Relief Fraud in Centerville, Illinois

Scandal rocked St. Clair County, Illinois, when the Alton Evening Telegraph hit the news stands on 14 December 1939. A Centerville Township supervisor had been indicted, along with several aides, on charges of relief fraud.

Indict 9 in Relief Probe of St. Clair
Centerville Township Supervisor, Aides Are Named

BELLEVILLE, Dec. 14 (AP) -- Albert Ulrich, former relief administrator in Centerville Township, adjacent to East St. Louis, and eight other persons were indicted by a St. Clair county grand jury today on charges of relief irregularities. 

The indictments were partly the results of an investigation instituted after the Illinois Emergency Relief Commission named an acting administrator, and declared 36.5 percent of the persons receiving relief allotments were not in need.

Five indictments were returned, charging falsification of public records, conspiracy to defraud, and making application for "relief" not required. Ulrich, who is Centerville Township supervisor, was named in four.

Named with Ulrich on a charge of falsification of relief records were his two sisters, Miss Josephine Ulrich and Mrs. Louise Ulrich Reiff, and a case worker, Miss Dorothy Bruce.

Dr. Walter Boyne, former St. Clair county coroner, was named with Ulrich on a similar charge. 

Defendants in the indictment charging conspiracy to defraud are Ulrich; Francis Touchette, a township highway commissioner; August Ulrich, an East St. Louis druggist; Max Lane, an employee at relief headquarters; Herman Harris, a negro; and Miss Bruce and Mrs. Reiff. Touchette was also charged with "making application for relief not required."

Assistant General Timothy J. Sullivan, who helped State's Attorney Louis P. Zerweck present the evidence to the grand jury, said some of the charges grew out of alleged payments of personal bills with relief funds charged to accounts of clients, with the records covering the transactions falsified.

In the case involving Ulrich and Dr. Boyne, Sullivan said an allowance was alleged to have been made for an operation on a negro woman who never underwent such treatment.

The case went to trial in January 1940. It transpired, according to the Freeport Journal-Standard, that Ulrich's chief accuser was Mrs. Tillie Toth, the relief office administrator and sister-in-law of Verna (Muir) Burglechner.

St. Clair County Courthouse; photograph courtesy of the Belleview Historical
Society

Mrs. Toth testified that she wrote a check on Ulrich's orders for $50 in the name of Henry Nunn, a negro, and that the check was given to Dr. Irene Waters, East St. Louis dentist, in paying a dental bill for work on Miss Josephine Ulrich, the former relief administrator's sister and an employee in the relief office. Testifying in his own defense, Ulrich claimed he did not issue any orders in the relief office and that checks for clients were signed in advance in blank. Ulrich said because he did so much night work on relief cases he frequently did not go into the office during the day. Mrs. Toth, his chief assistant handled the affairs of the office. However, under cross-examination Ulrich was forced to identify 11 written orders he had signed that were sent to relief clients.

Then, in a strange turn of events Ulrich and five others were acquitted, according to a 16 December 1940 article in the Daily Independent, while four of the state's chief witnesses against Ulrich were indicted, including Tillie Toth, her mother, Mary Burglechner, and her brother Frank Burglechner.

16 December 1940 article in the Murphysboro, Illinois, Daily
Independent; image courtesy of the Illinois Historical Society

The Edwardsville Intelligencer reported on 31 December 1940 that the indictments against Tillie, her mother and brother were dismissed upon the motion of the Illinois Attorney General John E. Cassidy who told the Circuit Court judge presiding over the case they had been granted immunity for testifying for the state in Ulrich's trial.

Prosecutors must have appealed Ulrich's acquittal verdict and in a new trial, Ulrich and his sisters, were convicted. Because on 10 April 1941 the Alton Evening Telegraph reported the Illinois Supreme court had reversed his conviction on charges of falsifying relief records and remanded the case to the St. Clair County Circuit Court for a new trial. In a surprising twist, Ulrich had been re-elected supervisor of Centerville township after his conviction!

In quite a stinging indictment on Tillie Toth's motivations, Chief Justice Walter I. Gunn wrote in the majority opinion, "Tillie Toth was not a disinterested witness. She had something against Albert Ulrich and Louise and it is quite evident she bore a strong feeling of animosity against the siblings." Earlier in the opinion Gunn had called Toth's actions "extremely ambiguous conduct."

I could find no additional articles about the third trial of Albert Ulrich, but in a case filled with strange twists and turns there had to be one more.

Because Ulrich had been re-elected township supervisor, he was again the administrator of the Centerville Relief office. The Illinois Emergency Relief Commission (IERC) was clearly not happy about this state of affairs, and barred the release of money to pay Centerville relief claims because they were waiting for Ulrich to be "qualified in accordance with the law to administer the funds." Illinois Attorney General George F. Barrett was having none of it, however. He ordered IERC to release the funds.

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Alton Evening Telegraph, 14 December 1939
Alton Evening Telegraph, 10 April 1941
Alton Evening Telegraph, 26 April 1941
Daily Independent, 16 December 1940
Edwardsville Intelligencer, 31 December 1940
Edwardsville Intelligencer, 23 April 1941
Freeport Journal-Standard, 19 January 1940
Freeport Journal-Standard, 5 April 1941
Freeport Journal-Standard, 10 April 1941

Hurricane Camille

Hurricane Camille made landfall in Waveland, Mississippi as a Category 5 (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) storm on 17 August 1969.  In all nearly 300 people were killed in the U.S., over 8,900 were injured nearly 6,000 homes were destroyed, and approximately 14,000 severely damaged. Estimated total damage costs were $9.13 billion in today's dollars, making it the second most expensive hurricane in history up to that point.

Track of Hurricane Camille; map courtesy of Wikipedia

Luckily, for the residents of Louisiana, they were on the western side of the hurricane. Yet, the death and destruction were still intense. Winds gusted up to 125 miles per hour in Slidell, Louisiana, where many members of the extended Muir family lived. Louisiana experienced storm surges of 10 to 16 feet of water, which can be catastrophic for low-lying coastal areas.

Eastbound lanes of U.S. Highway 90; image courtesy of Wikipedia

It was the last killer hurricane to make landfall with only last-minute warnings. While the use of satellites was in its infancy at the time of Camille, the storm intensified in the Gulf of Mexico and defied predictions that it would hit the Florida panhandle. The science and technology used to predict hurricanes has rapidly advanced since Camille, which makes the devastation in the wake of Katrina all the more inexplicable.

Ship was part of the destruction caused by Camille; photograph courtesy
of the Times-Picayune

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'Eastbound Lanes of U.S. Highway 90,' Wikipedia
'Hurricane Camille Track,' Wikipedia
'Ship Part of Camille Destruction,' Times-Picayune

The Great Cyclone of 1896

Ida Mae Riggin was born in 1879 in Troy, Illinois, 17 miles northeast of East St. Louis. She was 17 when the Great Cyclone of 1896 hit the city across the Mississippi from St. Louis.

On 27 May 1896 a series of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes struck the central Midwest. The "cyclone" that hit St. Louis and East St. Louis was a historic tornado that is still considered the third deadliest and most costly tornado to strike the U.S.


Electric train car blown off a bridge in East St. Louis

The tornado spawned from a supercell; it touched down in St. Louis first and then crossed the river into East St Louis. At least 255 people were killed in the two cities that afternoon, including 35 at the Vandalia railroad freight yards. Many more may have been killed as several steam ships were destroyed in the Mississippi river and bodies were never recovered.

Many of my ancestors lived in nearby Madison County as well as in St. Clair County and East St. Louis at the time the great cyclone hit. According to The Great Cyclone at St. Louis and East St. Louis by Julian Curzon published in 1896, "Nearly half of East St. Louis was wrecked. The damage was done in a few minutes' time, and how anyone in the path of the cyclone escaped is a mystery to all who passed over the devastated section."

Courthouse in East St. Louis

"A law case was being tried in the court house. When the storm clouds began to gather, the foreman of the jury implored the judge to discharge them. The court house at the time was being shaken by the wind. Five minutes after the jury departed for their homes, the courthouse was destroyed by the tornado."

Eads bridge (view from East St. Louis)

"The scene from the Eads bridge resembled a battlefield. The dead and dying were removed from the ruins by willing workers, and the burning mills and warehouses lighted their funeral pyres with a distinctness that added horror to the awful scene." Rescuers and clean-up crews found a 2x10 wooden plank driven through a wrought iron plate.

Grain elevator on the Mississippi river levee in East St. Louis

"The wind struck the levee just north of the East St. Louis elevator about 5:30 p.m. The wharf at Wiggins Ferry was the first to suffer, and it was thrown far up on the levee."

National Hotel in East St. Louis

"At the hotels panic prevailed. Women ran from one room to another, and along the corridors, screaming and seeking protection. Men who had faced almost every peril were powerless to comfort them. One glance from the window told them that the storm was one of greater force than any they had gone through or even contemplated. The strongest of them trembled and there were none who pretended they had a reasonable hope of escaping alive."

Martell bridge in East St. Louis

"When the dawn came it was possible to see the devastation wrought by the storm in East St Louis. The sky was clear, and the beauty of the morning strkingly contrasted with the scene of desolation that was disclosed. On the river bank, from Kehlor's mill on the south to the elevators on the north, not a house was standing. These huge structures and the cold storage company's plant were badly damaged. The river bank was was lined with the wrecks of boats.

With the river banks as the base, the entire triangle formed by what is called the Island, there is not a whole house standing. Even the Relay Depot had its corners broken and two huge roundhouses were shaved off below the tops of the middle of the locomotives which stood within them."

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'Courthouse in East St. Louis,' The Great Cyclone at St. Louis and East St. Louis, May 27, 1896
'Eads bridge,' The Great Cyclone at St. Louis and East St. Louis, May 27, 1896
'Electric train car blown off bridge,' The Great Cyclone at St. Louis and East St. Louis, May 27, 1896
'Grain elevator on the Mississippi River,' The Great Cyclone at St. Louis and East St. Louis, May 27, 1896
'Martell bridge,' The Great Cyclone at St. Louis and East St. Louis, May 27, 1896
'National Hotel,' The Great Cyclone at St. Louis and East St. Louis, May 27, 1896
Curzon, Julian (compiler and editor). The Great Cyclone at St. Louis and East St. Louis, May 27, 1896, (St. Louis, MO: Cyclone Publishing Co., 1896), pages 1-416

West Virginia Mine Wars 1920-1921

Robert Muir's oldest daughter, Alice (Muir) Jennings said her father was a union organizer, who was blackballed from several mines, run out of coal towns and shot at more than once. We know his daughter, Henrietta, was born in 1920 in Tralee, West Virginia, and that he lived in Iaeger, West Virginia from at least 1936 to 1942. Was he part of the West Virginia Mine Wars of 1920-21? The following article is excerpted from the West Virginia Division of Culture and History's website.

U.S. entry into World War I in 1917 sparked a boom in the coal industry, increasing wages. However, the end of the war resulted in a national recession. Coal operators laid off miners and attempted to reduce wages to pre-war levels. In response to the 1912-13 strike, coal operators' associations in southern West Virginia had strengthened their system for combating labor. By 1919, the largest non-unionized coal region in the eastern United States consisted of Logan and Mingo counties. The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) targeted southwestern West Virginia as its top priority. The Logan Coal Operators Association paid Logan County Sheriff, Don Chafin, to keep union organizers out of the area. Chafin and his deputies harassed, beat, and arrested those suspected of participating in labor meetings. He hired a small army of additional deputies, paid directly by the association.

In late summer 1919, rumors reached Charleston of atrocities on the part of Chafin's men. On September 4, armed miners began gathering at Marmet for a march on Logan County. By the 5th, their numbers had grown to 5,000. Governor John J. Cornwell and Frank Keeney dissuaded most of the miners from marching in exchange for a governmental investigation into the alleged abuses. Approximately 1,500 of the 5,000 men marched to Danville, Boone County, before turning back. Cornwell appointed a commission whose findings did not support the union.

Fred Mooney and Frank Keeney (right); photograph courtesy of the West
Virginia State Archives, Coal Life Collection

A few months later, operators lowered wages in southern coalfields. To compound problems, the U.S. Coal Commission granted a wage increase to union miners, which excluded those in southwestern West Virginia. Non-union miners in Mingo County went on strike in the spring of 1920 and called for assistance from the District 17 office in Charleston. On May 6, Fred Mooney and Bill Blizzard, one of the leaders of the 1912-13 strike, spoke to around 3,000 miners at Matewan. Over the next two weeks, about half that number joined the UMWA. On May 19, twelve Baldwin-Felts detectives arrived in Matewan. Families of miners who had joined the union were evicted from their company-owned houses. The town's chief of police, Sid Hatfield, encouraged Matewan residents to arm themselves. Gunfire erupted when Albert and Lee Felts attempted to arrest Hatfield. At the end of the battle, seven detectives and four townspeople lay dead, including Mayor C.C. Tersterman. Shortly thereafter, Hatfield married Testerman's widow, Jessie, prompting speculation that Hatfield himself had shot the mayor.

On July 1, UMWA miners went on strike in the region. By this time, over 90 percent of Mingo County's miners had joined the union. Over the next 13 months, a virtual war existed in the county. Non-union mines were dynamited, miners' tent colonies were attacked, and there were numerous deaths on both sides of the cause. During this period, governors Cornwell and Ephraim F. Morgan declared martial law on three occasions.

In late summer 1921, a series of events destroyed the UMWA's tenuous hold in southern West Virginia. On August 1, Sid Hatfield, who had been acquitted of his actions in the "Matewan Massacre," was to stand trial for a shooting at the Mohawk coal camp in McDowell County. As he and a fellow defendant, Ed Chambers, walked up the steps of the McDowell County Courthouse in Welch, shots rang out. Hatfield and Chambers were murdered by Baldwin-Felts detectives.

As a result of the Matewan Massacre, Hatfield had become a hero to many of the miners. On August 7, a crowd varyingly estimated from 700 to 5,000 gathered on the capitol grounds in Charleston to protest the killing. Among others, UMWA's leaders Frank Keeney and Bill Blizzard urged the miners to fight. Over the next two weeks, Keeney traveled around the state, calling for a march on Logan. On August 20, miners began assembling at Marmet. Mother Jones, sensing the inevitable failure of the mission, tried to discourage the miners. At one point, she held up a telegram, supposedly from President Warren G. Harding, in which he offered to end the mine guard system and help the miners if they did not march. Keene told the miners he had checked with the White House and the telegram was a fake. To this day, it is uncertain who was lying.

On August 24, the march began as approximately 5,000 men crossed Lens Creek Mountain. The miners wore red bandanas, which earned them the nickname, "red necks." In Logan County, Don Chafin mobilized an army of deputies, mine guards, store clerks, and state police. Meanwhile after a request by Governor Morgan for federal troops, President Harding dispatched World War I hero Henry Bandholtz to Charleston to survey the situation. On the 26th, Bandholtz and the governor met with Keeney and Mooney and explained that if the march continued, the miners and the UMWA leaders could be charged with treason. That afternoon, Keeney met a majority of the miners at a ballfield in Madison and instructed them to turn back. As a result, some of the miners ended their march. However, two factors led many to continue. First, special trains promised by Keeney to transport the miners back to Kanawha County were late in arriving. Second, the state police raided a group of miners at Sharples on the night of the 27th, killing two. In response, many miners began marching toward Sharples, just across the Logan County line.

The town of Logan was protected by a natural barrier, Blair Mountain, located south of Sharples. Chafin's forces now under the command of Colonel William Eubank of the National Guard, took positions on the crest of Blair Mountain as the miners assembled in the town of Blair, near the bottom of the mountain. On the 28th, the marchers took their first prisoners, four Logan County deputies and the son of another deputy. On the evening of the 30th, Baptist minister, James E. Wilburn, organized a small armed company to support the miners. On the 31st, Wilburn's men shot and killed three of Chafin's deputies, including John Gore, the father of one of the men captured previously. During the skirmish, a deputy killed one of Wilburn's followers, Eli Kemp. Over the next three days, there was intense fighting as Eubank's troops brought in planes to drop bombs.

Battle of Blair Mountain; photograph courtesy of Wikipedia

On September 1, President Harding finally sent federal troops from Fort Thomas, Kentucky. War hero Billy Mitchell led an air squadron from Langley Field near Washington, DC. The squadron set up headquarters in a vacant field in the present Kanawha City section of Charleston. Several planes did not make it, crashing in such distant places as Nicholas county, Raleigh County, and southwestern Virginia, and military air power played no important part in the battle. On the 3rd, the first federal troops arrive at Jeffrey, Sharples, Blair, and Logan. Confronted with the possibility of fighting against U.S. troops, most of the miners surrendered. Some of the miners on Blair Mountain continued fighting until the 4th, at which time virtually all surrendered or returned to their homes. During the fighting, at least twelve miners and four men from Chafin's army were killed.

Those who surrendered were placed on trains and sent home. However, those perceived as leaders were to be held accountable for the actions of all miners. Special grand juries handed down 1,217 indictments, including 325 for murder and 24 for treason against the state. The only treason conviction was against that of Bill Blizzard, considered by authorities to the be "general" of the miners' army. In a change of venue, Blizzard's trial was held in the Jefferson County Courthouse in Charles Town, the same building in which John Brown had been convicted of treason in 1859. After several trials in different locations, all charges against Blizzard were dropped. Keene and Mooney were also acquitted of murder charges. James E. Wilburn and his son were convicted of murdering the Logan County deputies. Both were pardoned by Governor Howard Gore after serving only three years of their 11-year sentences.

The defeat of the miners at Blair Mountain temporarily ended the UMWA's organizing efforts in the southern coalfields. By 1924, UMWA membership in the state had dropped by about half of its total in 1921. Both Keeney and Mooney were forced out of the union, while Blizzard remained a strong force in District 17 until being ousted in the 1950s. In 1993, the National Industrial Recovery Act protected the rights of unions and allowed for the rapid organization of the southern coalfields.

Miners turn over their weapons after the defeat on Blair Mountain;
photograph courtesy of Preservation Alliance of West Virginia

Blair Mountain stands as a powerful symbol for workers to this day. The miners who participated vowed never to discuss the details of the march to protect themselves from the authorities. For many years, the story of the march was communicated by word of mouth as an inspiration to union activists. It serves as a vivid reminder of the deadly violence so often associated with labor-management disputes. The mine wars also demonstration the inability of the state and federal governments to defuse situations short of armed intervention.

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'Battle of Blair Mountain,' Wikipedia
'Fred Mooney and Frank Keeney,' The West Virginia Encyclopedia
'Miners Turn Over Their Weapons,' Preservation Alliance of West Virginia
West Virginia Division of Culture and History

Kansas City and Prohibition

Missourians rejected statewide prohibition in three separate referenda in 1910, 1912 and 1918. Carrie Nation, the famous face of the temperance movement, was actually arrested in Kansas City for smashing liquor bottles with a hatchet. The 18th Amendment imposed prohibition on Missouri in 1919. But Kansas City remained largely unaffected.

The city was run by Democrat brothers James and Tom Pendergast during prohibition. Thanks to the Pendergast machine prohibition simply never existed in reality. The bars were kept open and the liquor flowed. The federal prosecutor was on the Pendergast payroll and never brought a single felony prosecution to trial under the Volstead Act.

The editor of the Omaha Herald, remarked, "If you want to see some sin, forget about Paris. Go to Kansas City."

Men ignoring prohibition; source of photograph unknown, originally
found on Pinterest

That's what Kansas City, Missouri, was like when Maggie (Hutchison) Melching and Ruth (Hutchison) Combs lived there.

Prohibition was finally repealed in 1993.

1887 Blantyre Riots

During 1886 a new Scottish Miners Federation was formed with 25,000 members. The group was becoming increasingly militant and was led by William Small, secretary of the Lanarkshire Miners Union, and James Keir Hardie, the secretary of the Ayrshire Miners Union.  Many Blantyre miners attended a meeting on 7 February 1887 in Hamilton led by Mr. William Small, who defended the miners' cause and was outraged at exploitation miners endured. Later that night all holy heck erupted in Blantyre.

The miners riot in Blantyre in 1887 made news all over the country from Glasgow to Aberdeen to Edinburgh and many smaller cities and towns. The story eventually made its way to far-away Brisbane, Australia, when it was published on 31 March 1887.

Aberdeen Evening Express

Snippet from the Aberdeen Evening Express 9 February 1887;
image courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive

The "coal crisis" in Lanarkshire, caused by disputes between the miners and the coal owners, has been accompanied by deplorable results. Late on Monday night a disturbance of a very serious nature occurred in Blantyre. The riot originated in the looting of a provision shop. On information reaching Hamilton, a strong force was dispatched to the scene of excitement. So threatening at one time was the aspect of affairs that the Riot Act was read. The mob was ultimately got under control, and by three o'clock yesterday morning peace was re-established.

The miners again began to congregate yesterday forenoon, however, about the premises of Mr. James Downes, licensed grocer, and at a signal from someone they at once tore down the shutters, smashed the windows, and entered the place. Barrels of whiskey were rolled away from the shop, broken open, and the contents divided, ample evidence of which was to be found in the many drunken persons about the streets. Bags of flour also were carried away, and deposited in some place still unknown. In fact the shop was literally sacked and scarcely a single article has been left in it. The front of the shop is strewn with broken glass, paper, and miscellaneous articles, but anything worth carrying away has not been neglected. The police were entirely overpowered, but they were soon reinforced by a large number of men, under Captain M'Hardy, with whom was Mr J. C. Forrest, Honorary Sheriff-Substitute. The reinforcement did not arrive a moment too soon, for the mob had turned attention to the shop of Mr M'Farlane's, almost opposite. The police, amid showers of stones, scattered the crowd, and drew themselves up in front of the building. The men then retired, but the police had constantly to be on the watch lest other shops should be looted. After leaving Mr M'Farlane's who, from which a number of articles had been carried away, the mob endeavored to break into Dixon's stores, the police were able to cope with them, and prevented any damage from being done.

Sheriff Birnie, who next arrived, at once read the Riot Act, after which the police managed to clear the streets with drawn swords. In their march they were subjected to a good deal of abuse from the men, who hooted and groaned at them and threw stones. It was deemed advisable on the part of the shopkeepers after what had transpired to keep their places of business shut the whole day. Consequently, there was not a shop open. About one o'clock a meeting of shopkeepers was held, when they applied to the authorities for more assistance. It is believed that on account of this application, together with the serious aspect of affairs, the military in the Hamilton Barracks are ready to march to the place whenever required.

Yesterday, large crowds of people walked up and down the streets. They were not all inhabitants of Blantyre, as great numbers have come in from the surrounding districts. There must have been at least between 10,000 and 12,000 persons about the streets. At two o'clock the police, who were scattered about in different places, and were brought together when necessary by conveyances, received the announcement that an attack was being made upon the co-operative store in Dixon's Row. The mounted police at once proceeded to the shop, having to encounter showers of stones on the way, and found a large mob endeavoring to enter the place. With the aid of policemen on foot, who had driven up in a wagonette, the mob was driven off, but not without trouble. Missiles of every description were thrown at the guardians of the law, and a number of them received rather severe injuries. However, they managed to preserve the store intact, though the men continued to loiter about the place during the day. Two apprehensions were made. The names of the men arrested are John Fury, miner, Dixon's Row; and Wm. Lena, miner, High Blantyre.

The district was much excited and, and fears were entertained that the rioting would be resumed last night. Sheriff Birnie remained with Captain M'Hardy in Blantyre all day yesterday to be ready for any emergency. An urgent telegram was received in Glasgow from Hamilton yesterday afternoon requesting a force of about 200 constables to be sent to the scene of the riots. A hastily-convened meeting of the magistrates was at once held in Captain M'Call's room, Central Police Chambers, and orders were given for the police to be in readiness, and the force shortly afterwards started, with Captain M'Call and Lieutenant Cameron in command. In response to a communication from Chief-Constable M'Hardy, Sheriff-Principal Berry proceeded yesterday afternoon to the scene of the riot.

Between four and five o'clock yesterday afternoon considerable excitement was caused in the vicinity of Glasgow Cross by a troop of about fifty of the 4th Hussars from Maryhill Barracks, with drawn swords and complete accoutrements, passing along Trongate and thence by Gallowgate en route to Hamilton. They will be held in reserve in that town in case Sheriff Berry should find it necessary to call for their assistance in quelling further disturbances.

Another report says that the spirituous liquors were dealt round in pails, jelly jars, and, indeed, in any available vessel, to men, women, and children, while the goods where handed out and carried away in loads by the people resident locally.

Glasgow Herald

An article about the riot, which appeared in the Glasgow Herald on 10 February, included a complete list of those arrested:

William Aiten (31)
Michael Banner (35)
William Bannan (23)
Michael Bannon (34)
Rose Barry, wife of James Wilson
Robert Brown (23)
James Burton (27)
John Cairney (53)
Michael Connelly (32)
David Copeland (50)
Daniel Donnelly (23)
Grace Donnelly (50), wife of James Mullan
John Dorran (19)
John Doyle (27)
William Ferd (40)
Robert Ferguson
Patrick Ferns (33)
Hugh Flynn (21)
John Furrie (24)
John Hannagan (35)
John Heron (37)
Cormick Higgins (62)
John Higgins (22)
Patrick Higgins (21)
William Hunter (29)
John King (23)
Thomas Laird (34)
Edward Laughlan (30)
Patrick Lawson (33)
Catherine Lynch, wife of Owen Carrel
John M'Aulay (21)
Charles M'Callum (50)
James M'Geachie (33)
James M'Govern (19)
Peter M'Guinnes (21)
Edward M'Guire (17)
James M'Guire (50)
Patrick M'Guire (40)
Rodger M'Guire (24)
Hugh M'Mahon (18)
Isabella Mooney, wife of John Weather
James Mullan (40)
Patrick Mullan (18)
Patrick Nimmo (53)
John Rafferty (25)
Archibald Robertson (51)
James Scullion (22)
William Tonner (21)
John Weatherall (38)
Henry Wilson (25)
James Wilson (40)

I don't see any Muir ancestors on the list, but the event must have been the talk of the town for quite some time.

The Aftermath

On 17 February 1887 most of those arrested, who had been jailed in nearby Hamilton, were released without trial. Nineteen of the men remained in prison for two months and appeared at the Hamilton Sheriff Court on 9 April. Most of them were charged with breach of the peace and rioting. The sentence was 60 days confinement, which had already been served; so the men were released.

1877 Blantyre Explosion

On the morning of 22 October 1877 the worst mining disaster in Scotland occurred. The blast was heard for miles around and dense smoke filled the sky. William Dixon's pits, numbers one and two, in Blantyre, Scotland, exploded. There were thought to be 233 miners underground, the youngest, an 11-year-old boy.  The accident left 92 widows and 250 fatherless children.

It was known firedamp was in the pit. Miners had made repeated complaints about the dangers but they were ignored. The year before the miners had gone out on strike over safety issues and higher pay to compensate for the continued dangers. They were immediately fired. Six months after the accident, 34 widows had not yet moved out of their company-owned cottages. The company evicted them on 28 May 1878.

Two years later another explosion killed 28 miners. Not long after the second explosion the William Dixon Ltd. company erect a large granite monument to mark both disasters. The monument reads:

"William Dixon Ltd. in memory of 240 of their workmen who were killed by explosions in Blantyre Colliery on 22 October 1877 and 2 July 1879 and many of whom are buried here."

Old Victorian era print of the 1877 Blantyre mining disaster; image

courtesy Amazon

In 1885 Reverend Stewart Wright wrote the Annals of Blantyre. In the book he describes the disaster:

"What a glooming morning that October Monday was. How indelibly it is engraved on our memory. We were dressing at the time. The window of our room looked over against the pits. A sudden flash darted up from the most distant shaft, accompanied by debris, and a report not very loud; then forwith [sic] there arose from the shaft nearest to us a dense volume of smoke, 'the blackness of darkness,' which spread itself, a terrible funeral pall, over the surrounding plain. We were soon at the scene of the disaster, whither hundreds of eager and terrified creatures were hurrying, and there for hours we remained, a stricken shepherd amongst a stricken flock. The one shaft was blocked up with ruins, but the other was partially clear; again and again did gallant men descend to rescue, if possible, their buried comrades, but all in vain; they mere succeeded in bringing up a few dead bodies, when they themselves were overpowered by the choke damp and had to be brought up to the surface. Some of them were more dead than alive, and it was with difficulty we succeeded in restoring them. Still, no matter the danger, there were no lack of volunteers, many of them wildly demanding to be lowered down, until at last, when the short winters day was drawing to a close, imperative orders were issued that no more lives were to be risked. Then hope fled; and the agonized crowed were left in the darkness and pitiless rain to face the terribleness of its magnitude that not one of the 200 miners and more, that were entombed beneath us, would ever see the light. Nor did they. Day after day for three weeks following, and after laborious exertions, were the bodies found and brought up for interment. With the exception of the Roman Catholics, and there were not many of them, and a few others, all the dead were laid side by side in two long trenches that had been dug in the newly made cemetery. The report of the funerals in one evening, as given in the Herald, was characteristic of them all: 'the scene in the parish burying ground, where the bodies were interred, was very impressive, and by the time that Mr. Wright got as far in the service Earth to Earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, many of the onlookers were in tears. Few of them will soon forget the sight -- the cold gray twilight, the dark overcast sky, the long deep trench, the silent uncovered multitude, and the solemn tones of the preachers voice.'"

You may read a first-hand account of the explosion on the The Blantyre Project website. There is one part of the account by Alex McCall, the fire master at No. 3 pit, who was located at the pithead when the disaster occurred, that particularly awful:

"Suddenly we were startled by a report like the firing of many cannon, but louder than the loudest thunder I ever heard. This was followed by dense volumes of smoke ascending the shaft, and then a vast sheet of flame rolled up with a hissing noise from the pit, succeeded by showers of wood and dirt and stones, like what I have read comes from a volcano. Among the debris to our horror was the mangled limb of some unfortunate boy. This eruption was simply appalling, and lasted from four to five minutes. Then all was quiet."