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= 1884 Pocahontas Mine Disaster =

The 1884 Pocahontas Mine Disaster was a coal mine explosion that occurred on March 13, 1884 in the town of Pocahontas, in the U.S. state of Virginia. The explosion occurred in the Laurel (East) part of the Pocahontas mine, the first mine opened in the Pocahontas Coalfield. The number of miners who perished varies according to the report. The marker at the Pocahontas Cemetery states 114. The NIOSH database of mine disasters lists 112. Initially the company thought there were 150 men and boys in the mine. The quantity of 114 is the official number. The mine is now the site of the Pocahontas Exhibition Coal Mine and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.



Background
Coal was known to exist in the western part of Virginia as early as 1750 when the explorer Dr. Thomas Walker observed coal outcrops on Flat Top Mountain in western Virginia. His findings went largely unnoticed for nearly 125 years. in 1861, Confederate Major Jedediah "Jed." Hotchkiss observed the same outcrops while he was serving as a topographical engineer for General Robert E. Lee. in 1873, Hotchkiss hired Isiah Arnold Welch to make a survey of the Flat Top Mountain area. Welch's survey began at the residence of Jordan Nelson who was a local blacksmith. In addition to using the coal from a large outcropping on his property, he also sold it to people who would come and purchase it by the bushel. The depression of 1873 delayed further development until 1881. Hotchkiss, who was an advocate of Virginia industrialism, urged Frederick J. Kimball, a partner in the investment firm that established the Norfolk and Western Railroad and later the railroad's President, to extend the railroad from the New River Depot near Radford, Virginia to the coal fields of Southwest Virginia and Southern West Virginia. The investment firm from Philadelphia financed both the extension of the railroad and the Southwest Virginia Improvement Company.

The mine and town were established in 1881 by The Southwest Virginia Improvement Company under the direction of Mine Superintendent William Arthur Lathrop and architect Charles W. Bolton. At this time the railroad line of Norfolk & Western was still about 50 miles away from the town. Two hundred Hungarian, Swedish, and German immigrant workers, recruited from Castle Garden, New York, arrived in January 1882. They and native workers from Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia lived in tents set up in Powell's Bottom which became the location of the town. Work began on clearing the land and creating the Number 1 or "Baby Mine" as soon as the workers arrived. They had stockpiled 40,000 tons of coal by March 1883 when the Norfolk & Western Railroad reached Pocahontas. Arrival of the railroad ushered in a new era for this part of Virginia.

Early preparations for laying out the mine and town were begun by William Arthur Lathrop who visited Abbs Valley and the Laurel Creek area of Tazewell County in September of 1881. Two months later, he returned north to bring his wife to Tazewell County.

William Arthur Lathrop and his wife of eight months, Harriet Eliza Williams Lathrop traveled from New York to the wilderness of Southwest Virginia to what was to become Pocahontas, Virginia in late November of 1881. At that time, there was nothing in the Laurel Creek area but scattered mountain homes. He was 27 years old. She was 25. He had graduated from Lehigh University only 6 years prior and had brief practical experience. They traveled by train from New York to Dublin, Virginia where they disembarked and spent the night. The next morning, they began their three-day journey, a roughly 70-mile-long overland trip by means of a horse drawn coach. They spent the first night in Pearisburg, Virginia at the home of Dr. James O'Keefe, who was the Land Agent for the Company. At Pearisburg, they saw the construction train for the Norfolk & Western Railroad building the rail line to Pocahontas. The next day they traveled as far as Princeton, West Virginia staying the night at a country hotel. They left the next morning and arrived at their final destination in Abbs Valley at the home of Squire William Taylor Moore around five o'clock. They stayed with the Moores until their household goods could be brought from the railroad depot, a period of about 2 months. When their furniture arrived, they rented two rooms from Mr. and Mrs. Spotts in Abbs Valley, about seven miles from the mine site until their house was finished in October 1882. The house, located at 181 W. Water St. was very likely the first house completed in the new town of Pocahontas. It was still standing and occupied as of 2022.

On June 30, 1882, Powell's Bottom officially became Pocahontas when the post office was established with William A. Lathrop its first postmaster. The name was chosen in honor of the Indian princess.

The Virginia Legislature granted a charter for the town on January 31, 1884. The East Mine was opened by mid-May 1883. It was originally called the Laurel Mine. Early Coal Miners

Miner's pay

Explosion and Recovery Efforts
On March 12, 1884, the night shift of miners went to work at 6:00 pm. The day shift general mine boss, Mr. William. H. Cochran, an experienced miner originally from Cornwall England, reported that he left the mine in perfect order with good air circulation in every part of the mine. The night shift mine boss was M. L. Hampton. At roughly 1:00 am, he sent orders to the engineer at the ventilation fan to reduce the fan speed as the air movement was so strong it was blowing out some of the miner's lamps. Mr. Cochran's residence was directly across from the fan entry. At about 1:20 am on March 13, he was awakened by a loud boom followed by a rush of air and a rattle of fragments that sounded like a hailstorm. He got out of bed just as a cloud of blazing coal dust and fragments of timbers and other materials blew through his window, broke his bed and other furniture and filled the room with dust and smoke. The explosion demolished the fan used to ventilate the mine and the steam engine that powered it. Mine cars that were on the track were ejected from the mine and landed on the other side of the ravine and broken into pieces as they struck the bank and the large trees. The results of the explosion caused damage for 100 yards up and down the stream which runs through the ravine. Several miner's shanties were destroyed, while others were left intact. Nothing outside of the mine was set on fire. Although, coal dust did penetrate the tree bark on the larger trees. Despite early newspapers reports to the contrary, no large trees were uprooted.

Meanwhile, Supt. Lathrop and his wife Harriet were asleep and were awakened by the loud explosion. This sound was followed by three others in rapid succession. Accounts differ on the number of explosions heard. Some state five, others three, while Mrs. Lathrop reported four. Supt. Lathrop was informed by a man sent by Mr. Cochran that there had been an explosion and that the 150 men and boys were dead in the mine. Supt. Lathrop hurried to the mine. At four o'clock a.m. he sent word to Mrs. Lathrop that he was all right, but the men in the mine were certainly all dead. Mrs. Lathrop recounted that when he returned later for breakfast, he looked ten years older.

Mr. Cochran was not injured by the debris and smoke that came through his window. He and two other miners, William Whittaker and John Peters, went into the main entry and traveled along the mineshaft about 300 feet to just beyond the first entry to the West mine where they were driven back by afterdamp and retreated from the mine. Shortly thereafter, with the same two miners plus the outside boss, John Jones, they entered the main entry and traveled along the mineshaft to the first entry of the East mine and then went about 200 feet up that mineshaft where they saw a mutilated body. They then returned back to the main entry shaft and went about 500 feet where they saw another body nearly covered with lump coal. They again encountered afterdamp and were forced to turn back. After a short time, Mr. Cochran decided to try again and this time with Sam Morley, George Britton and a Hungarian miner, entered the air shaft and followed it for about 700 feet where they found two bodies. The clothes of one of them were on fire. The Hungarian miner stirred up some slack coal (the dust and small particles that collect on the bottom of the mine shaft) and realized it was on fire. They then quickly retreated from the mine. This time all four men were sickened by the foul air.

About 10:00 am the next day, experienced miners William Culbreth, assistant mine boss, and Tom Harman, traveled up the air shaft for the East mine about 200 feet where they encountered a mass of burning coal. This discovery convinced Supt. Lathrop that the mine was on fire, and it was useless to make any further efforts to recover the bodies. He ordered the entries closed hoping to keep the fire from spreading.

Supt. Lathrop consulted with mining experts from the Midlothian Coal mines in Chesterfield County, Virginia that had arrived earlier that day by a special train. The conference of experts concluded that the only thing to do was seal the mine and inject steam from the steam engines in the machine shop and nearby locomotives and begin preparations to flood the mine. The mine was sealed by building double dams at the openings and then sealing them with clay. A steam water pump was procured from the Crozer Steel & Iron Company of Roanoke, Virginia and attached to the steam engine in the machine shop to pump water from the nearby Coal Run creek into the mine. The engineers realized that air would have to be vented from the mine as the water was introduced. Everyone agreed that the best way to accomplish this task was to drill air shafts from the surface into the upper portion of the mine. Mr. C.H. Duhring, President of Flat-Top Coal Company just happened to be in nearby Mercer County, West Virginia. He visited the Pocahontas mine to offer assistance. Mr. Duhring had experience with oil drilling in Pennsylvania and suggested the fastest way to get the air shafts drilled was to bring drilling equipment in from the oil regions. He offered to travel to Pennsylvania and bring in the outfit and experts to drill the holes. He left on March 15th and drilling was underway by March 19th. As the fire was confined to the lower parts of the mine near the entrance, only about one-eighth of the mine was flooded. However, it was calculated that it would take 17,500,000 gallons to accomplish this feat. which was enough to extinguish the fire. The flow of water into the mine was stopped on April 7. The dams were constructed with a plug which could be driven out to drain the water behind the dam. The plug on the main entry dam was driven out and the water drained from the mine. Supt. Lathrop ordered two carloads of disinfectant and had it dumped in the creek and on the streets.

The dams were cleared from the entrance and the mine was reopened on April 9, 1884. The installation of the new ventilation fan and engine was then completed and turned on. William Moody, directing a team of expert miners from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania began the grim task of recovering the bodies on April 10. Two bodies were recovered that day, one was identified as Boone Maxey age 14 and Jim Crim, an African-American miner. Work resumed the next day when 16 bodies were recovered but only 6 identified. On April 12 thirteen more bodies were recovered. The bodies were badly mutilated and decomposed. Identification was made using unique physical characteristics or personal items on the bodies. By April 15, al total of 80 bodies had been recovered and buried with only about one-half able to be identified. As of May 9, 1884 117 bodies had been recovered.

Most of the miners were killed by the impact of the explosion or subsequent fire. Depending upon their position in the mine some miners were badly dismembered and torn apart by the explosion or by flying debris. In one area of the mine fragments of flesh were observed adhering to the walls of the mine. In another portion of the mine, bodies were found badly burned and charred and still positioned at their work stations some with pick still in their hand indicating they were instantly killed without warning by the extreme heat from the fire, but not mangled by the explosion. Others were found with their hands in front of their face as if to shield it from the oncoming rush of flames, others found as if they were running away from the fire, but only traveled less than fifty feet. One body was found with his dinner bucket still between his legs. A few were found under slate falls crushed by the falling rock. Inspection of the mine after the disaster revealed coked coal dust on the walls of the mine, indicating the temperature there exceeded 600°C (1112°F). Most of the bodies were badly burned. The team concluded that all were dead within five minutes of the initial explosion. Despite the extensive destruction outside of the mine, the interior of the mine was barely damaged, largely attributed to the practice of leaving a layer of coal on the roof of the mine. This layer of coal contained the slate roof of the mine. Only at the fan entrance was there significant damage, which was repaired within 3 weeks. Supt. Lathrop fell ill due to the stress of dealing with the explosion and was concerned he might have typhoid fever. The doctor confirmed that his symptoms were not consistent with typhoid fever, but "brain fever" meaning dealing with the stress of the disaster.

At the time of the explosion, it was the deadliest mine disaster in US history. As of 2021, it is the 21st deadliest mine disaster in US history. It remains the deadliest mine disaster in Virginia history.

The explosion occurred on the first anniversary that the first rail car of coal left Pocahontas bound for Norfolk, Virginia.

Causes
Initially the cause of the explosion was attributed to firedamp, as at that time, gas was the most common cause of explosions. Firedamp is largely Methane. The Pocahontas mine is a horizontal shaft or drift mine with a gentle slope upward from the entrance to the fan entry. Accordingly there is no significant pocket for the accumulation of methane and it was considered non-gassy. Due to the non-gassy nature of the mine, miners were not using safety lamps. Later testing of the coal demonstrated the volatile gas content was much lower than other types of coal and indicated that ignition of flammable gas was not likely.

The Coroner's jury concluded " . . . and we are constrained to say that from all the evidence produced, and upon a full and searching examination of witnesses, we fail to find any wrongful act, neglect or default on the part of said company, its officers, agents or employees, but are on the contrary of the unanimous opinion that the agents and employees of said company used all precautionary measures and that said company spared neither means or skill in operating and conducting said mines for the preservation of the lives of the employees working therein."

The Southwest Virginia Land Improvement Company asked the American Institute of Mining Engineers to investigate the explosion. The president of the Institute appointed 3 experienced and respected mining engineers to an investigative committee. They were: J. H. Bramwell of Roanoke, VA, Stuart M. Buck of Coalburg WV, and Edward H. Williams, Jr. of Bethlehem, PA. They toured the mine from April 24 to May 2, 1884. They made repeated visits to the mine and interviewed 26 witnesses. They issued the report at their Chicago meeting May 1884. They concluded:

". . . We believe that the explosion was due mainly to dust, and that it originated either In the east headings . . ., We cannot determine the initial cause, whether a blast or the accidental ignition of a small accumulation of fire-damp, but we have obtained no direct proof of any occurrence of fire-damp sufficient of itself to account for even a slight explosion, and are forced to believe that the explosion was due either to dust alone or to dust quickened by an admixture of fire-damp too slight for detection by ordinary means."

The conditions leading to the explosion were the following:

Andrew Roy, Ohio State Mine Inspector from 1876 - 1884, claims otherwise. Even though Thomas Brown, former mine inspector of the State of Maryland, who visited the Pocahontas mine shortly after the explosion affirmed that the explosion was not caused by fire damp at all but was due to a spontaneous ignition of the mixture of coal dust and blasting powder that covered the floor of the mine to a depth of several inches. He also acknowledges that the committee arrived to a similar conclusion but claims that the explosion must have been caused by fire damp aggravated by coal dust. He states that the amount of fire damp likely was too small to alarm the miners or mine management but was certainly present in a small amount to set off the coal dust. He states that spontaneous combustion never occurs with such violence to cause an explosion. The idea of blasting powder mixed with the coal dust on the floor of the mine causing the explosion is too ludicrous to even consider.
 * 1) The unusual dryness of the mine.
 * 2) The very large quantity of dust in an extremely fine state of division
 * 3) The constant working of the mine day and night, allowing no time for clearing the air.
 * 4) The use of excessive quantities of powder, largely increasing the amount of dust.
 * 5) The probable existence of small quantities of fire-damp slowly given off from the coal.
 * 6) The employment of incompetent and inexperienced men.
 * 7) The almost complete stagnation of air on the east side of the main entry, owing to the fact that the main doors were untended and fastened open, allowing the air to pass up the main entry direct to the fan.
 * 8) The failure to recognize and appreciate the previous warnings of danger given by occasional flashings of unusual extent when shots were fired, indicating the need of special precautions.

Fatalities
At the time of the disaster, Pocahontas had no cemetery. The few settlers who had died previously had been buried in the Houch Cemetery, located about a mile from the present cemetery. The Southwest Virginia Improvement Company donated land for the burial of the miners. This land became the basis for the Pocahontas Cemetery. In 1888, the cemetery was deeded to Trustees of the Pocahontas Cemetery Association. The Association dissolved in the 1930s, and when the property reverted back to the successor of the Southwest Virginia Improvement Company, Pocahontas Fuel Company, it was deeded over to the town of Pocahontas.

The official number of fatalities is 114. The actual number is very likely higher due to the common practice of the time to bring family members and other undocumented helpers into the mine to assist with the duties. The night shift was composed mostly of young and single men. There were 85 to 92 natural born Americans of which 49 to 50 were African-American, 26 to 32 Hungarians, and a few French, German, Italian, and English miners. The native miners hailed mostly from Virginia, North Carolina, and West Virginia. While unusual for the time, all were buried side by side in the newly created cemetery. Some of the graves have markers with worn writing that is no longer legible. The burial area is located on the east side of the cemetery on the side of the hill about one-quarter of the way toward the Rt. 644.

Combining lists from the database U.S., Mining Accidents, 1839-2006 on ancestry.com, the list of names on POCAHONTAS PAGE 1 on the ""SHINBRIER" ALMOST HEAVEN by "dizzy" harris" website,  names listed in the Monday March 17, 1884 edition of the Fort Wayne Gazette, the March 15, 1884 edition of The (Richmond) Daily Dispatch , the March 15, 1884 edition of the New York Times , the April 15, 1884 edition of the New York Times , and the list of names read at the annual memorial service at the cemetery eliminating duplicates and sound a-likes results in the following list of names.

 *  Listed in Find a Grave®

The obituary for William Robert Odham, who died from afterdamp exposure in 1901 after another explosion in the Pocahontas West mine, states that he had two brothers who perished in the 1884 mine disaster. The names of his brothers were not given in the obituary. There are no Odhams listed in the database of victims.

Two of these victims were buried in graves that still have legible writing. Braxton Bragg Moore and Andrew "Boon" Maxey have markers with the names visible. Braxton Bragg Moore's marker is very close to the 100th anniversary memorial marker.

There were also two African-American women and a child killed when debris from the explosion crushed them in their house, outside of the mine entrance. Their names were not recorded.

Injuries
U.S., Mining Accidents, 1839-2006 on Ancestry.com lists the following non-fatal victims of the 1884 Pocahontas Mine Explosion.

Aftermath
The interior of the mine itself was not badly damaged. Mining resumed May 8.

The Pocahontas Historical Society holds an annual remembrance service to this day

A mine inspection bill was proposed in the Virginia Legislature but did not come to a vote. Virginia did not pass a mine inspection law until 1912.

The Virginia General Assembly proposed authorizing $2500 (nearly $76,000 in 2022 dollars) allocated to support the relief effort. The President of the Southwest Virginia Improvement Company declined the offer indicating to the governor that the company can do whatever is necessary to relieve the distress. After the explosion, Supt. Lathrop offered employment to the men clearing away the rubble around the entrances, repairing the railway tracks, closing the mine entrances, and cleaning up the grounds around the mines and the town which had been neglected due to the demand for mining coal and the labor shortage. As the miners and their families lived in company housing, when a miner died, his family had to move. Many of those killed were European immigrants. The Southwest Virginia Improvement Company paid for their trip back to their home country.

Two months before the explosion, Frederick Mercur, General Superintendent of Lehigh Valley Coal Company offered Mr. Lathrop a job as the Superintendent of the bituminous department of that company at Show Shoe, Pennsylvania. Mr. Lathrop was a born in Susquehanna County Pennsylvania, and a graduate of Lehigh University. This offer would send the Lathrops back to Pennsylvania and Mrs. Lathrop was very excited to be able to go "home" and get away from the remote area of Pocahontas. Mrs. Lathrop adapted well to the remoteness of Pocahontas, but being originally from New York, desired to return to the North. When the explosion occurred, Mr. Lathrop sent a letter to Fred Mercur that he would not be able to accept the position as he could not leave until everything was back to working order at Pocahontas. Mr. Mercur then visited Pocahontas and looked things over and told Mr. Lathrop that he would wait for him to finish his job at Pocahontas. He said, "it may take six months or more, but we want you and we will wait for you." Mr. Lathrop resigned in June 1884 and the Lathrops packed up and made the move back to Pennsylvania. Mrs. Lathrop was so nervous that something would go wrong she suffered an attack of "nervous indigestion" and boarded the train still suffering from the condition.

William A. Lathrop went on to have a successful career in mining management. He was promoted to General Superintendent of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company upon the death of Fred Mercur. After that he became president of the Pennsylvania Coal & Coke Company and then was chosen president of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. He was also the president of the board of trustees of his alma mater, Lehigh University and a director of numerous banks, and other companies. He died from complications of appendicitis surgery on April 12, 1912 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Exaggerated Accounts
Osborne states: "There were many sensational and inaccurate reports on the disaster. Third paragraph, page 49 of the March edition of the "Virginias" gives the correct version of the condition of things at Pocahontas after the explosion."

Some of the false and exaggerated statements include: "One of the miners struck a fissure filled with gas"; "it is pretty well determined that the explosion was caused by fire-damp."; ". . . caused by the men going too far into the mines with their lamps."; "A dangerous excess of moisture combining with the carbon in the finely comminuted particles of coal dust, aggravated by the forcing in of damp and cool air by the fan, combined with the carbon of gunpowder just after its explosion produced the elements of the fatal explosion."; " . . . it is said that the fan which supplied air to the mine was of insufficient power." The investigative committee concluded the primary cause of the explosion was coal dust, not fire damp. The initial ignition of the explosion was never determined. The mine was dry. The fan was so powerful that just before the explosion orders were sent to the engineer in charge of the fan to slow the speed as it was blowing out the miners' lamps.

Perhaps some of the most exaggerated reporting was published by Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. On the cover of the March 22, 1884 edition there was an engraving showing a young wife discovering her dead husband's body blown from the mouth of the mine. Page 72 has a picture of a victim's body being carried out of the mine. Even the text of the article included sensational untruths as it claimed that body parts were expelled from the mine and lodged in tree-tops and on the roofs of houses. No bodies or body parts were ever blown from the mine. Hotchkiss noted in his March 1884 article that "not a body or fragment of a body has been exposed to daylight." The article paints an image of dazed people running around aimlessly not knowing what to do, while the truth is almost immediately experienced miners attempted to enter the mine to rescue the victims. It also claimed that the fire eventually escaped the mine shaft and burned down the fan-house and outbuildings, when the investigative committee specifically noted that no evidence of fire existed outside of the mine. The fan house and outbuildings were blown down by the force of the initial explosion. In fact, except for the report of the explosion itself, nearly all of the first paragraph is total fabrication.

The investigative committee from the American Institute of Mining Engineers noted that the newspapers "gave more or less distorted accounts of the number of victims, the scenes in and about the mine, and the probable cause of the disaster".

External References
Tazewell County

Pocahontas Mine No. 1  National Historic Landmark Nomination

Bridgewater Journal 21 March 1884 "THE POCAHONTAS HORROW. [sic] ---Not Less Than 150 Lives Lost !!"

New York Times 14 March 1884  "A DISASTROUS EXPLOSION; ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY LIVES REPORTED LOST. FULL EXTENT OF THE DISASTER AT THE LAUREL CREEK COAL MINES NOT YET KNOWN--SIX BODIES RECOVERED"

Indianapolis Journal 14 March 1884 "FRIGHTFUL MINE DISASTER"

Fort Wayne Gazette 14 March 1884 "NATURE'S CREMATORY"

St. Paul Daily Globe 14 March 1884 "DEATH IN THE MINE"

Unita Chieftan 22 March 1884 "IN A TOMB OF FLAMES"

Logan Valley Herald 21 March 1884 "HORROR OF HORRORS"

The Border Watch (South Australia) 23 April 1884 "A TERRIBLE DISASTER"

Morning Chronicle (Quebec) 14 March 1884 "FRIGHTFUL CATOSTROPHE"

The Weekly Star (Wilmington NC) April 18, 1884 Edition 1 "The Pocahontas Mine Disaster--Preparations for the Recovery of the Bodies of the Dead"

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly 22 March 1884

AN HISTORIC COAL MINING COMMUNITY AND ITS SCHOOL

181 Water ST Pocahontas, VA

Nappanee News March 27, 1884. A Ghastly Spectacle

Knowledge Bank at The Ohio State University

Colorado State Inspector of Coal Mines