MONONGAH MINING DISASTER

 

Immigration to America has been a subject of concern for a long time, even though the laborious tasks performed by them and others built this country into what it is today. Most engaged and are engaging in works that others disdain or reject and consequently, subject themselves to greater risks to their health and well-being as demonstrated in this article.  

The disaster occurred on December 6, 1907. It relates to our subject matter of Everything Italian and Italian American because most of the victims were Italian immigrants. It occurred in Monongah, West Virginia and historically was the worst mining catastrophe of the century. The tragedy was the result of a series of explosions and fires that wrecked two large coal mines, No. 6 and 8, of the Fairmont Coal Company, which was a constituent of the Consolidation Coal Company of Maryland.  The land at which the mines were located, the company leased from ex-Kentucky State Senator Johnson Newlon Camden, originally from Parkersburg, West Virginia.   Of the 362 killed in the explosion, 171 were Italians, the rest represented various ethnic groups, Slavs, Poles, Greeks (5) Blacks (11) and Anglos. Other figures extend upwards to a loss of 500, since many of the miners took their children to work with them, indicating piece work, the more coal you gather the more you make.

The disaster left 250 widows and more than 1,000 children fatherless.  For that day and age we can easily imagine the burden of the wives to support their children and make their way. Most, we can conjecture, were unable to speak English, or able to read or write. Nevertheless, the response of society to the disaster resulted in significant aid to the families from churches, charitable organizations, and people in general. A monument from the Italian government recognizes the strong communal response.

The Italian victims were mainly from San Giovanni in Fiore, Cosenza, Calabria and the region of Molise. In San Giovanni in Fiore, the residents in 2003 to commemorate the explosion, erected a memorial with the inscription “Per non dimenticare minatore calabrese morti nel West Virginia (USA). Il sacrificio di quegli uomini forti tempri le nuove generazione.”

The Italians in Molise presented a bell to the town of Monongah, which today sits in the town square next to a statue representing the widows of the victims.

The picture of the polished black megalith erected at the Mt. Calvary Cemetery in 2006 by the Italian government as a reminder of the catastrophe, sits next to small markers under which are the partial remains of unidentified victims.

Below are pictures of Monument in San Giovanni in Fiore, the bell from Molise, and the statue commemorating the wives of the victims.

 

http://www.wvculture.org/HISTORY/disasters/monongah03.html. (West Virginia Archives and History)

http://www.historyinsidepictures.com/Pages/MonongahMineDisasterTombstonesinlocalgraveyardsorcemeteries.aspx.

 

addendum

 

The disaster brought about significant attention to immigration. Anti-immigration forces date back many years, beginning with the great Irish immigration of the 1850s on. The forces grew stronger seeking to only allow middle class, professional and skilled immigrants mainly of the Protestant faith. The development of the steam ship was instrumental in providing affordable passage for many immigrants. This increased the flow from southern and Eastern Europe. Most of these people were illiterate and peasants. Something of which the anti-immigrant forces highly disapproved.

 

In an article in Charities and The Commons, (a weekly journal published in New York in the years of 1905/06-1909) under the title of “The Effect of Emigration Upon Italy, Threatened Depopulation of the South,” Antonio Magano pointed out: “While we, in America, are considering the restriction of immigration by means of an educational test, the Italian parliament has spent several sessions discussing the possibility of forbidding the emigration of those who cannot read and write.  This would leave the educated classes free to emigrate, but would greatly restrict the emigration of the southern peasants who are needed to till the fields.  Only last March, one of the members of Parliament pointed out the fact that emigration, if it continued at the present rate, would surely prove a severe injury to the country.  Mr. Celsea said:”

'The exodus of our people threatens to be in the near future far and beyond that which we believe and threatens to absorb that gradual increment of population which for some years past had been our pride.  Allow me to remind you that tour emigration from 88,000 in 1886, from 503,000 in 1903, enormously increased in 1905 to 726,000.  During the first half of this year (up to March), the number is 458,000, a tremendous increase over 1905.  Alongside of this fearful increase in emigration is the decrease in the number of those who return.  For if in 1905, 78 per cent returned, in 1906, only 23 or 28 per cent. In the southern provinces, we found almost universal desire to emigrate.'"