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Preston Coal and Improvement Company
Preston Slope No. 3 Hoisting Disaster

Girardville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania
August 29, 1870
No. Killed - 7

USBM Bulletin 616 excerpt  PDF Format
1870 Pennsylvania Annual Report excerpt  PDF Format
1870 Anthracite Fatalities  PDF Format


Six Men Killed and One Injured
Evening Gazette, Port Jervis, New York
September 3, 1870

A terrible accident occurred about seven o'clock Monday morning at Preston Slope No. 3, at Girardville, by which six men were killed and one fatally wounded.

A cage got off the track, and the wagon, containing seven men, was thrown off by coming in contact with the top timber, which precipitated them to the bottom of the slope, a distance of about one hundred yards.

The following are the names of the killed:
  • George Taylor
  • John Taylor
  • Thomas Robbins
  • Michael Wehl
  • Philip Farlay
  • Thomas Bourke
William Taylor lost one foot and was otherwise seriously and probably fatally injured.

The three Taylor's were brothers.  All the men with one exception leave large families.




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