Tragedy at Avondale: The Causes, Consequences, and Legacy of the Pennsylvania Anthracite Industry's Most Deadly Mining Disaster, September 6, 1869

By Robert P. Wolensky

The nation was horrified when news of the coalmine fire at the Avondale mine in Plymouth Township, Luzerne County, on Sept. 6, 1869, appeared in newspapers. Reports called it ?the unparalleled disaster.' Even more shocked were mineworkers and their families throughout the anthracite region. of Pennsylvania.This book by Robert Wolensky and the late Joseph Keating presents details of the tragedy, along with numerous illustrations from periodicals of the time. A selection of striking modern images from Sue Hand's ?Anthracite Miners and Their Hollowed Ground? complement the text and the contemporary images.The authors go well beyond a thoroughly researched recounting of the events before and after the fire, and analyze the prevailing social and work environments in the anthracite region at the time, including favoritism, nationalistic resentment and even hatred, Molly Maguirism, politics and resistance to mine-safety laws that could have prevented the tragedy, and recent community efforts to memorialize the site and event.Among the many issues discussed are: Why and how did it happen? Was the fire that trapped and killed 108 men and boys underground an accident? Was it arson? Was the Coroner's Jury willing to listen to the testimony of some more than of others? What was the national and even international response to such a terrible event? How did writers use the tragedy in their poetry and works of fiction? Why is this tragedy still unresolved in the minds of local residents?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0930973402
• ISBN13: 9780930973407
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Center for Canal History &
• Length: 191 Pages
• Weight: 1.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.0" x 0.8" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Questioning the "Accident"

Thoroughly researched and well-written, Wolensky's and Keating's work is -the- definitive history of the Avondale disaster. While most sources which reference (briefly) the disaster refer to it as an accident, Wolensky and Keating resurrect the alternative explanation--an intentional, malicious act of man as the cause--and neutrally present it to the reader as a viable alternative. Sincerest thanks to Mr. Wolenski and Mr. Keating (may he rest in peace) for preserving the history of a small patch of a relatively unknown township in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Without their effort, Avondale's history, much like the actual remains of the shaft and mining structures that slowly are succumbing to Mother Nature, would be forgotten.