Sheppton Folks Recall Mine Disaster

Throne’s death finds Sheppton folks recall mine disaster vividly

Rescue put patch in international spotlight

BY MIKE WALLER
Staff Writer
mwaller@pottsville.infi.net SHEPPTON — A quarter-mile down a windy, gravel path off Nuremburg Road near the village sits a headstone surrounded by a white, picket fence. The headstone belongs to Louis J. Bova, whose body is estimated to be 300 feet below, buried in a mine collapse that placed this coal patch in the international spotlight for 14 days in 1963. Thirty-five years after it happened, the memory is crystal clear in the minds of those who were witnesses. It was at the front of minds again this week as Henry Throne, the last of the two survivors, was buried. Even without Throne’s death last Friday, George Motil, commander of Sheppton American Legion Post 616, would have led a 21-gun salute Monday at the gravesite as he does every Memorial Day. The headstone, located near what used to be the mine’s shaft, is the only monument standing in tribute to Bova, Throne and the third man, David Fellin, who died in 1980.

Those are household names here.

Born in Hazleton and now living in Sheppton, Robert G. Gregory was working in Delaware at the time of the collapse, but happened to be visiting his late wife Hazel Bley’s hometown when the mine collapsed.“The day of the disaster we were sitting in Farmer’s Bar” now the Coalcracker’s Bar at the corner of Third and Alter streets, he said. “We heard on the radio that they had been trapped and we went right over.”The Fellin Coal Co. miners were 300 feet below the surface of the earth when the mine they were working in collapsed.Fellin was 58 at the time and lived to age 74. Throne, then 28, died at 63. Bova’s body was never found; he was 42.Gregory made it to the scene within an hour of the collapse, but he was not the first to arrive. There were already “quite a few people” up there trying to figure out a way to help the miners.“I looked down the shaft and that was it,” said Gregory, who admits to being afraid of heights. “Looking straight down 90 feet into that shaft, I was scared. All we could do was stand and gawk like everyone else.”In all, the miners were trapped for 14 days, 5« of which were spent in complete darkness.

The international media quickly latched onto the story. Three men, previously anonymous to the world, were suddenly on television in living rooms around the world including Gregory’s in Delaware, where he watched the rescue after returning from vacation.“This place was a boom-town when it happened,” Gregory said.Local restaurants, like the former Flaim’s (which was actually closed for the first week of the rescue efforts while the owners vacationed in Wildwood, N.J.), hotels and even kids, who would earn $50 to $100 per day to lead people to the top of the mine shaft, profited greatly from the sudden interest.

Motil knew all three men and would often hang out with them at Dado’s Bar on the corner of Pine and Shepp streets. He remembers Bova forever shooting darts. Fellin was a “good guy” and spent a lot of time on television after being rescued, Motil said. Throne was “a stogie guy.”All three were described by area residents as mild-mannered men who had a number of friends in the area.For the two weeks they spent trapped underground, locals were worried for their friends. The story of their saga, gripped not only the nation, but the world.By 8 a.m., the three miners were fast at work. They had filled their first buggy of coal and sent the cart up the tracks to be dumped outside the mine. The buggy never made it back.“That’s when the big rumble started. And all hell broke loose,” Throne later said to newspapers.

The ceiling collapsed, bringing down timbers, chunks of wood and coal. The three miners were effectively sealed off, in total darkness, from the rest of the world. Throne said at the time that the three were lucky not to be killed by the falling debris.The collapse separated Throne and Fellin from Bova, who was on the other side of the tracks. After the power line to the overhead lights was damaged, Throne and Fellin lost contact with Bova.After their helmet lights burned out and their matches failed, Throne and Fellin spent 5« days in complete darkness. In all, they were trapped the length of a football field under the surface for 14 days.

For the five days of darkness, Throne and Fellin spent their time crawling around looking for a way out. From time to time they had to try and bolster the slowly dropping ceiling with fallen timbers. To battle temperatures they estimated to be near 30 degrees, they slept embraced and warmed each other by breathing on each other’s necks and rubbing each other’s legs.It was also during this time that the two experienced hallucinations. They reported seeing doors, houses and a miner with a headlamp. Each time they thought they saw something, the image would get smaller as they crawled toward it, Throne said.Many of the hallucinations were described identically by both men, such as the “sighting” of Pope John XXIII, who had died on June 3 of that year 2« months before the mine collapsed.The two kept looking for Bova. Fellin would later report making brief contact with Bova around Aug. 20, but officials doubted whether any contact was actually made, newspaper reports indicate. No communications were ever established with Bova from the surface.

On the sixth day of their ordeal, a microphone dropped down through a six-inch hole and they heard voices yelling their names.“It was a miracle,” said Andrew Throne, Henry’s brother. “We were very anxious and scared wondering whether he’d ever come out, but we always thought there was a chance.”The crowd on the scene when the drill broke through crowds were often at least 500 people, Gregory said erupted in applause, whistling and yelling.For the next eight days, drilling proceeded slowly, but lights, food, drinks and supplies were lowered through the growing hole by rope.Shortly before 1 p.m. on Aug. 27, rescue crews were able to bore through the debris to open up a 17«-inch hole wide enough to hoist the greased-up miners to safety.The two were released from Hazleton State Hospital within days of the rescue.

The saga of Throne, Fellin and Bova is more than just local lore. In the early 1990s, the Discovery Channel showed “Coal Mine Rescue,” a feature on the event, as part of its “Spirit of Survival” series.Beyond personal memories and regional legend, the accident did have one lasting legacy it virtually killed off the already dying local mining industry, Motil said. “This used to be a big mining area,” he said. “But that was a big disaster.

Altoona News Account of the Sheppton Mine Disaster

Altoonans’ Son Acclaimed Hero At Cave-in Site

A former Altoonan, Phil Margush, 19, son of the Rev. and Mrs. Stephen G. Margush of 308 Wordsworth Ave., was hailed as a hero today for the key role he played in establishing contact with the three miners entombed 331 feet below the surface in the mine cave-in near Hazleton last Tuesday.Today Margush was a patient in Locust Valley Hospital, Shenandoah, suffering from exhaustion. Hospital officials said his condition was good but that he would not be released for 24 hours as he needed rest and they feared he would return to the scene of the cave-in too soon.

Phil was employed part time by Radio Station WRTA in Altoona as an engineer and an- nouncer until a month ago when he was named chief engineer and part-time newsman for WMBT, Shenandoah, a Trans-Audio station owned and operated by WRTA.The young engineer was on a routine news assignment last Sunday, interviewing rescue workers at the mine, when someone said it was regrettable that they had been unable to estabIish contact with any possible survivors through the 6-inch hole drilled down to the small chamber where a slim hope existed that the menmight be alive.

Margush volunteered the use of equipment from his mobile unit and, attaching a microphone to a broadcast cable, lowered it through the 6-inch opening and plugged it into a tape. recorder above ground. The scheme worked and, to the amazement of everyone, the voices of the entombed men came through.Two of the miners, David Fellin, 58, and Henry Throne, 28, reported that they were alive and well and that another companion, Louis Bova, 42, was, about 15 feet away with an injured hip in a spot inaccessible to them because of a pile of rubble.

Margush remained on duty at the scene for 36 hours, maintain- ing contact with the miners who are directing their own rescue. At 10 a.m. today, after his collapse, two men from Station WMBT and two additional engineers from another station were called .in to keep the equipment operating in these critical hours.Mine officials estimated that it would take at least 72 hours more to bring the men to the surface. Two CBS units were at the scene this morning also and it was reported that Walter Cronkite was expected momentarily.

An effort was made yesterday to install a telephone line through the 6-inch shaft but the effort was unsuccessful and voice contact still is maintained only through the WMBT cable installed by Margush.Phil Margush, 19, son of the Rev. and Mrs. Stephen G. Margush of Altoona, who achieved voice contact with two of the three miners missing and feared dead in a subterranean cavern near Hazleton last Sunday nlght, collapsed Tuesday morning after maintaining a constant vigil at the scene for over 36 hours.Margush had dropped a microphone through a 6-inch shaft drilled down to the spot where it was felt the miners might be, and the voices of the missing men came through. It was the first contact made with them since the minecave-in on Aug. 13. After a day in Locust ValIey Hospital, Shenandoah, Margush was back at the site. Arrow on picture points to Louis H. Murray, executive vice president of Trans-Audio Corporation; which owns and operates Radio Station WMBT, Shenandoah, which made the contact, and WRTA, Altoona.

Throne’s Account of the Sheppton Mine Disaster

Throne Tells How He and Fellin Survived Entombment

Hallucianations, Deliriums, Despair, Jubilation

Editor’s Note: In August of 1963, miners Henry Throne, David Fellin and Louis Bova were trapped more than 300 feet underground when the Sheppton mine collapsed. Throne and Fellin were rescued after spending two weeks underground. Bova was never found. This is Throne’s account of the story, as he told it to the Associated Press. It was originally published in the August 23, 1963 edition of The Pottsville REPUBLICAN

By Henry Throne
As told to the Associated Press

Hazleton — There were times when we saw people that weren’t there and lights that weren’t there and doors that weren’t there. Imagine seeing a door like a regular house down in the bottom of a mine!

There was a time we heard rain and it really was rain coming down the drainage pipes and we thought the water would back up and flood the mine and drown us.And while it was raining, I got mad-I must’ve been off my rocker a little-I yelled at Davey, “Davey, I’m coming home. I’m going alone if you don’t want to come.”But, of course, I wasn’t going anywhere. Not then. We were still more than 300 feet down. We still had a week to go before we could stand and walk again, not just sit and crawl, before we could breath clear air again and see real light again.

Got mixed up later

But maybe I better start at the beginning. That’s the only way I can get it clear in my own mind. So much got mixed up later we couldn’t tell day from the night or Monday from Sunday.That first day, Aug. 13, I went to work about 7:15 in the morning. It was a nice sunny day. I had no special thoughts, no hunches about something bad. It was just an ordinary working day.We-that’s Dave Fellin, Louis Bova and me-we got down in the hole about 7:30 and by 8 we had filled the first buggy (a small wagon, carrying coal to the surface). We were on the bottom of the mine, in a tunnel, where the sump water collects. Davey and I were on the right side of the shaft and Louis was on the left, separated by the buggy tracks.

Buggy was Coming Back

Louis rapped three times for the buggy to go up and dumped the coal. Coming down, it got only half way down. That’s when the big rumble started. And all hell broke loose. The timbers on the wall next to us caved in and the timbers on the ceiling above us came down. We just managed to step aside in time as the big chunks of wood and coal and stone fell wildly around us.

We could see Louis on the other side until the power line to our work lights broke. For the next couple of hours we could see a little around us with the lights on our helmets. But then they burned out. Our matches wouldn’t burn down there. That was the end of the light for the next five and a-half days. In the first hour and a half, we just sat there against the wall while the debris piled higher before us in the tunnel. The rumbling from the cave-in lasted that long. There were others later.

Louis Didn’t Answer

I hollered for Louis but there was no answer. After a while we started crawling over the debris, all our tools-the picks, the bars, the shovels, and our lunch pails-were lost under the pile except for a mason hammer and a hatchet. The hammer broke soon afterward. All we had was the hatchet to cut our way over the junk. We started crawling around in the dark looking for a way out. But we kept crawling around like that for most six days looking for a way out. To keep warm, I’d sit with my legs spread and Davey would sit between my legs with his back to me and I’d breathe on his back and neck. All the time we’re rocking back and forth, also to keep warm. Then Davey would switch and do the same for me. We’d do this for 5 to 10 minutes at a time. Then we’d stop but only for five minutes, say, because then we’d be cold again. Most times it felt like about 30 degrees above zero.

Slept Arms About Other

To keep warm, we’d sleep face to face with our arms around each other. We’d sleep maybe half an hour and then the cold would wake us and we’d start rocking again to get some circulation. I’d sleep, I’d wake up, and I’d see all kinds of light and the actual figures of people. They now tell me these were hallucinations but the crazy thing is that Davey would see the same things I did.

The lights and the figures always were in front of us but the more we crawled toward them the further away they got. For example, I saw this man, or the dark shape of a man with a light on his helmet. I yelled, “Show me some light over here! Over here!” Davey saw him too, but the shape of the man got smaller and smaller as we crawled toward him and then he was gone altogether.

Fifth Day The Worst

The fifth day was the worst. I think that was the closest we came to death. That’s when it started raining and we could hear it coming down the drainage pipes and we thought we’d be drowned. Thank God it rained only about 20 minutes. But in that time I started running around wild. That’s when I saw a door, just like a regular house door.

“Davey!” I yelled, “let’s go there.”

I crawled as fast as I could toward it but suddenly I found myself bumping into just another piece of timber. That’s when I got the bruise under my eye. I was so frightened, I just went about getting out and just concentrating on that.

Ate Bark From Timber

But suddenly early in the sixth day, suddenly I got hungry. I ate some bark from an old timber. It tasted terrible. Other times we just sucked the water out of the bark.In the first few days I could tell, looking at my fourescent watch, what day it was. But down there in the dark I got all mixed up about morning and night and finally the days themselves. On about 3:15 of probably the sixth day — don’t ask me if it was a.m. or p.m. — I heard Louis holler out. This was the first and only time we heard him. He yelled “Davey and Hank. Where are you? This is Louis, I got a light. I’ll drop it five feet in front of you.”

Couldn’t Find Him

It sounded like it was coming from above. Now, this was real. I’ll admit other things were imagined. But this was real. I actually heard Louis. But we couldn’t find him or his light. And we never heard him again.What kept us going down there? I can only guess, It must have been our will power, our strong wish to get out. We prayed two or three times an hour “Dear Lord, help us get out, help us get out,” I said aloud over and over.

By about the sixth day, I figure now, we were just about where we started when we began looking for a way out. We were now in a chamber about six feet long and six feet wide and almost six feet high on the high side. We kept shoring up the ceiling with timber and as we did the ceiling kept getting lower until in the last day we had only 18 inches between our heads and the roof of the tunnel.

Microphone Dropped Down

Then suddenly on the sixth day came the miracle. We hadn’t heard the first drill coming down. First thing we knew a microphone was dropped down a hole near us. We heard voices yelling our names from above. We crawled as fast as we could over the debris to the mike hanging from the first six-inch hole. We kept yelling, “here we come, here we come,” as we crawled over to that hole.Upon the surface they asked us what we needed and soon we got clothes and hamburgers and soup and coffee. We weren’t cheering yet. We were far from certain of getting out then because so far only a six-inch hole had reached us.

Lights Come Next

Work lights were lowered on a cord. Later they sent us flashlights.

The first hole was just for food and communications. The next day they started drilling a 12-inch hole. We could hear it above. But this drill hit a sulphur ball-that’s as hard as a diamond-so they quit trying in this post.The next day we could hear them drilling again and they got deep enough but they missed us on direction.They moved the drill a few feet and this time, thank God, they reached us with the first 12-inch hole, the first escape hole.This was 10 days and 6 and a half hours after the cave-in trapped us.We could hear the drill coming all the way down. It felt like it was coming directly at my head. And suddenly there it was, busting through, just about two or three feet away.This time we cheered. This time we shook hands. Now for the first time I was beginning to feel optimistic.They sent us heating pads (powered by an electric line from above) and one sleeping bag. One of us would work while the other slept. They sent us timbers and boards and nails and we kept shoring up our ceiling.

We were working 14-16 hours a day. We were exhausted but we felt like signing. I remember singing “Mona Lisa” and S”outh of the Border” and “Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling.”And now it was Monday, Aug. 26. It was 6:01 p.m. and they told us and the big reamer that was widening the hole to 18 inches was only six inches over us. Twenty minutes later that big gorgeous reamer broke through. I yelled up “Send us a line down. I’m coming up!”

The Day of Rescue

Finally, the coveralls and harnesses came down and we put them on. I greased Davey’s shoulders and arms and hips and he did the same for me. And now it was 2 a.m. and I was being hauled up slowly. They stopped me two or three times and it seemed forever. Then they started again and I was spinning. Finally, there is was — the surface, the air, the people.

As the air hit me, I felt dizzy and fell into that basket-type stretcher. I was thinking I’m out now, I’m out now, and I cried for the first time.While I was down there they asked me if I’d go back to work in the mines and I said I would. But I’m not. I guess I’m afraid. I’ll work anywhere except a mine.Until now, I never went to church more than a couple of times in my life.Now I’ll go regular. I want to keep thanking God.