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CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- On March 8, 1926, a mine explosion at Eccles, near Beckley, killed 19 miners. Sixteen women and 59 children lost their husbands and fathers. Ten other miners barricaded themselves inside the mine and were found alive by rescuers.
The mine was operated by the Crab Orchard Improvement Company. About a month after the explosion, a coroner's jury issued a report stating:
"We find that the men in mine #5 Eccles came to their death by gas and dust explosion and afterdamp (a toxic gas mixture remaining after an explosion.) We are unable to find from the evidence produced how the gas was ignited."
The panel heard testimony from a number of people. Two of the trapped survivors were Jim Keith and his 17-year-old son, Green, who helped erect barricades for the men to get behind. The senior Keith was questioned at the hearing. It went this way:
Q: After you had completed the barricades, what did you do?
A: There was lots of talk. Some of them thought we would never get out. Mr. Davis said the men on the outside would seal the shafts and leave us in, and would not try to get us out.
Q: Did you think the men on the outside would do this, Mr. Keith?
A: No sir. I knew they would try to save us. I knew how many friends I had on the outside, men I had been working with for years, and I knew they would save us if it was possible. I felt sure we would get out all right if we would only stay there and wait for them to come and find us. I told them who I thought would be the first ones to come to help us.
Q: What did you do then?
A: We all laid down except the night boss, Davis. He prayed continually and wrote a letter to his wife telling her goodbye.
Q: What did you do then, Mr. Keith?
A: I told them we had better line the stoppings. Davis told the men they only had air enough to last them for about 40 minutes and for them all to pray, and there was no hope for them.
Q: Did they all pray then?
A: They all prayed except me. My boy got scared then and began to cry. You see, he is only 17 years old. I took him off to one side and told him not to be afraid - that he and me was coming out of there all right, even if the rest didn't. I told him that we could starve along on what little food we had and that we had enough good air to last us for two or three weeks.
Q: Did that satisfy him then?
A: Yes sir; he laid down and went off to sleep then.
Q: Didn't you pray then?
A: No sir; I told Davis that I had not prayed before I got into that fix, and that the Lord wouldn't pay much attention to a prayer that a man was scared into.
Q: What did you do then, Mr. Keith?
A: I was cold and I backed up against the colored fellow, McKenzie, and listened to the rest of the men praying.
Q: What were you doing when you first heard the rescue party?
A: I was laying down when I heard them coming. I could hear them walking. I mentioned it some of the others, and we heard them holler. I couldn't hear what they said, because they had on their helmets. I asked them if they wanted us to tear down the barricade, and they said yes.
Q: Who were last to leave the barricade?
A: [J.W.] Cales, my son and myself. My boy was the last to get out, being right behind me.
Cales was asked who he thought should be given credit for keeping the men together and keeping up their courage. He replied:
"I think Jim Keith and Grover Wilson deserve more credit than any other particular ones. Wilson sang and cracked jokes, and when the others would appear afraid, Wilson would sing and dance a little bit. He did this to keep up their courage. Jim Keith always kept a cool head and the majority of the other men would listen to him."
One of the men who lost his life in the explosion, Richard Keesee, was survived by a wife and nine children, including eight-year-old Stella. The company let the Keesee family continue to live in the company-owned house, a very unusual decision for the time.
Nine years later, 17-year-old Stella married Roscoe Weikle who worked in the Eccles mine for about 40 years until he retired in 1972. Stella later was asked if she was ever apprehensive about sending her husband off to work in the same mine where her father died in 1926.
"No," she said, "I just refused to think about it."
Stella and Roscoe settled in Beckley and had three children - Kay, Roger and Rodney, all college graduates. Kay became a schoolteacher and married Dick Davis of Beckley who worked his way into a top leadership position with the United Steelworkers of America in Pittsburgh, holding the office of international vice president. Roger became business dean of Winthrop University, Rock Hill, S.C., and Rodney spent several years with the U.S. Secret Service before becoming a teacher in Greenbrier County schools. His wife, Lynn, also was a Greenbrier teacher.
Miller, a Charleston history buff, is a former news reporter and gubernatorial aide.
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