As the 19th century began to fade out and give way to the new 20th century, industry began growing rapidly in anticipation of a new era. Years before, the continent had been spanned by ribbons of steel. Steam locomotives started hauling coal to the points of the far west and especially to the rapidly growing Pacific coast. The United States had built a spanking brand new Navy - powered by steam entirely. Homes in the cities need the better heating fuel, namely coal. It was no wonder that the coal seams of the Appalachians were being tapped to furnish the nation's needs, but progress is sometimes paid for heavily with tragedy.
Such was the case when the Blanche coal mine exploded at Colliers, West Virginia, November 20, 1894, killing eight men and badly injuring ten others. The weather had turned balmy and those working near the mine mouth came outside to eat their dinners. Working men did not call the noon meal lunch.
The mine had not been worked a great distance into the earth, since it had only been in operation three years. In those days, no high powered machinery had been invented to gouge out thousands of tons of coal per shift. All work was done by men and mules. Most of the coal was mined by this method; a man, usually alone, went into a room, cut a groove at the bottom of the coal, bored a hole in the coal above the cut with a breast auger and inserted black powder with a fuse and got out of the way. The blast blew the coal down. He proceeded to load it into a car which a Shetland pony pulled to the outside dump or tipple. The more coal a miner loaded in a day, the more money he made.
On this Tuesday, a November day, eight men did not go to the outside to eat. One of them, anxious to get more coal that day, did not take his coal pick and cut the groove at the bottom. Instead, he bored the hole, tamped the shot, lit the fuse, and ran to safety. When the powder went off with a blaze of fire, it ignited the dust created from the shot. In a thousandth of a second the mine had blown up. All the men inside never knew what hit them.
Other reports than the one made by the State Department of Mines - the above account - say that about fifteen kegs of black powder had been stored just inside the mine entrance for dryness or safe keeping. When the dust exploded, the flame shot out igniting the stored powder. The men eating dinner, mostly blacks, on the outside were badly burned. Newspaper reports were that three of those on the outside were killed - names not listed in official report.
The Blanche Mine was located at Colliers, 18 miles north of Wellsburg and due east of Steubenville, Ohio. The P.C. and St. L. Railroad hauled the Blanche Coal to market. An old fashioned furnace sat on the hill above the mine- pulling out 1500 cubic feet of air per minute.
After the terrific blast, the townspeople rushed to the mine. The relatives of those inside asked for permission to go into the mine to rescue their own. This happened many times in early years until police and officers got there quickly to keep order, and to prevent women and children from running into a dark mine and poison gas.
The Blanche explosion was West Virginia's second major mine disaster, the first one being at Newburg in March, 1886, when 39 men died in a gas explosion. The yearly bulletin of the State Department of Mines listed Blanche as in 1884 and had not listed Newburg at all to date. It further stated that Blanche occurred at Standard, whereas it happened at Collier in Brooke County. The town of Standard is located on the Kanawha River in Kanawha County.
The director of mines of the First District of West Virginia, after investigating the cause of the Blanche disaster, reported that the tragedy happened because of the miner shooting on the solid. He stated emphatically that from that day henceforth, there would be no such practice in his district.
Note: From 1984 until recent years, mines continued to shoot down coal by shooting on the solid. Later mining laws forced the companies to do the shooting with a certified shot foreman using explosives furnished by the company. Black powder was forbidden early in the century but continued to be used until outlawed.
Some mines supposedly exploded by shooting on the solid were Monongah, Stewart, Bachman and many others.
The Dead Official list by the First District of Mines ( northern West Virginia):
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The list of dead (unofficial):
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Several others were listed as critical and states as "will die".
*The explosion at Blanche is in error from the State Department manual as to time and place.
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