By Brandon Jordan
The
mining industry was once one of the predominant industries in America. The
mines provide much needed coal and other precious metals that would be required
to operate the booming railroad industry of the early twentieth century.
Because of the high demand for the minerals, mining towns became commonplace
across the continental United States. Many of these towns shared similar
makeups because they all relied on the mine as the source of the local economy.
Another reality of living in these mining towns is the possibility of disaster.
One such disaster befell the quiet community of Sullivan, Indiana on July 5,
1937. Before I explain the disaster, I must first explore the town of Sullivan
to truly understand how the disaster has affected them. [1]
The
community of Sullivan, Indiana was a typical mining town. The economies of the
town as well as families of Sullivan relied in the money made from the Bituminous
or soft coal mines. Towns like Sullivan were common in among the country during
the 1930’s and shared many of the same characteristics. The town’s population
relied on the money made from the mine. The population was made up from the large
families of the town. The biggest family in Sullivan had 54 children in it! It
had a typically make up of most mining towns in America. The miner’s wives did
not work outside of the house. They would spend their time with upkeep of the
house and raising the children; many of which didn’t attend school. The
children would also spend the day at home helping their mother while the father
was away at work. The work shifts would be eight hours long and the mines were
worked twenty-four hours a day. Once the boys were old enough, they would often
join their fathers in the mines. The girls would often marry young and become
housewives in their own right. Many of the families also would have small
gardens and pigs or chickens to help supplement their food supply. As you can
see the town heavily relied on the money made from the mine. The deadly blast
put the town on standstill. It would take hours to completely clear the mine
and rescue the workers still trapped inside.[2]
The
miners in the blast had just arrived for the morning shift. The blast happened
at 0706 right after the shift change at 0700. The mine operated on twenty-four
hour basis with three eight hour shifts. The mine was inspected not two hours
before the start of this shift to ensure safety of the mine and to detect the
presence of the highly flammable carbon monoxide gas. The test resulted in a
false positive, saying that the mine was clear of all gas and safe for work.
However this was not the case because the mine blast was caused by an exposed flame
that was lighting a miner’s carbide head lamp, reacting to a small pocket of
the gas before it ignited a much larger layer of the carbon monoxide. This
chain reaction caused the massive explosion; just 212 feet below the earth’s
surface. According to one of the mine survivors, Jerry Cox, “The explosion
picked us up and rolled us like footballs.” Cox further described the scene as
a horrible scene. He describes the horror of seeing his coworkers being
“mangled and burned”[3]. When
the initial blast happened they would only find three of the bodies. Seventeen
bodies still remained in the mine, along with an untold number of living miners
trapped inside. The stunned town waited at the entrance of the shaft to see if
their loved ones would emerge from the blast alive.
After
the mine blast happened, Charles N. Templeton, the president of the Baker Coal
Mining Company, left his home in Terra Haute to go to Sullivan as soon as he
was alerted of the blast. There were many organizations that helped to contain
the crowd off over 500 as a safety measure. These organizations include: the
Boy Scouts of America, the state police and the WPA workers. The rescue effort of the trapped
miners was at first stalled by the intense heat on the walls that was generated
by the exploding carbon monoxide. The situation was made more precarious
because the miners were engulfed in the noxious fumes that were left behind by
the powerful and deadly blast. The fumes took us the space that would normally
have oxygen thus preventing the miners from breathing and furthering the level
of danger that they were in. The rescuers quickly found a solution for this.
They inserted a tube that would provide three advantageous benefits. First and
foremost, it would provide the trapped miners with the life preserving oxygen
that they desperately needed. Secondly, by pushing in the oxygen, it pushed the
fumes out and made the enclosed environment inside the heated mineshaft safer
for both the miners and the rescue workers. The final thing that the tube provided
help with was cooling down the interior walls of the mine which would allow the
rescue workers to enter the mine and evacuate the trapped inside.[4]
Once
the mine was cleared and evacuated, they knew that they would have to take some
precautionary methods to ensure that a tragic even, such as this, will become
more seldom and eventually eradicated from the company. The mine was closed for
sixteen days. Within that time they put a three foot thick wall in place in
order to slow the spread of the gas and quarantine the area where the explosion
happened. This was the third explosion of coal mines in the past 12 years in
the surrounding area. The first on was in the City Coal Mine four mile south of
Sullivan in 1925 and the Little Betty mine 12 miles southeast in 1931. The
other explosions were just as tragic both financially and emotionally for their
respective towns. These troubling helped to prompt the strengths of mining
unions to fight for more wages and benefits for the miners and their families.[5]
One
such union was the United Mine Workers lead by John L. Lewis. This union not
only helped mines but helped established other unions for the other unregulated
industries such as: automobile, rubber,
and steel. The union helped lead to the creation of the Congress of Industrial
Organization or CIO for short. The CIO is a conglomerate of many unions to give
them more power and weight when fighting for the rights and regulations for the
members of the unions in the United States. [6]
This
organization supported Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal Coalition. It was
also one of the few organizations that allowed African Americans to be members.
The CIO grew the most during the Great Depression as many unions did. Their rise
in popularity came from the concern of the collapsed economy. The people wanted
to have security and insurance in the event that another economic collapse.
Another strong growth period for the unions was the Second World War. The
United States government was essentially forced to bend to the will of the
unions because they needed the industry they controlled to produce in heavy
quantities for the war.
The
disaster at the Sullivan mine did not only have physical effects like injuries,
damaged equipment or loss of any product. It also caused a financial burden on
the families of those who tragically lost their lives. Many families were
impoverished and had to spend what little they had in savings to cover the
funeral costs and medical that resulted from the horrible accident. The
families did receive workman’s compensation for the death and injuries of their
family members that were involved in the mine. Each of the families got around
$90,000 as compensation. [7]
The
mine blast was a tragic disaster. There are many negative that came out of it
like financial losses and physical injuries and deaths. These are the parts of
the blast that make it a melancholy day for the people of Sullivan. However,
like all coins there are two sides. This explosion and others similar to this
led to the creation of unions like the United Mine Workers and the Congress of
Industry Organizations. Theses unions not only helped the miners of America
garner better wages, to improve working conditions and hours, and to provide
benefits for the mine workers. This not only helps out the town but similar
towns across the country.
Bibliography:
1. "20
Miners Killed By Blast in Indiana." The New York Times, July 16, 1937.
2. "20
Battered to Death in Mine Blast." Washington Post, July 16, 1937.
3. "74
Feared Killed in Mine in Indiana." The Hammond Times , July 15, 1937.
4. Korman,
Seymour. "20 Killed in Mine Blast at Sullivan, Ind."Chicago Daily
Tribune, July 16, 1937.
5. "Reopen
Baker Mine." The Hammond Mine, , sec. Front Page, July 31, 1937.
6. "Sullivan
Mourning." Logansport Press, , sec. Front Page, July 17, 1937.
7. Wikipedia,
"United Mine Workers." Last modified February 08, 2014. Accessed
March 3, 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Mine_Workers
[1] "74
Feared Killed in Mine in Indiana." The
Hammond Times, July 15, 1937.
[2] "20
Battered to Death in Mine Blast," Washington
Post (1937).
[3] “20
Miners Killed By Blast in Indiana,” The
New York Times (1937)
[4]
Korman, Seymour "20 Killed in Mine Blast at Sullivan, Ind."Chicago Daily Tribune, (1937)
[5] "Reopen
Baker Mine." The Hammond Mine, (1937)
[6] “United
Mine Workers,” Wikipedia, 02042014,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Mine_Workers.
[7] "Sullivan Mourning." Logansport Press, (1937)
