Ferguson No. 2 Mine (ca.1903-  ?  ),
Located on the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad, and the New Haven & Dunbar Railroad, Ferguson, Dunbar Twp., Fayette Co., PA
Owners: (ca.1903-  ?  ), Dunbar Furnace Company, Dunbar, PA

Ferguson No. 4 Mine (ca.1903-  ?  ),
Located on the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad, and the New Haven & Dunbar Railroad, Ferguson, Dunbar Twp., Fayette Co., PA
[Ferguson No. 4 Mine was exhausted and abandoned ca.1905.]
Owners: (ca.1905-  ?  ), Dunbar Furnace Company, Dunbar, PA

Ferguson No. 1 Mine Disaster of November 21, 1903

From the Report of the Department of Mines for 1903

November 21, 1903 there were 17 lives lost by an explosion of fire-damp in the Ferguson Mine.  This is a disaster that has no equal in the records of mining, the explosion taking place where there was almost too much ventilation.  The mining law requires that each person should have 150 cubic feet of air per minute, but in this case they had 1,379 cubic feet of air per minute, and no explosive gas, no short firing and all safety lamps, and every workman could see daylight from where he was working.

There was an old smoulding fire in the Hill Farm Mine adjoining, but it had been sealed up for several years.  We attributed the explosion to the getting of air from the falls in this mine, as they were taking out stumps on the slope and manway on the retreat.  The pitch of the measures in the mine is 12 degrees against the loads, and not sufficient pillars being left for support, in these two entries, slope and manway, what coal is left cannot all be extracted.  The roof falls and the bottom heaves up, and this allows cavities on top of falls that we believe allowed the air to the old smouldering fire in the Hill Farm Mine.  We gave this as our opinion at the inquest, and it has since proved correct, because two months later the smoke came from the Hill Farm Mine.

Althought there were 17 lives lost, the force of the explosion was very light, as it did no harm to the mine, nor the clothes nor dinner pails and lamps of the workmen.  The workmen who were saved, say that they saw the flame coming up the slope from the worked out part, and it was very small, but when it came to the air current where 39,000 cubic feet of air was passing, it became greater, and the  men who were nearest the pit mouth suffered the most.  The three persons who were saved were nearest to the flame, and were severely injured.  These men were taking out the pillars on the slope and manway, and were not over 200 feet from the lowest pillar.  They were working close to one another, and there were only 21 persons on each shift.  This happened on the night shift, about 6 P.M.  There is one man not accounted for, but we have reason to believe that he was not in the mine when the explosion occurred.  One of the witnesses at the coroner's jury testified that he spoke to him in a bar room, at Dunbar, about 7 o'clock the same evening.

I called Mine Inspectors I. G. Riby, C. B. Ross and W. J. Mollison, and after making an inspection of the mine, we served a notice on the Superintendent, John W. Greaves, that we were of the opinion that the danger continued to exist, and directed that the operation of this mine be discontinued indefinitely.
(From the "Report of the Dept. of Mines of Pennsylvania for 1903.")

The Washington Penna, Daily Reporter

November 21, 1903

TWELEVE DEAD IN MINE DISASTER

Result of Explosion in the Ferguson Mine.

Eight Miners were injured

Connellsville, Pa. Nov. 20—Twelve men are dead, one is missing, three are so seriously injured that they may not recover and five others are less seriously injured, as the result of an explosion on Saturday evening at the Ferguson mine of the Dunbar Furnace company. The list of causalities is as follows:

THE DEAD

William Foster, aged 40; leaves a family

Joseph Oelan, aged 27, married; wife and children in old country.

Andrew Kotsor, aged 30, married.

John Dravis, aged 29, single.

Peter Sukorn?, aged 34, married; family in old country.

Michael Smidra?. Aged 30, single.

Charles Vegas, aged 23, single.

Wheatley Foster, aged 25, single.

Michael Haverstack married; mine driver; wife and children in old country.

James McGurk, aged 18.

Michael Sekor, aged 21, single.

Hejack Boleslaf, about 35 years old; family in Austria.

THE MISSING

Michael Benny, about 30 years old, married.

THE INJURED

John Foster, 23 years old, son of William Foster, badly burned; death hourly expected.

Frederick Longden, injuries not serious; at Cottage State Hospital.

John McGurk, father of James McGurk, who was killed, injuries not serious; was taken home.

Michael Kovchick, 35 years old; married; injuries not serious; taken home.

Michael Marchlek, 30 years old; married; badly burned all over the body; at the hospital.

Adam Linka, 35 years old, married; family in Austria; badly burned, but expected to recover, at the hospital.

Joseph Dovlak, slightly injured.

John Patrick, seriously injured; not expected to recover; is at the hospital.

All of the victims of the explosion except the Fosters, McGurks and

Longden were foreigners. Of the dead Hejack Boleslaf was one of the two

taken from the mine alive, but he died this afternoon at the Cottage State

hospital, to where he was taken. Foster, also rescued alive, died at midnight.

Immense crowds, who saw practically nothing, came from the surrounding country to Ferguson today. Every trolley car on the Pittsburg, McKeesport and Connellsville railway was taxed. People came from the north, as far as Greensburg and from the south from Fairchance, and some came in the trains from even a greater distance.

The bodies of the dead showed the results of what the survivors said had happened. All the latter could tell was: “There was an awful roar, a rush of air, a blinding flash and then unconsciousness.”

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