Marshall County IL Archives Obituaries.....Coppin, John June 6, 1896
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Deb Haines http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00003.html#0000719 July 14, 2012, 11:58 pm

Fifteenth Annual Report of the State Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1896
On June 6, 1896, at Wenona Coal Co.’s mine at Wenona, John Coppin, driver, aged 
25, unmarried, was fatally injured while attending to his duties in the above 
mine. Deceased, along with another driver named Geo. Bowers, had just started in 
from the engine plane “parting” with a trip of empty ears each. They had got 
about 75 feet inside of the above named ‘parting’ and were met by a train of 
loaded cars 25 in all that had run away from another ‘parting’ on top of a hill 
about 450 feet from the end of the engine plane. Deceased was so seriously 
injured that he never regained consciousness. He died on the 10th, four days 
after the accident. The ‘parting’ from which the loaded cars started is located 
on the top of a hill and a ‘block’ is used to prevent cars from running away, 
but it was not the especial duty of anyone to see that this ‘block’ was properly 
adjusted so as to hold the loads, and from the evidence obtained it seems the 
first one of the inside drivers that came to this ‘parting’ with a trip after 
the outside drivers had left was supposed to run ahead and adjust the ‘block.’ 
In this instance the driver, Mr. John Young, testified that he came into the 
‘parting’ with a trip of four loaded cars followed closely by another driver 
with a loaded trip. He said that on bumping the loads that were already standing 
on the ‘parting’ he ran ahead to put in the ‘block’ but lost his light and while 
returning to get a light the train of loaded cars had started past the ‘block’ 
and down the hill crashing into the drivers who were coming in with empty trip. 
Such an accident as this can be clearly attributed to the desire of the 
management to run the mines at the lowest cost and without regard to the lives 
of their employes, as in this mine a competent man ought to have been in charge 
of that ‘parting’ and ‘block.’

Additional Comments:
Fifteenth Annual Report of the State Bureau of Labor Statistics, Coal in Illinois, 
1896, Containing the Thirteenth Annual Reports of the State Inspectors of Mines; 
George A Schilling, Secretary. Springfield, ILL: Phillips Bros., State Printers; 
1897

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