The Darr Mine Disaster of December 19, 1907

05/04/07

On December 18th, 1907 a young man of 24 or 25 years of age, the father of two little boys was probably planning on a wonderful Christmas with his wife and children. Little did he know that he would perish on December 19th, 1907 along with 238 other men in one of the worst mining disasters in Pennsylvania's coal industry. He was my grandfather. His name was Walter Sheppard.Many more would have perished that fateful day except for deciding to take that time to go to church services. Most of these men were from different countries and could not speak English. They were working for people who would fire you if you put a horse in danger, but paid no mind to the danger of men because men were lined up outside needing a job.In some of these mines they had horses who never saw the light of day. The owners of the mines made a fortune and had huge houses and fine furniture and the best of everything. The people who worked for them had row houses, no insulation in these houses to keep them warm in the winter, large families to feed, a company store which gave the workers and their families credit and they became deep in debt which caused many of them to give up their dreams of a better future. A few miles from our home is a memorial to the 71 miners buried there in a common grave. 49 of them are unknown. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I have enclosed the link.http://patheoldminer.rootsweb.com/darr2.html