Whitman Mine Explosion
SEARCHERS FIND THIRD VICTIM OF LOGAN MINE BLAST.
EXPLOSION TRAPPED FIVE MEN IN ISLAND CREEK COMPANY WHITMAN MINE.
HOPE IS ABANDONED FOR TWO MISSING WORKERS.
MEN CAUGHT IN ABANDONED SECTION OF WORKINGS; 241 MINERS AT WORK IN MINE AT TIME OF BLAST; DEBRIS HAMPERS PROGRESS OF RESCUERS.
Logan, W. Va., Nov. 3. (AP) — With bodies of three miners recovered, rescue crews tonight pushed ahead in their search for two other men missing following an explosion in a temporarily abandoned section of Island Creek Coal company, Whitman Mine No. 20.
The bodies discovered were those of WILLIAM DINGESS, 48, father of nine children; DAVID AMOS, 36, father of four children, and ALONZO NAPLER, 29, father of six children. All were timbermen.
Virtually all hope was abandoned by rescue crews for the recovery alive of the two missing men, CHARLES FRYE, 31, fire boss, and JAMES HOBBS, 33, timberman.
The men were retimbering the unused section of the mine when, rescue workers believed, a slatefall occurred, breaking an electric wire and liberating a quantity of gas which was ignited by a spark from the wire. Rockdust in the mine, R. M. Lambie, chief of the state department of mines said at Charleston, prevented the explosion from spreading through the mine which extends underground for several miles from the foot of a 250-foot shaft.
Dust flying through the air gave warning to 241 other miners that an explosion had occurred some place in the workings and they hurried from the mine uninjured. One man was injured slightly when he was blown against a trap-door by the force of the blast. He had been working near the explosion area.
Rescue crews working under the direction of J. F. White, state mine inspector, and H. P. Farley, district safety director for the department of mines, located two of the bodies, those of DINGESS and AMOS, about two miles from the foot of the shaft where they had been engaged in retimbering. Several hours later after groping their way through thick fog composed of rockdust, coal particles and smoke, they found the third body, NAPLER, near the spot where the others had been located.
With the recovery of NAPLER’S body, a slight hope that he and the two other missing men might have escaped injury in the explosion and barricaded themselves in a mine room to keep out gas and smoke, was abandoned. Rescue workers, describing the conditions in the explosion area, said that although dust was so thick that it was “almost impossible to tell a man from a lump of coal.”
*Bluefield Daily Telegraph West Virginia 1931-11-04
Source: www3.gendiasters.com
Link supplied by Lana Guiler. William Dingess was her grandfather.
*James Hobbs is buried in the Whitman Cemetery (information courtesy of Bob Piros). A link to his headstone and death certificate at FindAGrave.com is here.
My family was from Whitman WV. Do not know about rhese questions, sorry,
Thank you for the information. Do you know if there are any books about Whitman with pictures of what the tow and area looked like that I can order and buy? Mye-mail address is pdharo@att.net
Hi, I am Pete haro my e-mail is pdharo@att.net
I would like to get pictures and/or history of Whitman. My Farther was a miner for the Island Creek coal Company in the 1930s. I was born in Whitman in 1936.
Pete, Mike Taylor is the person
who might be able to help you
with your questions.
He is on Facebook.
Also you might try an online
search for History of Whitman.
Whitman, WV, PO zip 25636 is located on what is now called Whitman Creek Road. Whitman Creek is on of the tributarys of the right fork of Island Creek, the other forks being the Mud Fork, at Mt Gay, WV and the Trace and Copperas mine forks at Holden, WV. The current US Rt 119 follows the Trace Fork to the Mingo County line and continues southward to Pikeville, KY and on further south.
The name Whitman’s Creek was listed on early maps that I have seen. The area had been mostly rural until it began to be timbered by the mining company about 1903 at what is now Holden, WV to create houses and surface structures for the beginning of the development of a vast mining company, Island Creek Coal Co which had acquired the mineral rights for an area that covered part of both Logan and Mingo counties from an area roughly covering from part of lower Main Island Creek from Monaville to upper Switzer on current WV Rt 44 westward toward and as far as Pigeon Creek and Delbarton, WV, and northward toward the head of Mud Fork, and the area of Verdunville, WV.
Much of the area of Whitman, WV was owned by a Baisden man who had sons named Hardy and Farley Baisden, and two of the coal camps on Whitman were named for these two sons.
Island Creek’s # 1 mine and #2 mine portals were located at Holden, just be low the confluence of the Trace and Copperas Mine Forks. The #1 mine portal was to the left as you go upstream, and the #2 portal was on the right slightly downstream from the #1 portal. The tracks for the two tipples were connected and the coal was loaded at this site. The #1 mine drove eastward through the mountain and punched outside and created the #3 mine portal on Whitman Creek whist was located just downstream from where the Whitman PO is now. That site is now used as an asphalt plant.
Two other mines later were developed at Whitman, the # 14 Whitman Mine and associated coal camps and the # 20 Whitman mine at upper Whitman, over 4 miles up from the mouth of Whitman Creek. I believe both had company stores? I know 14 did for sure.
The coal company owned all of the local land, so everything in the area was controlled by the coal company, and no other businesses were allowed at that time. The same was true for all of their other mines and communities in the region.
The C&0 railroad serviced all of these mines in Logan County, and the N&W RR handled the Mingo County operations.
Churches were allowed to be built and they were an important part of the communities.
Are there any books about Whitman? I was born there in 1936 and left when I was about 2. I would like to get some pictures of the town of Whitman. y Father was an employee of the Island Creek Coal Company.
Send me your email and I can send you some Whitman info as time permits.
Dear Mr. Taylor, We emailed each other years ago when you talked to me about having gone to school together at the 4 room Monaville Elementary School. I then returned to college and got my degree in Early Childhood Ed. and began teaching; which i have done for forty years. I have been trying to get photos of the school, Monaville today, and Fred’s Grocery Store. I have a relative that’s buried in the Whitman Cemetery; that I’ve been trying to print his biographical info from their website and have not been successful for the moment. His name is James Hobbs and he was killed on November 3, 1931 in a mine explosion; he would be my dad’s real father. My goal is to gather information to pass to my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren so they know who their ancestors were.
Beverly, if you have a sister named Rebekah we went to school together at Monaville Grade
Beverly, James Hobbs D.C. photo
is in the story, just click on it.
Familysearch.org has info about him.
Do you have any information on the company town of Whitman, WV? Would like history or picture of the town and area from the 1930;s.
Peter, Mike Taylor who is on this website
might be able to help you.
Also do an online search for that
time period.
Peter, my error. You have asked this same
question a few times and Mike Taylor answered
you back on May 21, 2020.
Whitman was and is a community of people,
not a town. There are photos on this website
of the houses, you have to look for them.
Peter,
Noting that you left Whitman at age 2 in 1938, did you move away from coal mining altogether to the degree that you don’t know much about coal mining, mining towns, etc.?
The mining activity on Whitman Creek was fairly well developed by 1936. Although Island Creek had some mines on Whitman Creek at that time and you lived there, it is not necessarily so that your father worked at one of those mines. He could have been working Island Creek at another nearby Island Creek mine that was not on Whitman Creek.
Whitman Creek’s watershed length is about 7 miles long and it has about 10.6 square miles of watershed area. Island Creek Coal Company owned it. They had mining, railroad, coal camps, etc. for about 5 miles up it. Communities of housing were established about every half-mile or so apart as mining expanded. These “coal camps” were often referred to in relation to the number of the Island Creek mine it was at. However, each of these areas was subdivided into lots within subdivisions named by Island Creek. Some of the subdivision areas were divided into parcels, each of which contained several individual lots. There were 25-to-50+ houses in each subdivision.
If you know some specifics about where you lived and/or what mine your father worked at, perhaps someone can provide more information for you.
Good luck!
One of my Mom’s side of the family 8th Cousin 1x removed John Everett VanBuskirk worked as a Coal Miner there back in 1930’s – 1940’s.
I believe this mine was where National Armature now sits. They filled the elevator shaft within the last (ten) yrs. to expand Nat. Arm. I have another picture of this mine and a picture of the tipple at Kirby camp where Kendall Dingess now lives. I cherish Whitman and would like to see more pictures like these on here.
Who was the superintendent of this mine ?
Hi my grandfather was killed in a mine in 1931 near Man WV. Last name Dotson can’t find his name as a casualty. What were the names of the two men that were never found.
Daniel, you need to write a letter to the coal mine company or do online research to find the names of the men.
Daniel, to find your Grandfather record go familysearch.org. Also in the Whitman story the missing men were Charles Frye and James Hobbs, their bodies were found.