No.9: The 1968 Farmington Mine Disaster

Ungodly Work

Ungodly Work When Pete Kaznoski did not come home from the mine, Pete Jr. asked for a hardship leave from the military and moved into a house near his mother.1 He applied for a mining job with Consol, but he got the sense the company did not want him in its mine. His mother intervened, talked to some people she knew, and it wasn’t long before two coal-company men came to his door. “We’ve heard you’re looking for a job, Pete.” “Yeah,” he said.“I’m having a hard time.” They asked him to come to the Morgantown office for an interview. The morning of his interview, Pete asked his wife to make him a sandwich to take along because he was not sure when he would be home. He did not need the sandwich.When he arrived at the office, a company manager took him to a hotel restaurant and ordered him a steak and a couple of martinis. Pete ate the meal, but wanted to get down to business. “Hey, when are we going to have this job interview?”he asked.“I need a job. I haven’t worked in a couple of months and I need to earn some money.” “Oh, you’re hired,” the manager said. Pete reported to work the next week, but the company did not have anything for him to do. He had an office but no assignments. Finally, after about two weeks, he asked for work and began to get assignments. One of his first jobs was to revamp the company’s college recruitment program. Pete 18 170 CHAPTER 18 gathered names and data from schools with mining programs. He wrote a report, and his boss presented it to upper management. They liked it. His boss took credit for the work, Pete said. Pete also began collecting production and man-hour data from the district offices, which he presented to the top officials in the Pittsburgh office. Then something happened. Another company manager came to him and asked him about the lawsuit his mother had filed against the company. He wanted Pete to “talk to her about it.” Pete said he would not interfere in his mother’s business. If his job depended on that, he would give the company his resignation and two weeks notice. “You don’t need to resign,”the manager said.“We’ll pay you for the two weeks and you can leave right now.” That was that. Pete went back into the military, the widows pressed forward with their lawsuit, and the coal miners kept digging out the dead while Consol managers looked for ways to begin mining coal at the No.9. More Men Out In January 1971, recovery workers found the rest of the men who had been working on 1Right-6North, an area that had been hit by the force of the explosions. First, they saw a seat from a rail car, then pieces of a dinner bucket, part of a sweater, then more of the dinner bucket, then George Kovar Jr. His identification number was on his body. No. 98.2 Later the same day, they discovered Gorman Trimble. The recovery men took his identification tag from beneath his body, tied it to his left leg, and took him out of the mine.3 The next day, workers found a rubber boot, a “torn up” dinner bucket, and the top of a battery for a cap lamp that belonged to Hartzell Mayle. No. 118.4 The crew did not find Mayle for three more days. When the men did, they found part of his jacket and then the liner from a boot. He had no shoes on his feet, but was fully clothed and still had a belt on his body. He was badly decomposed. UNGODLY WORK 171 James Herron, who had escaped from the mine the day it exploded, helped bring Mayle’s body out. Mayle’s wife and son identified him by his wristwatch and the green shirt he had worn to work. An X-ray confirmed two old fractures in one of his arms.6 The next day, the last man on that section came out of the mine.Albert Deberry was fully clothed. He still wore his belt and even his cap. The poisonous gases had killed him. His check number, wristwatch, clothing and wedding ring proved his identity. 7 Request to...