In the early twilight of the morning chill,
Came 200 men dozen to Fratersville;
Into the mouth proudly they strode,
And deep in the mines on the track they rode.

But at 7:32 the mountains shrilled,
And the mine grew still in Fratersville.

Now everyone knew, in the countryside,
That a lot of good miners had surely died;
All 200 men were sealed in that room,
They all realized it would be their tomb.

Women wept and children wailed
When the mines grew still in Fratersville.

It was dark and hot and there was little light
But the miner, Jacob Vowell, did manage to write;
"We're all buried in and we're going fast
The air is foul and we can't long last."

There were hundreds of children whose fathers were killed
When the mines grew still in Fratersville.

Jacob Vowell wrote as he neared his death,
"Dear Ellen, I pray, for just one good breath.
Our little son Elbert, who mined by my side
Has just passed on, but never once cried."

"Do the best that you can, with the children dear;
For the doors of heaven are drawing near;
Pay what we owe with the money we've saved
And bury us together in a common grave."

Powell Harmon said, in his very last line,
"My boys, don't work in a dark coal mine;
For some of the miners lying dead in this coal
Are just young lads, not 12 years old."

John Hendren wrote at half past one,
"It does look like that my race is run;
Dress me in black if it be your will
And bury me, dear, at Pleasant Hill."

By mid-afternoon underneath that hill
Not a sound was heard in Fratersville;
The last line was written at 2:35;
There was not one man who was left alive,

And the church bells tolled for the men who were killed
When the mine grew still at Fratersville.

And the Church bells tolled for the men who were killed
When the mine grew still at Fratersville.

Five hundred people at the head of the mine,
The brave young widows were softly crying
They waited eight whole days and through the long night chill
When the mines grew still at Fratersville.

An old ex miner does still reside
In view of the place where his buddies died;
Though its been seventy years, he never will
Forget that day at Fratersville,
When the mines grew still at Fratersville

When the mines grew still at Fratersville.

John Rice Irwin
1970 March

John Rice Irwin is the owner of:
Museum Of Appalachia
2819 Andersonville Hwy
Norris, TN 37828
(865)494-7680
Thanks to them for the tape and the words to the ballad.