Darr Mine disaster recalled
The anniversary of the Darr Mine disaster is Dec. 19th. It’s a time of remembrance, a time of sadness, but also a time of pride for descendants of the miners who died that fateful day.
It’s also a time to remember the miracle of St. Nicholas who saved the lives of miners who chose to attend church services across the Youghiogheny River in Jacob’s Creek at the time of the explosion.
Christmas was supposed to be a time of joy for the miners who worked in the Darr Mine located in the village of Van Meter. Instead, less than a week before Christmas, on Dec. 19, 1907, 239 miners lost their lives in an explosion that rocked the valley.
Losing husbands, sons and nephews meant the women and children left behind had to find new homes, and also new lives. These were women who lived with the knowledge that when their husband or son went into the mine, there could be a disaster, but hoped beyond hope, one would never occur. They were happily getting ready for the upcoming Christmas holiday, which wasn’t to happen for 239 men and their families.
After the devastating explosion, some women took their children back to their country of origin, while others found jobs taking care of families, or moved to residences where they could take in rent paying boarders. Many would stay with relatives for a time, until they could plan out what their next steps would be.
My sisters and I are descendants of one of the women of the Darr. Fannie Maude Lidster Sheppard, our grandmother, was married to Walter Sheppard, who died at age 24 while working in the mine when it exploded. Walter’s father-in-law, a mine foreman named William Campbell, also died in the mine. He and four other men were found 5,000 feet from the entrance of the mine.
Fannie was just one of the women devastated by losing a loved one that day. She took her children, William Walter Sheppard who was just 2, and 18-month-old John Campbell Sheppard (our dad) to stay with relatives for a time. She was one of the women who took in boarders, and eventually, met and married a fine man. After he passed away, she answered an ad in the newspaper for a man needing a nanny to raise his children.
In the 1950s she made her home with our family until she passed away in 1954. She was a strong, staunch woman of few words. My sisters and I are proud to be her granddaughters, and to be three of the remaining “Women of the Darr.” There are many more women with loved ones who perished that December. As we get older, and generations pass away, I hope there will always be someone left to cherish their memory.
Pamela Sheppard Simpson is a resident of Perryopolis.