Utah Mine Disasters Then and Now

My grandmother's first husband was killed in thewould be better off in the mines. My grandfather said
Scofield Utah mine disaster on May 1, 1900. (See thethat the schoolmaster was rewarded by the mine
URL after the fourth paragraph.)owners for providing such child workers.
A coal dust explosion ripped through the WinterI remember the stories about the mines and how
Quarters Number Four mine located west of Scofield.frightened that grandfather was of the rickety ladders
Many miners were killed directly by the explosion.and the dripping water. My great-grandfather was a
Other miners, working in the Number One minepowder man and grandpa helped drill the charge holes.
connected to the Number Four mine, died from deadlyHe became a powder man himself and worked in coal
carbon monoxide gas or "afterdamp."mines in Pennsylvania where family tradition says that
These men heard the explosion, but not knowinghe met John L. Lewis who left the mines saying he
where it occurred, they tried to exit by the shortestwas going to get educated and never work in a mine
route--through the Number Four mine--where theyagain.
encountered the deadly gas and perished. Some 200Grandfather was seriously injured while quarrying
bodies where removed from the mine with another 50granite for the Salt Lake Temple in Utah. A delayed
or so never recovered. There were twenty youngexplosion trapped his leg between blocks of granite.
boys and sixty-one Finnish immigrants among theHe was given a blessing by the Patriarch of the
dead. My could-be grandfather was Welch.Mormon Church saying that his leg would heal. His
"At 200 dead, the Scofield disaster was the mostbrother, also a powder man, helped him walk to
tragic coal mine disaster, in terms of the number killed,Porterville, Utah.
to that time in American history. Subsequent disastersI have walked that trail many times and I wonder how
killed 362 at Monongah, West Virginia, on 7 Decemberthey ever made it. He healed in two years with one
1907; 239 at Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania, on 19leg being two inches shorter than the other. As a boy,
December 1907; and 263 at Dawson, New Mexico, onmy grandfather use to wake me up in the middle of
22 October 1913. The dead at Scofield included twentythe night to rub his leg to try to get circulation back into
young boys and sixty-one Finnish immigrants." Seeit. It was not the first time my grandfather was injured
"The Pleasant Valley Coal Company provided each ofat work. As a teenager he was leaded (lead
the dead men with burial clothes and a coffin, andpoisoning) in a mine in Wales and later in Utah.
gave each man's family $500. The company alsoMy paternal grandfather met his future wife in
erased $8,000 in debt that the dead miners hadPorterville but had to wait eight year for her to grow
accumulated at the company store. Other privateold enough to marry.
donations came from a number of communities withinMy maternal grandfather (who replaced my
and outside the state.grandmother's first husband killed in the Scofield
"One hundred forty-nine of the dead were buried in theexplosion) was also a miner in the Utah mining towns.
Scofield cemetery with two graveside services: oneMy mother was born in 1901 in Silver City, Utah and
conducted in Finnish by A. Granholm, a Finnish Lutheranlived in Bingham and several other mining towns. Her
minister; and the second by LDS Church apostlesfather died when she was a teenager.
George Teasdale, Reed Smoot, and Heber J. Grant.My grandmother never got over losing her first
The other fifty-one victims were returned to theirhusband at Schofield. There were two children from
hometowns for burial.her first marriage. My uncle of that marriage was
"The tragic disaster led to calls for greater safety ingassed during World War I and died tragically when I
the coal mines and for better treatment of coal miners.was a boy.
The disaster became one of the causes of a laborI always ask myself this question: If my grandmother's
strike the following winter, which centered in thefirst husband had not been killed, would my mother
Scofield area, as well as a countywide strike inever have been born?
1903-04 when Utah miners made their firstWould I exist at all?
unsuccessful attempt to win recognition of the UnitedThe loss of those miners in 1901 created thousands of
Mine Workers of America in the state." (ibidsituation that actually changed history. When people die
Both of my grandfathers were Utah miners. Myin war or in such disasters before finishing their
paternal grandfather, born in Llandudno, Conwy, Northreproductive history, their families' lives are changed for
Wales, went to work with his father in the coal minesever.
when he was about nine years old. My grandfatherI continually think of those men entrapped in the cold
said that he became angry when his schoolmasterdust and darkness right now in Utah. I think about their
who had hit him with a board and he threw his slatefamilies. With yesterday's news of the loss of three
(writing board) which met the schoolmaster's head justmore miners trying to rescue their friends and the
as he turned back to the class. Grandfather was notserious injuries of six others, I mourn for them and their
finished. He went outside and threw rocks (used tofamilies too.
repair the road) through the schoolhouse windows.The emotions that occur in mining families after such a
That night, the schoolmaster met with mydisaster never goes away.
great-grandparents and suggested that grandfatherEven the unborn are effected.