The Fraterville Mine disaster was a coal mine explosion that occurred on May 19, 1902 near the community of Fraterville in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Official records state that 216 miners died as a result of the explosion, from either its initial blast or from the after-effects, making it the worst mining disaster in the United States' history, and remains the worst disaster in the history of Tennessee. However, locals claim that the true number of deaths is greater than this because many miners were unregistered and multiple bodies were not identified. The cause of the explosion (although never fully determined) was likely ignition of methane gas which had built up after leaking from an adjacent unventilated mine.

Shortly after the disaster, the bodies of 89 of the 216 miners killed in the explosion were buried in what became known as the Fraterville Miners' Circle at Leach Cemetery in the nearby town of Coal Creek (modern Rocky Top). In 2005, this circle was placed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Location

The Fraterville Mine was one of several mines located in the coal-rich Cumberland Mountains of western Anderson County, Tennessee. The mine and its namesake community were situated near the heart of the Coal Creek Valley, a narrow north-south oriented valley slicing between Walden Ridge to the east and Vowell Mountain to the west. Tennessee State Route 116 connects Fraterville with Briceville to the south and Rocky Top to the north. This stretch of Route 116 has been renamed "Fraterville Miners Memorial Highway" in honor of the victims of the mine explosion.

History of the Mine

The Coal Creek Coal Company, organized by Knoxville businessman E.C. Camp, began work at the Fraterville Mine in 1870. Coal Creek Coal developed a reputation for fair contracts and fair pay, and the company's Fraterville Mine was considered one of the safest in the region. The company never took part in the state's controversial convict leasing system and paid in cash (rather than scrip), and thus avoided much of the labor unrest that plagued neighboring mines during the Coal Creek War in the early 1890s.

Explosion and recovery efforts

According to the Tennessee Commissioner of Labor, the Fraterville Mine explosion occurred around 7:20 on the morning of May 19, 1902. The explosion shot black smoke and debris out the mine's mouth and ventilation shaft. In fact, signs of the explosion were first seen by a group of men working at a nearby mine called the Thistle Mine. These men reportedly saw black smoke rising from the Fraterville Mine and initially thought that it was coming from a ventilation furnace. But once the mine's superintendent George Camp (E.C. Camp's son) arrived at the entrance of the mine, he discovered that the mine had collapsed and the smoke was certainly not just from a furnace.

Another miner named Frank Sharp wrote to his wife on a piece of slate because he did not have any paper. He stated, "Dear Mabel, I am dying for air. I will soon be gone. Meet me in heaven. Help Jesus. Take care of the children and do the best you can. Meet me in heaven."

Eighty-nine of the deceased miners are buried in the Fraterville Miners' Circle in Leach Cemetery (behind Clear Branch Baptist Church) just off U.S. 25W at Rocky Top. A monument at the center of the circle bears the names of all 184 miners who were identified. On May 19, 2005, the circle was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Other miners who lost their lives in the Fraterville disaster are buried in Longfield Cemetery on U.S. Route 441 just east of Rocky Top.

See also

  • Cross Mountain Mine disaster

References

  • Coal Creek Watershed Foundation
  • Fraterville Mine Explosion - Tennessee State Library
  • Carl Fritts website on the disaster
  • List of miners who lost their lives
  • Final letters from victims
  • Coal Creek, TN Fraterville Mine Disaster, May 1902 at GenDisasters.com