USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== The Bemidji Daily Pioneer Bemidji, MN September 24. 1907 FOURTEEN MEN DEAD Three Others Fatally Hurt in Michigan Mine Disaster CAGE DROPS 700 FEET Accident is Caused by the Breaking of a Steel Cable Attached to the Lift and Every Occupant is Killed or Seriosly Injured. Marquette, Mich., Sept. 2. - Fourteen men were killed outright and three fatally injured by the falling of a cage in the Rolling Mill mine at Negaunee, Mich. The cage was full of men and every one in it was either killed or seriously injured. The steel cable broke and the cage dropped 700 feet. The bodies have been taken out and the injured are being cared for. The mine is the property of the Jones-Laughlin Steel company of Pittsburg. Fourteen men met their doom outright, all being dashed to their deaths, and three others were so horribly injured that they cannot live. The victims were being lowered into the workings, where they were shortly to begin their day's toil. The news of the fatallity spread quickly throughout the city and a crowd of thousands of people were soon gathered at the mine. Pitiable scenes were witnessed as the dead and dying were brought to the surface. What caused the cable to suddenly be severed is a mystery. It had been carefully inspected the day before, in accordance with the company's rules, and had hoisted cars of ore several times the weight of the seventeen men who were in the cage at the time of the accident. All operations at the mine are suspended. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Port Huron Daily Times Saturday, 21 September, 1907 ELEVEN KILLED AT NEGANUNEE CAGE FELL 675 FEET IN MINE SHAFT EIGHTEEN MEN WERE IN IT AT THE TIME BOTH BRAKE AND SAFETY CATCHES FAILED TO WORK Negaunee, Mich., Sept. 21 - By the plunging of a cage 675 feet down the shaft of the Jones and Laughlin Steel company's mine Friday, eleven men were killed and seven fatally injured. The dead: CHARLES KENT, underground captain; ALFRED J. WILLS, JOSEPH LODDA, MATT LIND, JOHN AHO, JOHN CHERI, THOMAS ELIGHT, JOHN JOHNSON, ANTONIO CURTO and two unidentified bodies. The injured are: SAM STEVENS, JOHN MAAKI, JOHN KELVISTO, ALFRED JEWELL, GEORGE SEBASTENO, THOMAS ROBERTS, EMIL MAHONEN. The cage was making its first descent for the day when the brake on the hoisting drum gave way. Two other men sprang to the assistance of the one at the brake wheel, but their combined efforts did not avail, and the wire cable continued to unreel from the drum like a weighted thread from a lubricated bobbin. The cage shot down 200 feet before a kink in the rushing cable caused it to part. Then the cage dropped with a thud to the bottom of the shaft, the safety catches failing to operate. The surging of the cable in its mad flight tore out part of the side of the engine-house and ripped out several sheaves about the shaft house. Lay in One Mass The machinery installed is not entirely new, but it had been thoroughly overhauled. Workmen at the bottom of the mine immediately set about removing the dead. The fall had hurled the bodies together, and they lay in one mass, from which seven still breathing were taken. They are fatally hurt. Thousands of persons soon congregated about the mine shaft. In the crowd were wives and children of the 200 men employed in the mine. Each thought that her loved one was in the cage. It was fully two hours before the cable was adjusted so that the cage could be raised to the top and the dead brought to the surface. When all the miners came from underground and many anxious wives and mothers were relieved of suspense, their joy added to the sorrow of those bereaved, made the scene a pitiful one. Priests and preachers moved among the people consoling them and begging them to be calm, but it was hours before a semblance of quiet came to the excited miners and their families. All operations of the mine have been suspended and a thorough investigation by both the mine interests and the local authorities has been started. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Diamond Drill Crystal Falls, MI October 12, 1907 Loses His Reason GEORGE SEBASTONO, who displayed such presence of mind when the cage was making its descent to the bottom of the shaft of the Rolling Mill mine at Negaunee by catching hold of a cross bar above his head and pulling his feet up from the floor in order to avoid the shock that he knew would follow, has lost his reason. SABASTONO was the least injured of the seven men taken out of the shaft alive, and it was thought that he would recover and be able to resume his work in a few weeks. He was discharged from the hospital last week, and is now living with his brother. He talks a good deal in a rambling way about the runaway cage and the incidents that fol- lowed the crash. For a few days after the disaster SABASTONO was able to give good account of the catastrophe, but when sleeping he would often scream, as the men doubtless did when they were going down to their doom. The other men confined to the hospital are getting along as well as might be expected, but it is feared that some of them will not recover. ==========================================================================