1909 Cherry Mine disaster

Fire in Cherry, Illinois, US February 2025 1909 Cherry Mine disaster Cherry Mine fan house and escape shaft postcard.jpg This postcard shows the ruins of the fan building – with the semicircular roof – as a result of the Cherry Mine disaster November 13, 1909 Cherry, Illinois, USA 41.426667 N 89.2125 W type:event_region:US-IL inline,title Coal Mine fire 259 The Cherry Mine disaster was a fire which occurred at the Cherry Mine, a coal mine outside Cherry, Illinois, on November 13, 1909. The fire, which killed 259 men and boys as well as three dozen mules, is the third most deadly mine disaster in American coal mining history. History Background In 1905, the St. Paul Coal Company opened the Cherry Mine in order to supply coal for the trains of its controlling company, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad.Groves Adam Significant Illinois Fires: Cherry Mine Disaster https://guides.library.illinois.edu/c.php?g=416856&p=2840930 guides.library.illinois.edu 26 October 2023 en http://milwaukeeroadarchives.com/EconomicStudies/1913%20Chicago,%20Milwaukee%20&%20St.%20Paul,%20Analyses_of_the_railroad_corporations_whose%20Bonds%20are%20Legal%20Investments%20for%20Massachusttes%20Savings%20Banks,%20by%20Old%20Colony%20Trust%20Company.pdf Reference at milwaukeeroadarchives.com The mine consisted of three horizontal veins, each deeper than the last. The veins were connected vertically by two shafts set some 100 yd apart. Both the main shaft and the secondary shaft contained wooden stairs and ladders. The main shaft was capped by an 85 foot on steel tipple which controlled a mechanical hoisting cage. A large fan, located in a shunt off the secondary shaft, pushed fresh air into the mine. The miners included a large number of immigrants, heavily Italian, many of whom could not speak English.Stout Steve Tragedy in November: The Cherry Mine Disaster Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 1979 72 1 57–69 http://www.jstor.org/stable/40191425 0019-2287 Boys as young as 11 years old also worked the mine. Rather than a fixed per-hour wage, pay was based on the coal production. The Cherry Mine Disaster On Saturday, November 13, 1909, nearly 500 men and boys as well as three dozen mules were working in the mine. An electrical outage earlier that week had forced the workers to light kerosene lanterns and torches. Some were portable, and some were set into the mine walls.http://webra.cas.sc.edu/hvri/feature/nov2013_dom.aspx The 1909 Cherry Mine Disaster 21 February 2017 https://archive.today/20150106223656/http://webra.cas.sc.edu/hvri/feature/nov2013_dom.aspx 2015-01-06 dead Shortly after noon, a coal car filled with hay for the mules caught fire from one of the wall lanterns. http://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/cherry-mine-disaster.html Story of the Great Cherry Coal Mine Disaster https://web.archive.org/web/20141203232122/http://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/cherry-mine-disaster.html 2014-12-03 The fire went unnoticed by workers for 45 minutes before efforts to move the fire began; however, the workers only succeeded in spreading the fire to the mine's support timbers.Tintori Karen Trapped, The 1909 Cherry Mine Disaster 2002 Atria Books New York, NY 9-780743-421942 27 1st Hardcover The mine's large fan was reversed in an attempt to blow out the fire, but this only succeeded in igniting the fan house itself as well as the escape ladders and stairs in the secondary shaft, trapping more miners below. The two shafts were then closed off to smother the fire, but this had the effect of both cutting off oxygen to the miners and allowing the “black damp,” a suffocating mixture of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, to build up in the mine. Some 200 men and boys made their way to the surface, some through escape shafts, some using the hoisting cage. Some miners who had already escaped returned to the mine to aid their coworkers. Twelve of these, led by John Bundy, made six dangerous cage trips, rescuing many others. The seventh trip, however, proved fatal when the cage operator misunderstood the miners' signals and brought them to the surface too late - the rescuers and those they attempted to rescue were burned to death. One group of miners trapped in the mine built a makeshift wall to protect themselves from the fire and poisonous gases. Although without food, they were able to drink from a pool of water leaking from a coal seam, moving deeper into the mine to escape the black damp. Eight days later, the 21 survivors, known as the "eight day men", tore down the wall and made their way through the mine in search of more water, but came across a rescue party instead. One of those 21 survivors died two days later with complications from asthma. Aftermath In 1910, the Illinois legislature established stronger mine safety regulations as a result of the Cherry Mine Disaster. In 1911, Illinois passed a separate law which later developed into the Illinois Workmen's Compensation Act. A monument to those who lost their lives was erected on May 15, 1971, by the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Illinois State Historical Society. The centennial commemoration of the Cherry Mine disaster was held in Cherry from November 14 to November 15, 2009. A new monument, located at the Cherry Village Hall, was dedicated to the miners who lost their lives in the disaster. Footnotes Further reading J.O. Bentall, "The Cherry Mine Murders: Why Four Hundred Workers Were Burned and Suffocated in a Criminal Fire Trap," International Socialist Review, vol. 10, no. 7 (Jan. 1910), pp. 577–586. Adriana Colindres, "Reliving a Tragedy," [Springfield, IL] State Journal-Register, Nov. 6. 2009. Emilie LeBeau, "Small-Town Cherry Plans Special Events to Commemorate 1909 Mine Disaster," Chicago Tribune, Nov. 12, 2009. Karen Tintori, Trapped : The 1909 Cherry Mine Disaster (Illinois), Atria Publishing, 2002. Thomas White with Louis Murphy, "Eight Days In A Burning Mine", The World, Oct. 1911. "Illinois Disaster All but Forgotten," Chicago Tribune, Jan. 5, 2006, pg. A14. External links https://web.archive.org/web/20060329154005/http://www.semp.us/securitas/2003nov_dec.html March 29, 2006 Security Emergency Management Project. "Disaster History Corner: The 1909 Cherry Mine Disaster" Cherry Mine Disaster, Steve Stout, 2000 1909 Cherry Mine Disaster, C-Span, November 7, 2009 Category:Coal mining disasters in Illinois Category:1909 disasters in the United States Category:Bureau County, Illinois Category:1909 in Illinois Category:1909 mining disasters Category:November 1909 in the United States