Berwind-White Mines: Fatal Accidents in the Windber Area, 1898-1918 (continued)
PENNSYLVANIA STATE MINING REPORTS
BERWIND-WHITE COAL MINING COMPANY’S MINES IN THE WINDBER AREA:
FATAL ACCIDENTS, 1897-1918
Date / Name of Person / Occupa-tion / Age / Marital Status / Child-ren / Nation-ality / Name of
Colliery / County / Nature and Cause of Accident
in Brief
1897
June 14 / LIPKO, JOE / Miner / 24 / … / … / … / Yellow Run Shaft, Dunlo / Cambria / Killed by a fall of coal.
1898
Feb. 9 / LULLY, ANDY / Spragger
on motor / 23 / Single / … / … / Eureka No. 30 / Somerset / This young man was running past his motor to turn a switch and he fell before the motor and was run over; he jumped off the motor on the wrong side, which necessitated his crossing the track ahead of the motor to reach the switch, so when he fell he was caught as stated.
1898
April
15 / EDMUSTON,
DAVID E. / Laborer / 18 / Single / … / … / Eureka No. 33 / Somerset / This man was killed by a large fall of rock in the shape of a large pot or boiler, a very dangerous piece of rock in mines; this piece of rock had been tested by mine foreman less than an hour before it fell, and sounded solid; this was an unavoidable accident.
Date / Name of Person / Occupa-tion / Age / Marital Status / Child-ren / Nation-
ality / Name of
Colliery / County / Nature and Cause of Accident
in Brief
1898
May 7 / COIRGIN, REUBEN / Spragger on motor / 18 / Single / … / … / Eureka No. 30 / Somerset / It was difficult to tell what caused the death of this young man; it was claimed that he complained in the morning of pain in his stomach and during this morning the motor upon which he worked was hauling some large timber into the mine and the timbers became moved out of position and they stopped the trip to straighten them up. The motorman was at one end of timber which was possibly twenty feet long and this young man at the other, and in moving timber which was direct under the trolley wire, he gave one groan and fell over dead. Whether he touched the wire or not is a question; the doctor claimed that body showed no indications of death by electricity and he thought it might have been heart trouble.
1898
June 4 / KOSSTYO, MIKE / Laborer / 20 / Single / … / … / Eureka No. 30 / Somerset / Was pushing a car and standing in water, and the back of his neck touched the trolley wire which killed him instantly.
Date / Name of Person / Occupa- tion / Age / Marital Status / Child-ren / Nation-
ality / Name of Colliery / County / Nature and Cause of Accident
in Brief
1898
July 8 / SAMBOL, MIKE / Miner / 35 / Married / 2 / … / Yellow Run Shaft, Dunlo / Cambria / Was killed by a fall of roof, which a good practical miner would have propped and made it secure.
1898
July 27 / HARCHICK, JOHN / Miner / 30 / Married / 4 / … / Eureka No. 30 / Somerset / This man was killed by a fall of rock, there were two others with him who barely escaped the same fate; it was a very treacherous piece of top, and the foreman had just tested it and it seemed safe and solid.
1898
Nov. 29 / DYKE, MIKE / Miner / 43 / Married / 2 / … / Eureka No. 31 / Somerset / Skull crushed by a fall of coal for lack of it being sprigged.
1899
Jan. 21 / KOBAL, JOHN / Loader / 40 / Married / 4 / … / Eureka No. 32 / Somerset / Killed by electricity. He ran his car out across the main heading track, and when under the trolley wire he stood up and struck the back of his head against the naked wire. He had been sick with the grip for a couple of weeks, and this was his first day to work, therefore was in a bad condition to stand the shock.
Date / Name of Person / Occupa- tion / Age / Marital Status / Child-ren / Nation-
ality / Name of Colliery / County / Nature and Cause of Accident
in Brief
1899
Mar. 1 / HOLIGAN, MICHAEL / Rock man / 40 / Single / … / … / Eureka No. 32 / Somerset / Crushed under large piece of rock. He was barring it down, his bar slipped, which threw him just as it was falling and it caught him on the back of the head, and killed him instantly.
1899
June 7 / MUDOCK, STEVE / Loader / 29 / Married / 2 / … / Eureka No. 30 / Somerset / Killed by electricity. He was pushing a car on to face of heading where he was working, and was standing at time he touched his head against the wire.
1899
June 26 / FOREMAN, ROBERT / Trackman / 26 / Single / … / … / Eureka No. 32 / Somerset / Killed by electricity. He was working in one of the cross headings pulling up an old switch, and being a long time at the job, one of the men went to look for him and found him lying dead; his work was done, and it was supposed that he was rising up to leave when some of the tools on his back touched the wire.
Date / Name of Person / Occupa- tion / Age / Marital Status / Child-ren / Nation-
ality / Name of Colliery / County / Nature and Cause of Accident
in Brief
1899
Nov. 14 / IGLETSKI, JACOB / Loader / 35 / Single / … / … / Eureka No. 31 / Somerset / This man came in contact with the trolley wire; he turned to the side to get out of the way of the motor, and went on the side the trolley wire was on, instead of the other side where there was a width of over 3 feet from rail to rib.
1899
Nov. 16 / [ADAMCIK] ADAMICK, PETER / Loader / 21 / … / … / … / Eureka No. 31 / Somerset / Killed by a car striking him on the stomach. He was working in a heading which was going to the dip heavily, and while the motor was pulling cars out he was instructed by his foreman to get into the cross-cut until cars were pulled over the summit, but this time at least he did not, and a coupling broke and let a car down, which struck the one he was loading, and it struck him on the stomach and killed him.
1899
Dec. 2 / AUBRY, THOMAS / Trapper / 13 / Single / … / … / Eureka No. 30 / Somerset / This boy jumped on the front end of a trip of empty cars that was being pushed into the heading, and they jumped the track, and crushed his leg so that it had to be amputated, and he died in about one hour and a half after.
Date / Name of Person / Occupa-tion / Age / Marital Status / Child-ren / Nation-
ality / Name of Colliery / County / Nature and Cause of Accident
in Brief
1900
Jan. 5 / DARBY, EDWARD / Electrician / 31 / Single / … / American / Eureka No. 30 / Somerset / Killed by electric shock; in making some repairs to wire in the mine he came in contact with the trolley wire and was instantly killed.
1900
Feb. 5 / GORDON, JOHN / Miner / 18 / Single / … / Slav / Yellow Run Shaft, Dunlo / Cambria / Killed by fall of coal which he neglected to sprag.
1900
Feb. 8 / HOWAT, PHILIP / Miner / 28 / Single / … / Slav / Yellow Run Shaft, Dunlo / Cambria / Fatally injured by a fall of draw slate from the side of the heading; an unavoidable accident.
1900
April 2 / ANDREW, JAMES / Miner / 40 / Married / 1 / Slav / Eureka No. 31 / Somerset / Fatally injured by fall of coal owing to his carelessness in not spragging it.
1900
May 16 / KIBBLING, WILLIAM / Miner / 54 / Married / 3 / English / Eureka No. 31 / Somerset / Fatally injured by a fall of draw slate; was drawing a pillar and the place was squeezing and crushed the draw slate around the prop, causing it to fall on him.
Date / Name of Person / Occupa- tion / Age / Marital Status / Child-ren / Nation-
ality / Name of Colliery / County / Nature and Cause of Accident
in Brief
1900
June 21 / BALASCOCK, JOSEPH / Track man / 21 / Single / … / Hungarian / Eureka No. 32 / Somerset / Killed by electric shock; was warned by his partner to look out for the wire, but pushed his head against it.
1900
July 23` / BASSOCK, JOHN / Laborer / 26 / Single / … / Slav / Eureka No. 33 / Somerset / Killed by electric shock; was walking on heading with an iron bar on his shoulder and it touched the trolley wire.
1900
July 31 / HUNTER, JOHN / Loader / 13 / Single / … / American / Eureka No. 34 / Somerset / Was run over by motor while on his way home out of mine. The road is double and he stepped out from in front of empty trip right in front of full load and was run over.
1900
Sept. 8 / FELDEN, MARTIN / Loader / 40 / Married / 8 / Hungarian / Eureka No. 30 / Somerset / Coming out of the mine he stepped in front of a motor; he had no light in his lamp, therefore could not be seen by motorman.
1900
Sept. 24 / COMENTICK, MIKE / Miner / 36 / Married / 1 / Slav / Eureka No. 36 / Somerset / Fatally injured by a fall of rock in a heading; accident was unavoidable.
Date / Name of Person / Occupa-tion / Age / Marital Status / Child-ren / Nation-
ality / Name of Colliery / County / Nature and Cause of Accident
in Brief
1901
Jan. 4 / BARRON, MIKE / Loader / 36 / Married / 2 / Austrian / Eureka No. 35 / Somerset / Was badly crushed; he was sitting in his room and the empty cars being pushed by motor caught him between cars and rib.
1901
Feb. 16 / HERSHSTOCK, ANDY / Loader / 32 / Married / 1 / Austrian / Eureka No. 35 / Somerset / Was running a coal car out of the room and struck his head against trolley wire.
1901
Mar. 26 / THURSTON, SARUS / Miner / 33 / Married / 4 / Norwe-gian / Eureka No. 30 / Somerset / Was found dead on the road under trolley wire.
1901
May 6 / COMESKIE, JOHN / Miner / 25 / Single / … / Slav / Eureka No. 35 / Somerset / Fatally injured by a fall of coal. He had left a stump of coal to hold the coal up and lay down under the cut of coal to mine out the stump.
1901
May 11 / POSTLEMICK, VALENTINE / Road cleaner / 43 / Married / 4 / Austrian / Eureka No. 30 / Somerset / Run over by electric motor. He was not on the lookout for motor, and was told to get off the track, but did not.
1901
May 27 / ODER, JAMES / Miner / 42 / Married / 4 / Pole / Eureka No. 36 / Somerset / Ran his car on the heading to load coal that was not on the road and fell, his head striking the rail; when picked up he was dead; no marks were found on him only where his head struck the rail. The electric wire was right above him.
Date / Name of Person / Occupa-tion / Age / Marital Status / Child-ren / Nation-
ality / Name of Colliery / County / Nature and Cause of Accident
in Brief
1901
June 18 / STILMAN, ANDY / Miner / 24 / Single / … / Pole / Eureka No. 33 / Somerset / Coming out of the mine and was struck by a motor.
1902
Jan. 8 / PINZELMIS, MIKE / Miner / 54 / Married / 3 / Austrian / Eureka No. 30 / Somerset / Killed by electric shock; this man, with other, was drawing heading stumps; there was a piece of bad rock which they were pulling down, and he jumped back out of road of the falling rock and struck the back of his head against the trolley wire, which caused his death.
1902
Feb. 27 / ZACK, ANTON / Loader / 36 / Married / 3 / Polish / Eureka No. 34 / Somerset / This man had pushed his car out of the room and it stopped on the switch, and he went around on the wire side to pull out a sprag, when he struck his head against the trolley wire, which killed him.
Date / Name of Person / Occupa-tion / Age / Marital Status / Child-ren / Nation-
ality / Name of Colliery / County / Nature and Cause of Accident
in Brief
1902
April 19 / MONDAY, JOSEPH / Loader / 34 / Single / … / Polish / Eureka No. 37 / Cambria / This man was killed by electric wire while lifting a car on the track with a rail for a lever, which slipped and threw him against the electric wire, causing his death from electric shock.
1902
June 11 / METARKO, PETER / Machine cutter / 29 / Married / 3 / Slovak / Eureka No. 33 / Somerset / Neck broken by fall of coal and rock he was undermining, when a slip in the rock was reached and the rock and coal fell; accident was unavoidable.
1902
July 11 / MORABIT, BARNO / Miner / 28 / Married / 2 / Italian / Eureka No. 34 / Somerset / Killed by a fall of draw slate.
1902
July 15 / SAVITCH, JOHN / Rock man / 37 / Married / … / Slovak / Eureka No. 34 / Somerset / This man, with others, was blasting some sand rock; he went back to a box to prepare a piece of dynamite and in some unknown manner the piece exploded, which exploded the balance of the dynamite, causing a terrible explosion, blowing him to pieces.
Date / Name of Person / Occupa-tion / Age / Marital Status / Child-ren / Nation-
ality / Name of Colliery / County / Nature and Cause of Accident
in Brief
1902
July 19 / BANAL, JOHN / Miner / 19 / Single / … / Russian / Eureka No. 30 / Somerset / Shocked to death by electricity; this man was on the road and the motor came along, and he turned out on the side where the wire was, instead of the other side, and while standing there he struck his head against the wire, which killed him.
1902
Aug. 9 / BRESKO, GEORGE / Miner / 29 / Married / 1 / Polish / Eureka No. 35 / Cambria / Killed by electricity; this man was walking along the road or rail, with his hand on the top; there was a small wire from the trolley wire into tool shanty and he took hold of it and it caused his death.
1902
Aug. 23 / KUK, DEMICURE / Loader / 26 / Single / … / Hungarian / Eureka No. 37 / Cambria / Was killed by a fall of rock; while drilling a hole in his coal, a piece of rock fell out of a pot hole in the roof; it was an unavoidable accident.
1902
Sept. 17 / KESPERIUSKI, GEORGE / Loader / 45 / Married / 5 / Hungarian / Eureka No. 37 / Cambria / Head crushed by a fall of rock; this was an unavoidable accident; two slips which came together in the roof and were not visible, caused the rock to fall, killing him instantly.
Date / Name of Person / Occupa-
tion / Age / Marital
Status / Child-ren / Nation-
ality / Name of Colliery / County / Nature and Cause of Accident