Darr Mine disaster to be subject of in-depth discussion
Courtesy of John Hepple
The Rostraver Historical Society will mark the 115th anniversary of the Darr Mine disaster with an in-depth lecture on Monday. This photo shows the mine’s company store in 1907.
Courtesy of John Hepple
Darr Mine
The year 1907 had been a hard one to bear for the folks who resided in two small towns that lie opposite one another across the Monongahela River.
That March, river towns in the Mon-Yough area, including Jacobs Creek and Van Meter, its neighbor across the Monongahela, suffered a severe flood. But the worst was yet to come on Dec. 19 that year, when both towns experienced the worst mine disaster that ever occurred in the state of Pennsylvania.
On the 115th anniversary of the infamous day, the Rostraver Township Historical Society will offer an in-depth look at the disaster that took the lives of 239 miners. Coupled with the Monongah Mine Disaster earlier that month that took the lives of more than 350 miners in West Virginia, the two calamities together made 1907 the deadliest year in mining history.
The talk at the old Fells Church in Rostraver Township will feature two speakers. With over 40 years of mining experience, James Bell, a mechanical engineer, will explain the mine conditions at the time of the disaster and the cause of the explosion.
Historical society president John Hepple, who worked in the mining machinery industry for 17 years, will stage a power point and pictorial presentation of videos and photos that give the listeners an idea of what life was like in the area in 1907. Some of the issues he plans to address are average household income, life expectancy, who was president of the United States and inventions that were made in the year of the disaster.
“It’s been quite a while since someone gave a talk on the Darr Mine disaster at the historical society,” Hepple said. “Some of the information presented in previous talks was based on hearsay, but we want to focus on the facts in our talk.”
Hepple said he spent two years researching the subject, which included pouring through newspaper accounts.
As to the second speaker, Hepple calls Bell “the foremost authority on mining in the area,” citing his work in all sorts of mining conditions around the country from 4-foot seams in West Virginia to 8-footers in the Pittsburgh seam to 20-foot seams in Utah.
“Jim has loads of experience in mine maintenance and the set up of new equipment,” he said.
Those in the audience will be able to see photos of Jacobs Creek before and after the flood, of Van Meter two days before the disaster and of the company store, which was torn down seven or eight years ago.
Hepple said the majority of the miners lived in Jacobs Creek and got to the mine on the opposite side of the river by means of a “sky ferry,” a basket that held 6 to 8 miners that transported them across the river on cables. During the talk he’ll include a photo of mine officials traveling across the river in the somewhat unique apparatus.
An interesting story that circulates around the day of the disaster is the fact that none of the Russian miners who usually worked the mine perished in the explosion. Fortunately, they had the day off to celebrate the feast of St. Nicholas, an important holiday in the Russian Orthodox Church.
According to Hepple, little of the mine infrastructure still exists save for some brick walls of a building where the black powder was kept and a concrete slab where the blacksmith shop once stood.
There are two memorial markers close to the mine site. One, a black stone along the bike trail that skirts the river, is about 50 yards from the mine. The other, a gray stone with detailed information about the disaster, lies about 400 yards from the mine.
The talk is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 19, at the old Fells Church, 800 Fellsburg Road in Rostraver. Admission is free but limited to the first 110 people through the door. A Q&A and reception with refreshments will follow the talk.
The Rostraver Township Historical Society holds an average of 10 talks or films each year in the 1835 Fells Church, built over the final resting place of Benjamin Fells, his wife and children.
Fells, a Quaker leather smith and farmer from eastern Pennsylvania, came to the aid of George Washington during his encampment at Valley Forge by making shoes for, feeding and nursing back to health his Revolutionary War soldiers. For his efforts to aid in the revolution, he was removed from church membership by pacifist Quakers. In turn, Washington rewarded him with 600 acres of land in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
The church built in the town to which Fells lent his name last had services in 1967, according to Hepple. Shortly afterwards, Rostraver Township bought the building and used it as a police station and library. The historical society moved into the building around 2005, where it remains to this day.
“The building has never stayed vacant for long,” Hepple said.
Call 724-396-4599 for tickets or additional information.