November 28 - Disaster in the Mines

On this day in Labor History the year was 1908. 

That was the day that an explosion at the coal mine in Marianna, in Washington County Pennsylvania claimed the lives of 154 miners. 

It was one of the deadliest disasters in US mining history. 

The Marianna mine was on the Pittsburgh coal seam, one of the richest coal deposits in the country.

The mine was operated by the Pittsburgh-Buffalo coal company. 

It was considered by many to be a model operation.  

The company houses that surrounded the mine were made of yellow brick, had hot and cold running water and electric lights.

This set them apart from other mining homes of the day. 

By the early 1920s ninety percent of all mining homes were wood frame and less than twenty percent had electricity.

Yet even though Marianna was considered a model, disaster still struck.  

Mining inspector Henry Louitt had been on site for two days leading up to the disaster. 

On Saturday morning, he had just left a mine shaft.

According to newspaper reports he had found the mine “in perfect condition.”  

Then shortly before 11 came a horrific explosion that left experts puzzled. 

It was believed that a vein of natural gas caused the deadly blast. 

Only one man, Fred Elinger, was rescued from the mine.

He gave a harrowing account of what happened to the Washington Observer.

He said, “I was working at laying brick in one of the entries and the first thing I knew a terrible explosion took place, which threw me some distance.  My two buddies were also tossed some distance away.  I heard them for a while and then all was quiet.” 

Elinger was rescued, but 154 other men were not.