Midlothian Coal Mine Fire

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Midlothian Coal Pits
Midlothian Coal Mine Fire

Coalfield, Chesterfield County, Virginia
May 20, 1876
No. Killed - 8

Engineering and Mining Journal Article (12.8 Mb)

News Articles from the Period (400 Kb)

See also:	Midlothian Coal Pit Explosion, Mar. 19, 1855
	Midlothian Mine Explosion, Feb. 3, 1882

Explosion in a Coal Pit, Eight Lives Lost
Critic-Record, Washington D.C.
May 22, 1876

New York, may 22.- A special from Richmond, Va., says that intelligence reached the city yesterday of a terrible explosion at the old Midlothian coal pit in Chesterfield county, resulting in the loss of eight lives and severe injury of two other persons, while a number of others were slightly injured.

The men were working seven hundred feet below the surface when the explosion of foul air and gas occurred, being heard for miles. The manager and others descended the pit, and after search came upon the bodies of James Carrol, foreman; Charles Holder, John Marshal, Thomas Golden, Robert Hall, Joseph Hadley, colored; William Morris, colored, and Phillip Elliott, colored, all dead, and a number of others were more or less injured.

The mouth of the pit was crowded by the wives and relatives of the killed and injured, frantic with grief at their loss.

Midlothian Coal PitsMidlothian Coal Mine Fire

Midlothian Coal Pits
Midlothian Coal Mine Fire