Collections : [West Virginia and Regional History Center]

Mine disaster reports, official hearing reports, and hearing and inquest transcripts (1938-1967). Most of the mine disaster reports were created by inspectors from the West Virginia Department of Mines, and some of them involved federal inspectors. Other reports were created by the United States Bureau of Mines and the West Virginia Department of Mines Coal Mine Safety Board of Review. Also includes volumes 3 through 8 of the Decisions of the Interior Board of Mine Operations Appeals (1974-1977). The mine disaster reports and associated materials pertain to the following mining companies, with counties where the disaster occurred in parentheses: American Rolling Mill Company (Boone County), Amigo Smokeless Coal Company (Wyoming County), Boone County Coal Corporation, Christopher Coal Company (Monongalia County), Davis Coal and Coke Company (Tucker County), Hatfield-Campbell Creek Coal Company (Kanawha County), Hitchman Coal and Coke Company (Marshall County), Island Creek Coal Company (McDowell County), Katherine Coal Company (Harrison County), Koppers Coal Company (McDowell County), MacAlpin Coal Company (Raleigh County), C.H. Meade Coal Company (Raleigh County), Meadows Coal Company (Raleigh County), New River and Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company (McDowell County), Oglebay Norton Company (Nicholas County), Page Coal and Coke Company (McDowell County), Parsons Coal Company (Preston County), Pemberton Coal and Coke Company (Raleigh County), Pocahontas Fuel Company (a division of Consolidation Coal Company, McDowell County, near Tazewell County, Virginia), Pursglove Coal Mining Company (Monongalia County), Raleigh Coal and Coke Company (Raleigh County), and Red Jacket Coal Corporation (Wyoming County).

The collection consists of a typescript report by J.C. Gaskill, assistant consulting engineer, on accidents, fires, and explosions at the mines of the Consolidation Coal Company and other companies, 1886-1926; and newspaper clippings concerning Consolidation's operations around Fairmont, West Virginia.

Photocopies of newspaper articles regarding the Farmington Mine Disaster. The articles were photocopied, arranged by date, and labeled with bibliographic data by a professional clipping service. The Farmington Mine disaster was an explosion that happened on 20 November 1968, at the Consol No. 9 coal mine; 78 miners died as a result of the explosion. The Farmington disaster was a catalyst for major changes in mining safety laws, including the 1969 Coal Mine Safety and Health Act. This collection contains newspaper articles from 20 November 1968, the day of the explosion, through January 1969, as well as editorials (1968-1969).

The collection consists of a letter from William N. Page, organizer of the Gauley Mountain Coal Company, concerning dangers in mining; abstracts of land titles granted to Robert Morris in 1795; World War II production statistics for the company; copy of a contract between the company, the United Mine Workers of America, and the Charleston General Hospital for hospitalization of miners and their families; letter outlining the life of Robert Hamilton Morris, director of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, 1946; and two blueprints showing bore holes and face section of the Pocahontas No. 3 and No. 4 coal seams.

Field engineer with the West Virginia Department of Mines. The collection includes papers on coal mine inspection, accidents, safety, and other aspects of mining. There are also several blueprints, maps, and drawings of various mining operations in West Virginia.

Journal article regarding widowed survivor, Catterina DeCarlo Davia, of the Monongah Mine Disaster of 6 December 1907, that appeared in Women's Studies: A Interdisciplinary Journal, 42:4, 369-389.

The collection consists of: a scrapbook containing newspaper clippings on the explosion at Monongah Mines No.6 and No.8 on 6 December 1907, rescue operations, the inquest, and mine law reforms; photographs of the disaster; maps of the interior of the mines; printed and typescript reports and pamphlets on mining operations; script of a 1952 television broadcast on the disaster; material on mine disasters in Alabama, Pennsylvania, and Illinois; and newspaper accounts of the agitation for the removal of Judge Alston G. Dayton; and on the imprisonment of Miss Fannie Sellins, a labor organizer.

The Monongah Mines Relief Committee was formed to collect and distribute funds for the widows and children of the 362 victims of the explosions at Monongah Mines No.6 and No.8, Marion County, West Virginia, on 6 December 1907. The collection includes correspondence and individual case files. These files contain age and place of birth of each victim; dependents' names, ages, and places of residence; and amount of each relief payment. There is a record of all contributions to the Relief Committee, financial transactions with banks in Fairmont and Monongah, committee organization and reports, and correspondence with foreign embassies concerning relatives of deceased miners. There is also an agreement concerning the transfer of funds between the Monongah Relief Committee and the Disaster Relief Unit of the American Red Cross for the Barrackville Mine Disaster on 26 March 1925; and a volume regarding Braxton fire relief.