"THE FLAMES CAUGHT US"
Cherry Mine 1909
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library opened a major exhibit "The Flames Caught Us" Cherry Mine 1909 on November 1, 2009 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Cherry Mine Disaster. On November 13, 1909, a fire broke out at the St. Paul Coal mine in Cherry, Illinois that claimed the lives of 259 men and boys. The exhibit will be free to the public running through March 31, 2010 at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.
Fire in the Mine!
The St. Paul Coal Company Mine in Cherry, a mining town in Bureau County, began operation in 1905 and supplied the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad with 300,000 tons of coal annually for its locomotives. The mine featured the latest equipment and operated smoothly until November 13, 1909, when a torch caught a load of hay on fire about 500 feet below the surface. Of the 490 men and boys in the mine at the time, a total of 259 died from the fire itself or the poisonous gases it produced.
A Story of Heroism
Heroic rescue efforts, including one in which 12 rescuers themselves died, filled newspaper accounts of the disaster. The one incredible survival story involved the "eight-day" men, a group of 21 trapped miners who sealed themselves off from the fire and were rescued eight days later by a team that had been sent below to retrieve bodies.
Voices from the Past
The exhibit will tell the story of the coal mining disaster in the words of those who witnessed first hand the tragic events in November 1909. The collections of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library which include photographs, coroner's reports, oral histories, published books, newspaper articles, government reports, music, and manuscript resource materials pertaining to the mine disaster will be used in conjunction with coal mining artifacts to tell and interpret the story of the tragedy at the Cherry Mine.
Lessons Learned
While informing the public about the coal mining industry, immigrant labor, and mine safety at the turn of the 20th Century, the exhibit will take them beyond the tragedy to understand the changes the Cherry Mine Disaster made in the advancement of labor welfare and mine safety enjoyed by miners in the 21st Century. As a result of the Cherry Mine Disaster, safety regulations were implemented throughout the mining industry, and a liability act, which became what is now the Illinois Workers' Compensation Act, was enacted.
Author discussions, mining presentations and musical performances are also being planned throughout the exhibit.
