Monongah: The Tragic Story of the 1907 Monongah Mine Disaster

Praise, Title Page, Other Works in the Series, Copyright, Epigraph, Other Works by the Author, Dedication

Praise for monongah “McAteer skillfully analyzes the tragedy, examining players on the company side from the upper levels of the rich and powerful to the mine supervision and operations level, while giving equal weight and voice to the immigrant groups that provided the vast majority of the victims. . . . It is fortunate that a man of Davitt McAteer’s caliber undertook to tell the tragic story.” —Charles McCollester, West Virginia History: A Journal of Regional History “One of the nation’s top mine safety experts has given us a new book that is at once a broad examination of Monongah, its causes and its legacy, and an intimate portrait of the lives that were lost. . . . Monongah is a major scholarly work . . . that tells previously untold stories about the people who really built West Virginia, and often suffered in doing so.” —Ken Ward, Charleston Gazette “A compelling, cautionary tale of avarice and corruption, as well as a testament to the ultimate resilience of exploited people.” —Shirley Stewart Burns, The Journal of Southern History “McAteer’s work is undeniably significant and his extensive research is evident.” —Joshua Stahlman, Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies M O N O N G A H WEST VIRGINIA AND APPALACHIA RONALD L. LEWIS, KEN FONES-WOLF, AND KEVIN BARKSDALE, SERIES EDITORS VOLUME 6 OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES: Working Class Radicals By Frederick A. Barkey with a foreword by Ken Fones-Wolf “They’ll Cut off Your Project:” A Mingo County Chronicle By Huey Perry Culture, Class, and Politics in Modern Appalachia Edited by Jennifer Egolf, Ken Fones-Wolf, and Louis C. Martin Governor William E. Glasscock and Progressive Politics in West Virginia By Gary Jackson Tucker Matewan Before the Massacre By Rebecca J. Bailey Sectionalism in Virginia from 1776 to 1861, 2nd Edition By Charles H. Ambler with a new Introduction by Barbara Rasmussen Bringing Down the Mountains By Shirley Stewart Burns Afflicting the Comfortable By Thomas F. Stafford Clash of Loyalties By John W. Shaffer The Blackwater Chronicle Edited By Timothy Sweet MONONGAH T HE TRAGIC STORY OF T H E 1907 MONONGAH MINE DISASTER T HE WORST INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT IN US HISTORY DAVITT MC ATEER MORGANTOWN 2014 West Virginia University Press, Morgantown 26506© 2014 West Virginia University Press All rights reserved. First paperback edition 2014 by West Virginia University Press 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ISBN: 978-1-938228-89-6 [paperback] 978-1-938228-97-1 [PDF] 978-1-938228-98-8 [EPUB] Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: McAteer, J. Davitt. Monongah : the tragic story of the worst industrial accident in U.S. history / Davitt McAteer. pages cm -- (West Virginia and Appalachia ; volume 6) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-938228-89-6 (paperback) ISBN-10: 1-938228-89-8 (paperback) ISBN-13: 978-1-938228-97-1 (pdf) 1. Monongah Mines Disaster, Monongah, W. Va., 1907. 2. Mine explosions--West Virginia. 3. Coal mine accidents--West Virginia. 4. Coal mines and mining--West Virginia--20th century. 5. Mine safety--Law and legislation--History. 6. Marion County (W. Va.)--History--20th century. I. Title. TN313.M338 2014 363.11’96223340975454--dc23 2014002672 Cover and book design by Than Saffel alphabet is symbol enough but whosis word enough overtakes time. — Subvention by Figure Foundation PUBLICATIONS BY DAVITT MC ATEER BOOKS Textile Health & Safety Manual: A Complete Guide to Health & Safety Protection on the Job. Pilgrim Press, 1986 (286 pp.) Chemical Hazards: A Guide to the New Federal Hazard Communication Regulations. Pilgrim Press, 1986, with Dale Lawson (64 pp.) Miner’s Manual: A Complete Guide to Health & Safety Protection on the Job. Crossroads Press, 1985 (3rd Edition), Thomas N. Bethell, Editor (357 pp.) Coal Mine Health and Safety: The Case of West Virginia. Praeger Publishing, 1972 (267 pp.) REPORTS Upper Big Branch: The April 5, 2010 Explosion, a Failure of Basic Coal Mine Safety Practices. May 2011 (120 pp.) The Fire at Aracoma Alma Mine #1: A Preliminary Report to Governor Joe Manchin, III. November, 2006 (63 pp.) The Sago Mine Disaster: A Preliminary Report to Governor Joe Manchin, III. July, 2006 (97 pp.) A Report on Mine Safety in West Virginia: Report to Governor Robert Wise on Mine Safety and Health...