Osage Mining Disaster Monongahela Co. WV May 12, 1942 submitted by bob donaldson, bob_donaldson@worldnet.att.net Osage, an Indian name, was given to a mining town in northern West Virginia on Scotts Run, a small tributary of the Monongahela River. This stream with its headwaters in Pennsylvania has every foot of its land underlaid with coal - big seams and good coal. The town is fewer than four miles from the medical center of West Virginia University at Morgantown, a city of twenty thousand. Neither the university's science and culture, nor the pretty Indian names, nor the beauty of flowering springtime on the Appalachian hills in mid-May could take away the tragedy of an explosion that killed fifty-six men, made of flesh and blood, at the Christopher No.3 Mine on Tuesday afternoon, May 12, 1942. About one hundred and twenty-five men inside the mine were scheduled to quit for the day at 3:00 P.M. The afternoon shift was to go into the mine and be at their working places at the same hour. A man trip of one hundred and fifteen men, riding the mine cars pulled by an electric motor, was barely inside the drift mouth at 2:20 P.M. when the power failed. The men thought this to be only a temporary stoppage and sat waiting. Some of the men walked back to the outside. Only a short time elapsed until notice came to the waiting men that the mine had blown up. At the fan house an attendant was the first person on the outside to know that something had happened on the inside; he saw the fan run backwards by a force of air which knocked the belt from the huge blower. Only an explosion, he figured, could do that. He then called the toolhouse reporting what he saw and the word spread at once. Unlike many other explosions, this one did come shooting from the openings, taking everything in its path and creating general destruction at the pit entrances. But at Osage more men were killed than at most explosions, despite the small "whoof" at the fan house. Rescue teams from other mines rushed to the disaster as quickly as they could be assembled and transported. There is always the possibility and hope that some men will be found alive, and many have been saved by this practice. Almost all collieries have organized teams, drilled constantly on the art of mine rescue, on standby in case of trouble. Such teams from other mines on Scotts Run were the first to get to Osage. Some teams came from distant parts of the state such as the one from Kelleys Creek in Kanawha County. These men, on their first probe into the mine, soon surmised that the center of the blast came from Right 1 1/2 entry. Men from other sections of the mine were coming out, but several of them were affected by the blackdamp and had to be given first aid. Strangely, Mateo Alonza, who was working alone, walked out not knowing what had happened and asked what all the fuss was about. Three miles underground in the 1 1/2 entry at the heading, the blast was most terrific. Mine timbers blew out, and the roof fell in to the huckleberry roots, making it a horrible task to Ii tint for bodies. When rescue squads, working in groups of four each, penetrated near to the perimeter of the explosion by 10:30 that night, eight hours after the blow up, they found three bodies, the first one being the remains of Allen Jones. Farther on they located eleven more burned bodies. By 12:38 that night, forty-one bodies in all had been located. Twelve of them were discovered to have died of asphyxiation caused by afterdamp. Five squads began bringing out the bodies to be placed in waiting ambulances and taken to Morgantown to be prepared for burial. When news of the explosion on Tuesday afternoon spread, it was estimated that over a thousand people, some anxious relatives but most of them curious spectators, swooped upon the little coal town. Police were ordered immediately and a cordon was set up to hold people back from the mine entrance. The hillsides overlooking the drift mouth were covered with sightseers. A two-lane highway, U.S. Route 19, was the only road in and out of Osage. This route became so clogged that traffic ceased to move. The berm was narrow, allowing parking at some intervals, while the opposite side allowed none. Women, children, and other relatives surged against the ropes hoping to get some news of their loved ones inside the mine. Some wept loudly while others cried silently with visible tears running down their cheeks. Some men and women prayed audibly, while others stood with hands raised in supplication, praying silently. The Salvation Army and the Red Cross moved in quickly and set tip canteens supplying food and coffee to rescue men and to the waiting relatives. Many onlookers and curiosity seekers helped themselves to a free sandwich and hot coffee while waiting to see the gruesome spectacle of dead men being carried from a blast-torn mine. On Wednesday morning, the day following the tragedy, when forty-five bodies were loaded into ambulances bound for the mortuaries in Morgantown, the mine officials gave out information to the Morgantown Post that eleven more bodies were trapped inside the mine. The word "trapped" gave some hope that these men might be alive somewhere behind a barricade. However, the rescue men knew better. As they penetrated deeper into 1 1/2 Right the devastation became much worse. Timbers were all blown out, brattice work all gone with air courses completely disrupted. This was evidence that the explosion had started at the heading of or near to 11/2 Right. For a man to be living in this area would be a miracle. The work of digging into this heading began with the knowledge that the remaining bodies were located here under tons of slate and debris. This task took ten more days, one-half of a month since the explosion, to get to the last of the bodies. The last half mile took all the time, due to so much destruction. When found, all of the bodies were badly decomposed. Governor M. M. Neeley of West Virginia ordered compensation men immediately to Osage to assist the tragedy stricken at once. He further declared that the Osage explosion was one of the state's worst tragedies and one of the most appalling in the nation's history. He admonished the state employees to speed the aid to the distressed dependents. Each widow was to get thirty dollars a month as long as she lived and remained single, and each child was to receive five dollars monthly until he reached the age of sixteen. In addition, the compensation department was to finance all burial expenses of the victims up to a specified amount. One miner told an unusual story: He was running a coal cutting machine when the explosion came, and that he knew an explosion when he saw one. He said that a rock came whizzing at his head and that he ducked to the side of his machine when it barely missed him. Then he started running, and he vowed that he could really run fast. He passed other men yelling at them to get out of there. He came out safely, but he never knew what happened to the other men. When the list of the dead was finally compiled, it was found that Frank Pauley and his two sons, John and Lionell, had died with him in the explosion. Arthur Cunningham and his brother, Homer D. Cunningham, died at the same time. The body of Alfred Wetzell was found in bits and pieces and would not have been identified but for his belt with his number tag. A. P. Morris, one of the victims, left a wife and eleven fatherless children. Adrian Coulter and Bud Whitehair were the first rescue men to come upon dead bodies in the Osage tragedy. (Whitehair is now deceased, but Coulter still lives at Osage.) VICTIMS Adams, Darrell Marshall, Everett Batton, Roy May, Sam Baughman, Allen W. Mayfield, Aubrey Belec, Tom Mayfield, Kermit Brinegar, Thomas D. McCardle, Edward Cannon, William J. McGee, John Cook, John B. McGee, Junior Cordwell, Thomas McClain, Edson Covert, Robert J. Metheny, Floydd Croaker, Berman Mills, Stewart Crook, Alonza Minicheck, Nick Cunningham, Arthur Mitchell, J. W. Cunningham, Homer D. Mongold, Fredrick Delaney, Edward Moody, Harry Derinzie, Attilli Morns, Don Donaldson, Douglas Morris, A. P. Fagulla, Geo. Murphy, Harold Foley, James Murphy, Hooland C. Frazier, Albert Newhouse, William Frield, John Powley, Frank Gasper, John Paul Powley, John Gattin, James Powley, Lioell Henderson, Earl Shinko, William James, Austin Stone, Bruce Jefferson, Edward Turner, Russell Wade Jones, Allen Jack Thompson, Hoye Lafferty, Basil Reed Wetzell, Alfred Little, Harold Wolfe, Dennis 1 Lacy A. Dillon, They Died In The Darkness, (Apollo (c)1976, ASIN: 0870122304), pp. 229 - 233 4 USGenWeb Project NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format for profit, nor for commercial presentation by any other organization. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than as stated above, must obtain express written permission from the author, or the submitter and from the listed USGenWeb Project archivist.