statewide production peaked at nearly 20.1 million tons in 1897 and, the following year, five Illinois counties cranked out over a million tons alone.

The high number of mines, and the men they employed, were ripe for labor strife, which was often caused by poor working conditions. Fires and explosions were particularly harrowing, as gas and air flow was not properly understood, among many other factors.

On Nov. 13, 1909, an underground fire broke out in Mine No. 2 at Cherry, in Bureau County. A total of 259 men were lost, leaving 160 widows and 470 children. Thirty-three of those were born after the fire. The Cherry incident is among the top three deadliest coal mine disasters in U.S. history.

Other Illinois mine catastrophes may have resulted in fewer deaths, but were horrific in their own right. On March 25, 1947, coal dust ignited an explosion at No. 5 Mine in Centralia, killing 111 workers.

That disaster is credited with the establishment of the United Mine Workers of America Welfare and Retirement Fund, and folk artist Woody Guthrie later wrote a song on the accident.

Some 119 miners near West Frankfort died on Dec. 21, 1951, when an explosion tore apart the Orient No. 2 Mine. The news interrupted a high school basketball game in town, as the public-address announcer requested a local doctor to head for the mine.

The specter ended the Christmas season early in the area, and many residents removed their decorations. Months later, Congress was inspired to pass the Federal Coal Mine Safety Act of 1952.

The holidays were also a somber time at Moweaqua, in Macon County, following a mine explosion on Christmas Eve morning in 1932. Only two of the 56 men underground that morning survived. Among the lost was the town Santa Claus, who was scheduled to appear at a party that evening.

Decades earlier, surface water from thawing snow and heavy rains began pouring into the Diamond Mine near Braidwood on Feb. 16, 1883. Rescue attempts were described “as brief as they were futile,” and seventy-four men drowned in the deluge.

Through its history in coal, there have been dozens of other, less deadly mine accidents in Illinois as well. Rescue personnel also had a dangerous job. Between April 1905 and February 1909, a total of 65 rescuers and firefighters at the Ziegler Coal Company in Franklin County, Ill. lost their lives in the aftermath of mine disasters.

The deadliest year in American mining history was 1907, when 3,242 coal fatalities were recorded. That same year, 308 accidents that resulted in at least five coal mine deaths were recorded.

The number of Americans employed in coal mines peaked in 1923 at 862,536. At least 720,000 miners were recorded each year in the U.S. from 1910-1927.

The last year that coal mine deaths exceeded 1,000 in the U.S. was in 1947. The number has steadily decreased, as 12 were recorded nationwide in 2019.

However, the number of mine workers has also dropped. Some 81,361 miners were recorded in the U.S. in 2019, roughly a tenth of the number from a century before.

Tom Emery is a freelance writer and historical researcher from Carlinville, Ill. He may be reached at 217-710-8392 or [email protected].

 

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