For permission to reprint and rearrange articles in this booklet, the writer is indebted to the courtesy of the editors of the following newspapers: The Brownsville Telegraph, The Pittsburgh Sun Telegram, The Pittsburgh Post Gasette. The Mather Mine Explosion state report come through the courtesy of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, taken from the Report of the Department of Mines 1827-1928
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FOREWARD pg 3
Late, rainy Saturday afternoon 1928 the tranquil and quiet village of Mather was awakened by a terrific mine explosion that killed 194 miners. The disaster, comparable only with the greatest mine calamities in mining history, had cast gloom over the little town.
The primary interest of relating this event is meant to serve as a remembrance of the human episodes involved, a collection of words and story-bits - for yesterday's events cast such short shadows. The purpose is not to retell a horror; for in reality, all existence involves suffering and perhaps it is through suffering one awakens to the magnitude of life. The writer has no intention to pry into the cause and whyfore of this disaster, or to cast accusations. After a survey of the mine George W. Groves in charge of the Bureau of mines' rescue squads from Pittsburgh, said that he had found no evidence upon which to place the blame for the disaster on anyone. Mine officials could not be held responsiblee for the blast.
In his novel "Scaramouche", Sabatini wrote, "It is impossible to blame any man for anything in this world. That we are all of us the sport of destiny." pg 4
And so it is that such a calamity necessarily has about it a touch of color that reflects the tone; either either we live by accident and die by accident, or we live by plan and die by plan. The ways of the world are too mystifying for any one human to understand. There was a veil of strangeness that was reflected in some of the victims whose lives were so suddenly snuffed out - it brings to contemplation that unfathomable puzzle which has perplexed human minds since history began. Is there an allpowerful, omniscient force that governs our lives?
Such a gap of time since the disaster makes it impossible to pry into the life of eacj miner concerned to reveal individual patterns of all the characters that were destined to such a fate simultaneously.
Sometimes a person gets a feeling that something is going to happen - Foreman Tom Callahan had such a feeling and he told his friends that he sensed something was going to happen. Two days later he was brought out of the pit dead.
Old Crow was in the pit when the blast threw him across a pit wagon and caused the slate to fall which buried him under the car. Had not the blast moved Crow, he would have been covered entirely with slate.
The alarm clock of Mike Mullen failed to sound off, he did not appear for work. A brother of Carl Doney overslept Saturday afternoon, he also failed to report for work. Both lives were spared.
Black Steve decided to take Saturday off to help his neighbor move, and he missed the fate of his fellow workers. pg 5
Joe Guidi and his father were about to enter the pit. Joe told his father that he had a strange feeling something was going to happen. He replaced his pit lamp in the lamp house and went home. They brought his father home in a coffin later.
Two day shift workers asked to be transferred to the night shift so they could work overtime and make additional money. The transfer came two days before the blast which caught them at work.
Mitchell Denney's wife wanted to visit her home in West Virginia. Denny's boss said he couldn't have the day off. However, Denny left his working place an hour earlier. His buddy remained to finish cleaning up. Denny came out alive, his partner did not.
The entire Mather baseball team came out of the pit early to play a scheduled game. Charles Haber, a player, came to the shaft opening but decided to go back and bring his tools out. He was the only member of the team that was killed.
The four Bootz brothers had just obtained work at the Mather mine. Two of them began work only a day before the explosion took its toll. The four brothers met the same fate. pg 6 One miner wanted to finish the day for a good weeks pay before going on a trip with his wife to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. But he insisted on finishing the week. This was his last aniversary.
One miner went on a drinking bender for a couple of weeks. He decided a day at work would sober him up. He resumed work after a two-week layoff. The explosion was one hangover form which he never recovered.
Another miner owed his lifeto his wife's nagging. She nagged him so much that that Saturday he refused to work and went out and got drunk.
Another miner owed his life to a dream. The premonition came that fatal day and he dreamed the roof of his working place caved in and he was caught in the fall. That day he refused to go to work.
The day's work finished, Trap Dood Mike Clarish and colored Joe Hunter (Wise)
were driving their horses to the horse barn at the bottom of the pit shaft when the blast occurred. The haulage tunnel resembled a storm Mike declared. The horses went wild, became uncontrollable and started to run. We simply clung to the horses collars, and our feet never touched the ground untill we reached the barn. It was plain horse sense that saved these two lives.
Foremen Albert Fowler and Field Whitney worked together. Whitney was a World War I veteran and was respectfully called War Horse at times. pg 7
Both men were injured, suffering identical experiences in the blast, both were rescued together and escaped alive. Both men were hospitalized, but Field Whitney never recovered from the injuries.
Benjamin was the only miner who escaped alive from the explosion and quit digging. He is now a postmaster. The remaining survivors had all returned to the mine, where some are still working.
It makes one wonder whether it is destiny or chance that this fate happened to those miners or does the wheel of fortune pitch and toss segments of a definite plan that governs all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CONTENTS pg 8
Foreward ............................. 3
Story of Rescue .................... 9
First Day .............................. 15
Second Day .......................... 43
Third Day ............................. 55
Fourth Day ........................... 67
State Report .......................... 77
Explosion Probe ..................... 90
The Saint .............................. 94
FOR ... PART II
