Avondale Mine Disaster
Plymouth Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
On September 6, 1869, a fire broke out at the nearby Avondale Colliery, trapping the miners. The eventual death toll was 110. This included five boys between the ages of twelve and seventeen, and two volunteers who were suffocated while attempting rescue. As a result of this disaster, Pennsylvania's General Assembly enacted legislation in 1870 which was designed to enforce greater safety in the industry.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
On September 6, 1869, fire erupted at the Avondale Colliery near Plymouth, and because the mine had only a single shaft — which doubled as its only escape route — the trapped miners had no way out. The death toll reached 110, including five boys aged twelve to seventeen and two would-be rescuers who suffocated in the attempt. The horror spurred Pennsylvania's legislature to pass safety laws in 1870, among the earliest of their kind.
Why it matters
Avondale is a landmark in American labor and mine-safety history — the disaster that helped establish the principle that a mine must have more than one exit, written in the lives of children.
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Related events
- · Avondale Mine Disaster
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Born in Plymouth to Welsh immigrant parents, Arthur Horace James began working life as a "breaker boy" picking slate from coal in the anthracite mines—the hard entry point for many boys in the Wyoming Valley. He climbed from county district attorney to lieutenant governor and a seat on the state Superior Court, then won the governorship in 1939 and even mounted a run for the 1940 Republican presidential nomination. His rise from the breaker to the statehouse embodied the anthracite region's political culture.
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