In Pennsylvania:
In Baltimore:
“A dispatch from Vice President Jere H. Wheelwright, of the Consolidation Coal Company, was received at the offices in Baltimore yesterday.” (TBS 12.8.07 pg. 2)
“Mr. Wheelwright has been at the Monongah mine since Friday…”(TBS 12.8.07 pg. 2)
“His dispatch, which was sent to Mr. A.G. Dunham, the general auditor, was brief. It merely said that his worst fears had been realized and that the dead miners would number between 350 and 400.” (TBS 12.8.07 pg. 2)
“Further than this the officials here knew nothing more of the disaster than was told in the press dispatches.” (TBS 12.8.07 pg. 2)
In Clarksburg:
Noon
In Monongah:
“Even nature seems to dumbly feel the horror of the day and the sun has held its face behind leaded clouds since the fire damp did its fatal work.” (EO 12.7.07 pg. 1)
“There is no home in the village that is not stricken. Each one will harbor a dark coffin if not several after the last body is extricated from the covering of earth and bodies of fellow victims.” (EO 12.7.07 pg. 1)
In Fairmont:
A Fairmont undertaker places order for 100 coffins with Muskingum Coffin Co. in Ohio. The company goes into emergency production, working around the clock. (McAteer)
“The newspaper offices are kept busy answering specials in all directions.” (FWV 12.7.07. pg. 1 – noon)
The Fairmont West Virginian releases a special, 14-page, Noon edition:
In Monongah:
“The four hundred and twenty-five checks that were given out yesterday morning hardly represent all the men that were in the mines at the time their ill fate overtook them. Other men not having checks likely to have been ushered into eternity by the same cause.” (FWV 12.7.07. pg. 1 – noon)
“Yesterday the people of this city and of Monongah were sort of dazed but today the realization of the enormity of the explosion and the terrible results following it.” (FWV 12.7.07. pg. 1 – noon)
“The women whose husbands and near relatives are among the entombed are taking it as cooly as possible. There is little excitement and all that there is to see today is the removing of the bodies.” (FWV 12.7.07. pg. 1 – noon)
“The number at the morgue up to this time is 12.” (FWV 12.7.07. pg. 1 – noon)
A new force of workers makes a new opening at #8 and “have now gone to a distance of 1500’ in the mine, or about half the distance to where the 2 pits, 6 and 8, meet.” (FWV 12.7.07 – pg.1)
In Fairmont:
“Photographer Busy: Mr. Marvin D Boland has been one of the busiest men in town since yesterday. City papers in all parts of the country are calling for photographs. In the absence of a picture of the fated mines a Pittsburg afternoon paper ran a stock cut of Otis Watson, the original coal operator of the Fairmont region.” (FWV 12.7.07 pg. 1 – noon)
“All day today knots of people have been on the street discussing the scenes of the disaster. At the corner of Jefferson and Main streets there was a big group of men and women all day who with eager ears tried to catch every syllable of news…the whole city has been listening, every scrap of news was gobbled up with a craving almost insatiable.” (FWV 12.7.07. pg. 1 – noon)
In Monongah:
“About 50 newspaper men are on the ground today many from Pittsburg, Cleveland, Baltimore, and New York.”
“G. Girosi of the Italian New York Herald is one among the number as well as L. Friedel, of the Cleveland Zabadsag, a Hungarian paper.” (FWV 12.7.07 – pg.1)
A list of the dead and suspected dead is also published to the public but it is purely American miners only, with the exception of Francesco Loria and Stan Urban who were taken from #8. The list contains about 50 – 60 names though it is not known yet if these men are dead or simply missing, including the name of coupler, Bill Sloane. Bill’s two sons, Scott and Dennis Sloane, are also included in the list though neither has likely been found and identified as of this point.
More on How Death Gloated!
The Monongah Disaster 