Unconscious of Danger

DESCRIPTION: "Unconscious of danger with their lamps brightly burning... they endered the cave... fate had destined that as their grave." Death "cuts down alike the rich and the poor"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining death
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, p. 288, "(no title)" (1 fragment)
NOTES [329 words]: Korson's informant connects this with an 1880 mine disaster involving "Wasley" and "Reese," although there is no evidence for this in the surviving fragment. Korson didn't seem to know much about the event; he dated it "about forty years ago" in 1938, but it in fact Jonathan Wasley (1832-1880), John Reese, and Frank Willman died 58 years before that, in 1880. Wasley at least is buried, according to a record of a grave marker I found online, at a cemetery in Shenandoah Heights, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.
USGenWeb.net has a transcription of "Area History: History of Schuylkill County," Pa: W. W. Munsell, 1881. In its history of Shenandoah Borough, pp. 377-378, it says, "Bartholomew Dillmann, Richard Harrington, Jonathan Wasley, Daniel Ellis, Jacob Dimler, Jonathan Ellis and Peter Ward were among the first to settle here in the spring of 1863, most of whom are still residents of the place. From this date the population rapidly increased."
"The design of the double breaker was executed by Henry Strauch, architect, and it consumed about 700,000 feet of lumber in its construction, having a capacity of 1,000 tons of coal daily. Jonathan Wasley was superintendent several years. This colliery was operated by A.C. Miller & Co., who employed about 300 men and boys, until the spring of 1878, when, their lease having expired, it passed into the hands of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, the present operators."
"On July 28th, 1880, Jonathan Wasley, who had served as superintendent of this colliery since 1867, lost his life in this mine by the effects of poisonous gases while attempting to discover the origin of the latter. John Reese and Frederick Willman, who accompanied him, also perished from the same cause. On August 9th following the mine was discovered to be on fire, since which all mining operations have been suspended and various means have been instituted to extinguish the fire, but so far (May, 1881) without success." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP288A

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