In October 1915, nine men who had been trapped for a week in a mine tunnel near Tamaqua, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, were rescued. The story was told in the Pine Grove Press Herald, October 8, 1915:
EMTOMBED MINERS RESCUED ALIVE
After Week Under Ground Nine Are Taken Safely from Pit.
NO FOOD FOR TWO DAYS
Fish Oil and a Few Crushed Chicken Bones Constituted Sustainance —
Men in Good Spirits When Reached by Rescuers
Tamaqua — Nine men and boys, who had been entombed for a week in the Foster tunnels of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, were rescued alive.
Fully 500 persons lined the ropes 100 feet from the tunnel’s mouth, when a miner came out and whispered to Sheriff Hortneady that the men had been reached and were all alive. The news spread quickly through the big assemblage, but not a sound was heard. The crowd stood as if spell bound. The unexpected had occurred and the men had been reached alive after they had been given up as dead.
John McAndrews and Joseph Murphy were the first two to reach the surface. The followed Elmer Herron and John Boner. Herron was in good condition and wanted to walk, and also asked for a cigar, stating that he had not had a smoke for a week, but both requests were refused.
The, in order, came Peter Lemmock, Charles Matokis, Dominick Holchek, Joe Lagomia, and Dominic Dodori. All the men raised their heads from the stretchers, as though to tell their waiting relatives and friends that they were “out of the valley of the shadow.” An all-inspiring sight was presented when, following Dodori out of the mine, came a line of 75 miners, all with their lamps lit — a fitting climax to one of the greatest rescue acts ever performed.
The rescue is considered one of the most marvelous in the history of mining. It was the general opinion that while some of the men might have reached the breast, others of the employees working in the gangway would be swept away by the flood. Leading mine workers were optimistic until the announcement came that black damp had been discovered. Then they relinquished all hope, feeling that if the men had escaped the flood they would have been overcome by the gas.
Several of the men, apparently of strong constitution, and vitality, talked cheerfully to their stretcher bearers while being taken from the mine, and from this source it was learned that fish oil and a few crushed chicken bones had made up the principal diet of the men until two days before the rescue, when the latter delicacy had been devoured and the fish oil composition was the only item on the bill of fare.
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News story obtained from Newspapers.com.
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