When the Mountain cried..

[HuntnCarve]

A doe stands beside the creek bed.  She has worked her way down the mountain, side hilling gradually to the valley below where the spring feeds the creek.  Here she will drink.  Her senses tell her it is secure.  No men are about.   The only sound is the quiet gurgle of the water as it weeps from the mountain…
   It was 8:15 AM when a rumble shook the house a mile down the valley.  Two year old Ann, asleep in her bed started to cry having been suddenly awoken.  Her mother downstairs was just putting away the breakfast dishes.  As was her routine, she had gotten up and fixed her husband breakfast that morning.   Having made and packed his lunch, she had watched from the door of the house, as he stepped out into the cold January air. Where he joined the procession of men headed up the valley.  Running up the stairs, she scoops up Ann in her arms, and tries giving comfort to the child.  A terrible sense of foreboding washes over her, and she holds the baby a little tighter, and waits for the siren…

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~njm1/21harwk1.htm

   A lot of lives were changed forever that tragic morning January 25th, 1904.  Two year old Ann would grow up to become my grandmother.  Her father John Waltman, was one of 179 men that lost their lives in the Harwick, PA mine explosion.   As told to me by my father.   As John lay dying at the top of the mine,  a friend and fellow worker, John Remalley rushed to his side.  He gave my great grandfather a sip of water, not far from where the doe would now be drinking 106 years later.  And it was on that spot, that a promise was made to a dying man.  That his family would be looked after. 
John Remalley kept that promise.  Later marrying my great grandmother, and raising Ann as his daughter.

   Today a person would never know the mine even existed.  The mountain has reclaimed what was hers, cloaking the valley with woods and brush.  In its wake, the deer and turkey have returned, now making the mountain their home.  Ironically, across the valley a new mega mall sits boldly on the adjacent hill. -  A stone’s throw from an expressway that now shuttles thousands of people unknowingly past the area daily.  Life moves on, and the mountain cries no more.

Post note:  The steel magnate, Andrew Carnegie was so distraught over the death of Selwyn Taylor, who tragically lost his life searching for trapped miners in the Harwick mine.  That he established a “Heroes Fund” and the Carnegie Medal that we know today.

http://www.carnegiehero.org/fund_history.php

HuntnCarve
Dave

[Frogman]

Dave,

Great write up.  Thanks for sharing.  Here in WV we have had our share of mine disasters too.

Jim

[slagmaker]

I am not sure on the details but my fathers side of the family Imigrated to the Harwick PA area and when the Harwick mine disaster happened they moved to the WV, KY, TN area and setteled there. I am not sure on the exact location. I do know the black death "plauge" hit the town they lived in and out of a family of 16 my Grandfather and his father were the only ones to survive. The rest of the town didnt fair so well either. Father and son moved to the South Western indiana area and started over.

Thanks for the write up. It remeinded me to call my dad today.

[JohnP]

A rather poignant story Dave.  When my dad returned to western PA after WWII he also worked the mines.  He took advantage of the GI Bill and got out of the mines.  I can recall my mother telling me that the war almost took my fathers life but in the end it saved him from the mines. 

[KySongDog]

That brings back some unpleasant memories, Dave.   

I worked for a coal company twenty years ago.  We lost 10 men in an underground mine explosion.  It was a very sad and trying time for everyone.

[Bills Custom Calls]

I have never worked the under ground mines,but I did work the surface mines the dangers are different but still just as deadly.One day while running a big loader loading 80 ton rock trucks,I had a highwall come down rocks falling as big as a D11 Cat dozer.I always kept an eye on the wall I was working on and the dozer operator and I kept in constant communication that day about the wall he kept telling me the wall looked good as he made every pass pushing the dirt and rocks off as I worked towards him.At lunch time I even asked the pit boss to take a good look at the wall and he assured me that the wall was fine and that I shouldn't worry just keep working as I was.

Have you ever got that feeling in your gut that tells you something just ain't right.
I told the truck drivers I am moving to the other side of the pit to work which was about 150 ft away from the wall less then 10 minutes of moving this wall come down,with some of the the rocks and dirt coming within 50 ft of where I moved to,after 2 days of clean up we resumed are position of where we were
yes I was scared and so were the 3 truck drivers

[HuntnCarve]

   There’s a common thread that connects a lot of us from PA, WVA, KY,etc.  And that’s a connection to the mines.  Seems we can all trace our roots back to it one way or another?  Growing up there were 3 working mines within 6 miles of me.  I grew up in the shadow of miners and steel workers.  You worked one or the other..
Just out of high school, and starting college a friend said he could get me a part time position in the mine for the summer.  I was at the age where I still had “the book with all the answers” in it  And thought maybe college could wait while I made some real money?   My dad made arrangements for one of his friends to take me into the mine, to see how I would like it?  Well, it was not what I expected.  There were rats, and water, and methane.  The old miner had me crawl into a crevice in a coal wall.  Said to squeeze back on in about 20 feet where it would open up into a room.  I asked “what if the opening shifts, and the wall collapses”?  “Well son, we best not like to think about that, cause it would be a sad day for your momma!”  “You can’t expect us old fellas to crawl back in there!  That’s for you young guys!” “Oh, and if you see the rats running, you better be on their tail!  Because the mine is collapsing, or a methane/water pocket has been struck!”  “There’s certainly a hundred different ways a man can die down here.”
   Needless to say I decided to keep at the college, and bid farewell to the mines.  It was a thankless, dangerous job, that men risked their lives at every day.  My father recognized it for what it was, and graciously saw to it that his son see it without the blinders of money on.
              I had the opportunity a few years back to talk with one of the miners that worked at, and was rescued from the Quehanna mine in Somerset, PA.  It was at the State Farm show, and they had the little “pod” that these men were brought up and rescued in on display.  It brought back eerie memories for me.  I could only imagine what it was like for him and the others?
   So let’s keep the men that work under/and above the earth in our prayers.  That they always have the opportunity to feel the sun shining upon them. Or that they have fathers looking out for them.  And for those that perished, may they rest in peace.

Dave

[FinsnFur]

Amen