Cherry Mine disaster led to improved mine rescue in Illinois

Coal mining has been a key component of the Illinois economy for over 200 years. Sadly, many men have lost their lives in the process.

Organized mine rescue in Illinois did not develop until the horrific Cherry Mine disaster of 1909, which led to statewide improvements just weeks later.

That lifted Illinois to the forefront of mine rescue, as the state established three regional stations for response to mine emergencies. One, in Springfield, is still in use today.

As the Illinois coal industry has evolved, mine rescue personnel have become a key component of employee safety and survival. Over the decades, rescuers frequently risked themselves to save trapped and injured miners, sometimes losing their own lives as well.

Coal was first mined in Illinois in 1810, and production increased with each passing decade. By 1864, Illinois production topped 1 million tons. That number increased five-fold by the late 1870s, and in 1885, a reported 685 mines were in operation statewide.

Statewide production peaked at nearly 20.1 million tons in 1897. The following year, five Illinois counties cranked out over a million tons alone, including La Salle County, which ranked fourth at 1.6 million tons.

The high number of mines, and the men they employed, were at risk for deadly accidents, which were often caused by poor working conditions in a time when safety was rarely emphasized.

Fires and explosions were particularly harrowing, as gas and air flow were not properly understood, among many other factors.

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Around 1 p.m. Nov. 13, 1909, a carload of hay, intended for the underground mules, caught fire in the St. Paul Coal Co. Mine No. 2 at Cherry, a 4-year-old mine in Bureau County that was thought to be the largest coal shaft in the nation. The mine turned out 1,500 tons per day in its earliest use.

The fire spread rapidly and cost the lives of 259 miners, leaving 160 widows and 470 children under the age of 14. Thirty-three of those children were born after the fire. The tragedy at Cherry is the worst mining catastrophe in Illinois history, and the third-deadliest coal mine disaster in U.S. history.

Twenty-six years before, surface water from thawing snow and heavy rains began pouring into the Diamond Mine near Braidwood on Feb. 16, 1883. Depending on the source, death tolls from the deluge range from 69 to 74 lives, the fourth-deadliest mining accident ever in the state of Illinois.

In that era, mine rescue was in its infancy, and only rudimentary attempts were made to help trapped or dying miners. Most rescue personnel lacked the training and equipment to be effective. Rescue attempts at Braidwood, for example, were described “as brief as they were futile.”

Throughout its history in coal, there have been scores of other, less deadly mine accidents in Illinois as well, particularly at the turn of the century.

The deadliest year in American mining history was 1907, when 3,242 coal fatalities were recorded. That same year, 308 accidents that resulted in at least five coal mine deaths were recorded.

Rescue personnel also had a dangerous job. Between April 1905 and February 1909, 65 rescuers and firefighters at the Ziegler Coal Co. in Franklin County in southern Illinois lost their lives in the aftermath of mine disasters.

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The rescue response to the Cherry Mine catastrophe was a fraction of today, mainly because there was minimal organization for such an event.

Some of the rescue efforts at Cherry were conducted by staff from the U.S. Geological Survey at the University of Illinois under the direction of Professor R.Y. Williams, a mining engineer. Williams and an assistant collected oxygen helmets and other equipment from the State Mine Experiment and Mine Life Saving Station.

The equipment was handed out to volunteer rescuers in Cherry. Similarly, firefighting equipment was carried to the site by train.

Williams and his assistant tested for gases, assessed the situation at the mine and made multiple trips underground to determine if there could be more survivors.

Relief funds and materials poured in from around the state, a reflection of the importance of mining in the state’s economy and consciousness.

The general public was horrified by the Cherry disaster, and calls for improved mine rescue grew steadily. Within weeks of the fire – and before all of the bodies had been recovered from the mine – the Illinois General Assembly approved Senate Bill 42 to establish the Mine Rescue Station Commission.

The legislation was signed by Gov. Charles Deneen on March 4, 1910, less than four months after the disaster. In Cherry, more funerals were held during the week the law was signed into effect.

The act, the first of its kind in the nation, created three rescue stations, each serving a region of the state, and established a commission to execute the provisions of the law. The station for the northern region was established at LaSalle, with the central station at Springfield and the southern station at Benton.

Each station headquarters was identical in design and served two purposes. One was to create a trained group of men to assist in mine emergencies, while a second was to train miners in rescue techniques and equipment. The goal was to provide trained personnel at each mine in the state.

The Springfield station was completed first, in January 1911, and became the first permanent facility in a coal-producing state that was devoted solely to mine rescue. The La Salle and Benton stations were completed soon after. In 1914, additional stations in southern Illinois were set up in rented facilities at Herrin, Harrisburg and DuQuoin.

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As the industry continued to evolve in Illinois, stations were added or dropped. The La Salle station was discontinued in 1943, and the building was later demolished. In Benton, the station building was later razed and replaced with a new structure in 1970.

Today, mine rescue stations are maintained in Springfield as well as three southern Illinois locations – Benton, Lively Grove and Sahara Woods.

The mine rescue building in Springfield is the original 1911 structure at 609 Princeton Ave., which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

The number of Americans employed in coal mines peaked in 1923 at 862,536. At least 720,000 miners were recorded each year in the U.S. from 1910-1927.

The last year that coal mine deaths exceeded 1,000 in the U.S. was in 1947. Ironically, that was the same year as another massive mining disaster in Illinois, the explosion at Centralia Coal Co. No. 5 that killed 111 workers that March 25.

Another large-scale disaster in Illinois was the explosion at Orient No. 2 Mine in West Frankfort on Dec. 21, 1951, which claimed 119 lives.

The number of mine deaths has steadily decreased, as 12 were recorded nationwide in 2019. However, the number of mine workers has also dropped.

Some 81,361 miners were recorded in the U.S. in 2019, roughly a tenth of the number from a century before.

• Tom Emery is a freelance writer and historical researcher from Carlinville. He may be reached at 217-710-8392 or ilcivilwar@yahoo.com.