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Diamond Coal Company
Diamond No. 1 Mine Explosion

Providence, Webster County, Kentucky
January 15, 1925
No. Killed - 6



Six are Killed in Terrific Mine Explosion
By The Associated Press
Kingsport Times, Tennessee
January 16, 1925

Providence, Jan. 16. -- Twenty-seven children were made fatherless late yesterday when an explosion in the Diamond Coal Company's No. 1 mine snuffed out the lives of six miners who composed the powder gang.  One miner escaped.  The bodies have been recovered.

Gooch Gardiner and Herman Murphy, who shot the first, were working together when the blast occurred.  Their bodies, which were scorched and bruised, verified the mine officers' theory that a windy shot was responsible for the tragedy.

The four other victims were Goldie Merritt, Hugh Teague, James Holt, and Joseph Troyer, who suffocated from poison gas before they could escape.  Merritt leaves a wife and ten children.  The others were fathers of from two to six children each.

A slight earth tremor, but no smoke or fire, marked the accident.  Eighty-five miners left an hour before the shot occurred.




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