THE DARR MINE MEMORIAL SERVICE

09/29/07
I HAVE ATTACHED THE PREVIOUS ARTICLE WRITTEN ON MAY 4, 2007 TO MAKE IT EASIER TO UNDERSTAND AT THE ENDING OF THIS ARTICLE.Today I attended a 100 year memorial service for the loved ones who lost their lives in the DARR MINE DISASTER on December 18, 1907. My father's father, our grandfather, Walter Sheppard whose mine badge number was 508 is buried either in the mine itself or is among the 71 miners buried at Olive Branch cemetery in a mass grave. Since many of the dead were unrecognizable no one knows the true identities of all the men. This a very sad, sad ceremony. The church was full so I gestured hello to my sister and her daughter-in-law who had gotten there on time and were seated. I had no program to understand who the speakers were of which it was my fault that I could not arrive at the church any sooner. I stood along the wall in the crowded church for a long time and then decided that since the voice was piped in to the outer part of the church which was full of photos and memorabilia that I would go out there. There was coffee and kolachi and I ran in to a friend I hadn't seen in probably 34 years. We quietly talked over coffee and then I decided after awhile that I would go and walk the cemetery and sit on benches and just enjoy the sunny afternoon.I met a lady who happened to be the mother of the fellow who was going to play the bagpipes at the service and I told her I had sat on a bench and listened to him practice. I met a high school senior from the school I also graduated from naturally, we shook hands. He was going to play taps on his trumpet. We talked about the school and the band director they have now and the one I had when I played my clarinet many years ago.After approximately two hours or so the service ended and all the people filed out of the church to the memorial outside and there was a gun salute and the sadness of the taps were played, then Amazing Grace by bagpipe, and then the ceremony ended. This was a very poignant ceremony for the dead who lost their lives, some still over a mile in the ground. We are still mourning the loss of lives which may have been prevented even long ago. Can you imagine?I met up with my sister, Arlene and Nancy, her daughter-in-law and told them of looking at the photos inside the church so we all decided to go back in, too. We were looking at old photos of when our house was a coal mine office and don't you know a young fellow from the Valley Independent newspaper came in exactly then and asked us if he could take our photo while looking at the pictures? He took down our names and that we had lost our grandfather, Walter Sheppard in the mine that dreadful day and that we had been raised in the then mine office which our parents had made in to a home.If we had not gone back in to the church we would never had met that fellow. Funny how things work out! So, then we walked around the cemetery and my sister showed me again where her own husband who had succumbed to a heart attack when he was only 44 years old on Thanksgiving evening, 1979. Many other relatives were buried there, also.On the way to our cars we met a lady who has taken over doing the history of the Darr Mine Disaster from the original historian of it who had passed on. She also took our names down and promised to be in touch with me so that I could convey messages to my sister and relatives. I am glad of this.This day was very special to me. I spoke to an old friend, also to many individuals I will probably never see again, at a sacred place where my grandfather may be buried, with Arlene and Nancy and met a new friend whom I will be in contact with teaching me about all the loved ones who perished on that fateful day. All of these blessings arriving on a beautiful sunny early fall day. How great is that?I took photos and will place so many on my gallery soon as they are developed. I got a photo of "The Old Coal Bucket" to put with that story.I felt that this one was too long to put as an UPDATE to the other story about the Darr Mine Disaster.PREVIOUS ARTICLE written on May, 4, 2007On December 18th, 1907 a young man of 24 or 25 years of age, the father of two sons (the article in that year's paper said Walter was the father of three children, he had two children) 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