By Bobby Bice
Most people recognize the year 1944 as the ‘year of the tornado’, but three months prior to the
tornado, a mine explosion occurred at the Katherine Coal Company Mine No.4, this year marking the 80 th Anniversary of the explosion.
The mine was located along Wyatt Road, which connects West Shinnston into the Robinson Run section of Lumberport, an area that was [in more recent years] occupied by the former Salerno Brothers Company. During my existence, it seems that little attention has been given to this mine disaster that took the lives of sixteen local men.
The most likely reason for this is that the F-4 cyclone of the same year moved to the front seat in the history books.
In Lacy Dillon’s first book on mine disasters, They Died in the Darkness, the chapter pertaining to the Katherine Mine Disaster contains a plethora of errors. To begin, the date is incorrect. Dillon listed it as March 22 nd , but it happened in the early morning hours of March 25 th . The name of the mine superintendent is incorrectly listed as Holson. It was, in fact, John Hogue—a fact known to me because he was my Great Great Grandfather. The names of several miners are also recorded inaccurately—some are misspelled and others are just incorrect.
During the evening shift of Friday, March 24 th , 1944, a crew had been cutting coal with an electrical cutting machine. At around 11pm, they stopped working, unplugged the machine, and headed into a room about 100 feet away to eat their lunch. Upon their return, the area was filled with smoke and the cutting machine was on fire, which had also ignited the rib of coal. It was assumed that the fire began from a short circuit caused from a blown out cable.
The workmen tried to extinguish the fire, but did not have sufficient equipment to battle the blaze so the foreman gathered all men from the nearby butt headings and headed out of the mine. An experienced miner, John Spiker, along with Superintendent Hogue, headed into the mine to begin directing supplies to fight the fire.
There were also still fifteen men in another section of the mine that were most likely unaware of the working fire.
Hogue headed out to retrieve a forgotten tool and it was during his absence, at 1:06 AM to be exact, the mine exploded. The massively destructive force blew out of all three mine openings; mine trolley wires were mangled into balls and 60-pound steel rails were thrown to the outside.
A blacksmith shop near the opening was also blown to bits. The fifteen miners that were still working inside the mine, along with Spiker who went in to battle the blaze, totaled sixteen men whose fate was unknown. Teams immediately organized to commence a search and rescue. However, the blaze inside the mine kept growing more intense and rescuers were driven back to the outside.
In addition, some miners suffered from high levels of carbon monoxide. For three days, the conditions inside the mine thwarted all rescue attempts.
It was soon realized that all efforts were deemed futile and a decision was made to seal the mine. The bodies were recovered four months later. After the mine was sealed, sixteen caskets were put in order to be ready for when the bodies could be recovered. Three months later, on June 23 rd 1944, a tornado struck the area, claiming the lives of 72.
The sixteen caskets that were waiting on mine casualties were then used for tornado victims. The Katherine Mine Explosion occurred in an already disrupted era of time with the uncertainty of World War II news. In fact, several people—now long gone to meet our Maker—told me that they thought a bomb had been dropped before finding out that the mine had exploded. In addition, others have shared with me over the years that when the tornado hit, they were unsure whether it was a war bomb or another mine explosion.
They lived with constant fear.
When the mine explosion occurred, it became recognized as the greatest mine disaster in Harrison County’s history. Sadly, in 1963, the mine disaster at Dola assumed that unwelcomed title. The Shinnston Historical Association is in the middle of sponsoring a WV State Historical Highway Marker denoting the Katherine Mine Disaster.
And that is this month’s ‘Story Behind the Photo’.