HR0691 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0691 LRB096 15093 GRL 30118 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives wish to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Cherry Mine Disaster, which claimed the lives of 259 men and boys on November 13, 1909; and

WHEREAS, The Cherry Mine was opened in 1905 by the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad to supply coal for the railroad's trains; the miners were composed of a large number of immigrants, many of whom could not speak English; boys as young as 11 years old also worked in the mine; and

WHEREAS, On November 13, 1909, nearly 500 men and boys, along with 3 dozen mules, were sent to work in the mine; an electrical outage earlier in the week had forced the workers to light kerosene lanterns and torches; shortly after noon, a coal car filled with hay for the mules caught fire from one of the wall lanterns; efforts to move the fire only spread the blaze to the timbers that supported the mine; the large fan installed in the mine was reversed in an attempt to blow out the fire, but this only succeeded in igniting the fan house itself as well as the escape ladders and stairs in the secondary shaft, trapping more miners below; and

WHEREAS, In response to the growing fire, the two affected shafts were closed off to smother the fire, but this also had the effect of cutting off oxygen to the miners and allowing "black damp", a suffocating mixture of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, to build up in the mine; some 200 men and boys made their way to the surface through escape shafts and the hoisting cage; some miners who had already escaped returned to the mine to aid their coworkers; one group of miners trapped in the mine built a makeshift wall to protect themselves from the fire and poisonous gas; although without food, they were able to drink from a pool of water leaking from a coal seam while they moved deeper into the mine to escape the black damp; 8 days later, the 21 survivors tore down the wall and made their way through the mine in search of more water, but instead came across a rescue party; and

WHEREAS, As a result of the Cherry Mine Disaster, the Illinois General Assembly established stronger mine safety regulations the following year; in 1911, as a response to the paltry compensation offered to the miners for their suffering, the General Assembly passed a separate law that would later develop into the Illinois Workmen's Compensation Act; on the national level, the U.S. Bureau of Mines was created to improve governmental oversight for the nation's mines; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Cherry Mine Disaster and ask the people of Illinois to honor the lives and legacies of the 259 men and boys who were tragically killed in this terrible disaster; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Robert McCook, Village President of the Village of Cherry.