No.9: The 1968 Farmington Mine Disaster

Widows’ Last Stand

Widows’ Last Stand When the No.9 exploded, James Matish was just a schoolboy. Ten years later, he was a lawyer who stood beside his mother, Mary Matish, and a few of the other widows. Their objective was to force Consol to find his father’s body. James had come from a strong family. Mary’s parents, like her husband Frank’s, had immigrated to the United States in the late 1800s. Her mother had died at a young age, and she and her two sisters were placed in a convent because her father, a coal miner, had a drinking problem. Eventually, she again lived with her father.At 14, she was sent to be a housekeeper for a wealthy family. In her early 20s, she met and married Frank, and 16 years passed before they had James.1 After Frank was entombed in the No.9, Mary stepped into the role of activist. She joined the Widows Mine Disaster Committee, and she testified on behalf of all miners before Congress and the West Virginia legislature. No one would have guessed she had only a third-grade education.2 When Consol notified the widows the recovery was finished,seven of the women whose husbands still lay in the pit, refused to accept that ending. By then, they had all signed Consol’s $10,000 agreement, in which the company promised to look for the dead as long as the search could be done “safely, reasonably, feasibly and practically.” (In the original draft of the agreement those words had been “safe, reasonable and economically practical.”) To seal the mine, the widows believed, was to breach that contract. They filed another lawsuit in the summer of 1978, asking the courts to 22 WIDOWS’ LAST STAND 205 force Consol to finish the recovery and to award them $1.4 million in punitive damages.3 The widows claimed that Consol had not done all it could to find their husbands. In fact, the company, they believed, had concealed the cause of the disaster from them and from state and federal authorities by not exploring the far west side of the mine. They claimed continuing the recovery could be done“safely, reasonably, feasibly and practically.”They also claimed that Consol officials had issued false public statements and made false testimony during the investigation hearings.4 Contrary to documents that were uncovered during the legal discovery, Consol argued that in 1972, the company had decided it would never be able to operate the No.9 commercially again or discover the cause of the disaster. It said the only reason it kept the recovery going was to find bodies. Officials used water buildup in the west end of the mine as an excuse to explain the failure to explore 9North and the far end of the Main West Headings, even though one Consol official swore under oath that the water could have been drained easily and inexpensively.5 Consol officials claimed that they were unaware that water was accumulating at that location, even though they had been monitoring levels in 9North through test holes as early as August 1969, at which time they found no water had collected in 9North.6 Consol officials also said they did not realize the effect water could have on the tunnels’ roofs, even though they had seen how water had damaged many sections after draining them during the recovery effort. Consol officials also claimed that recovery crews were in danger of being inundated with water if a coal barrier broke between the No.9 and the bordering , abandoned No.44 mine. In fact, the crews were in no more danger than the No.9 miners would have been if the mine had never blown up and Consol had continued its plan for mining the No.9. In 1974, Consol officials said they were worried that a barrier between a nearby abandoned mine might break and flood the No. 9. In response, federal officials called in special engineers who studied the problem. They determined that Consol had total control of the water and that the barrier was thick enough to withstand any amount of water that might build up behind it.7 When Consol received the report, Eugene Mauck responded by saying 206 CHAPTER 22 the company accepted the conclusion of the report, and the company would continue to monitor the water levels in the abandoned No.44 mine.8...