Mining the past for tomorrow's lessons

The fire started slowly at the Cherry mine, after a kerosene lantern dripping oil ignited a cart of hay. Although the mine was believed fireproof, it quickly proved a deathtrap for more than 250 miners.

By Charles Hinrichs

On November 13, 1909, in the north central Illinois community of Cherry, dripping oil from a kerosene lamp in #2 vein of the St. Paul Mine ignited a load of hay. A series of mistakes and miscommunications soon led to an out-of-control fire, which trapped dozens of miners in a third shaft 500 feet below the surface. Smoked filled the mine and flames devoured what little oxygen remained.

The story of the Cherry Mine Disaster is one of Illinois' most heartbreaking. 259 men—mostly immigrants from Italy, Slovakia, Belgium, and Austria—lost their lives in the fire, representing a majority of the male population in Cherry. The few who survived did so for 8 days by walling themselves off from the smoke and drinking seep water. The disaster and the outpouring of relief from around the country led to greater mine safety

When mine officials decided to seal the shaft—with miners still trapped helow—the Illinois National Guard was called out to control the crowds.

regulations and to better worker compensation laws.

Edward Caldwell of Princeton, Illinois, became interested in the Cherry Mine Disaster after transferring with his company to Bureau County in 1975.

"One of the ways I like to get to know an area is to learn about its history," Caldwell told Illinois Heritage. An engineer by trade, Caldwell learned of the Cherry Mine Disaster and was surprised at how little factual information was available. Fortunately, he found time and opportunity to do research. He spent years gathering newspaper articles, photos, and documents about the mine, the fire, and its aftermath.

One piece of the collection took Caldwell 20 years to track down.

The coroner's inquests from the mine fire had disappeared after going into storage at the county courthouse. Pressed for space, the courthouse had surplused old records to make room for new ones. Luckily, the mine records were sent to the local genealogical society, where a member, knowing of Caldwell's interest, asked if he wanted to take a look. When the records turned out to be the long sought coroner's inquests, Caldwell immediately took pains to preserve the documents. The originals were sent to Springfield for archiving, but not before Caldwell copied and filed them in Bureau County at his own expense.

While this effort alone would have earned him a merit badge, Caldwell didn't stop there. He has since gathered and indexed all his research and

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put it on CD-ROM, making it available to traditional researchers as well as to the computer generation. Additionally, he has donated copies of his collection to the Illinois State Historical Society, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Charnpaign, and the Matson Public Library in Princeton. His hope is that his collection will be used for research and education.

Meanwhile, Caldwell has become a local authority on the disaster. He helped author Karen Tintori research her book, Trapped: the Cherry Mine Disaster of 1909, and the two became friends. His research inspired an article in the February 2003 issue of Chief Engineer magazine. The article compares the Quecreek Mine Rescue with the Cherry Mine Disaster. According to Caldwell, there are still plenty of lessons to learn from the tragedy.

Historians, teachers, and students can be grateful to people like Ed Caldwell, who take the extra time and expense to make our Prairie State's past more accessible.

Charles Hinrichs is a public history student at the University of Illinois at Springfield, and an intern with the Illinois State Historical Society.

"Dead Row" in Cherry, Illinois. According to the original photo caption, on this street of more than 30 cottages, only four men survived the fire.

The ethnic population of Cherry was exceptionally diverse for a town of its size. Immigrants from Eastern Europe, Italy, Belgium, Austria, and the British Isles lived—and grieved—side-by-side. When the St. Paul Mine was reopened in the spring of 1910, more bodies were found in the shafts. On April 13, 1910, a funeral procession for 9 victims of the mine disaster rolled through the streets of Ladd, Illinois.

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The makeshift morgue at the Cherry Mine Disaster site on November 13, 1909.	The story of the Cherry Mine Disaster is one of Illinois' most heartbreaking. 259 men—mostly immigrants from Italy, Slovakia, Belgium, and Austria—lost their lives in the fire, representing a majority of the male population in Cherry.

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