Coal Mining Tradition
Western Pennsylvania was built in part on coal mining. At least six of our family's distant relatives
¾ Peter GEEHAN, Park GREENE, James GREENE, August LESSER, John LESSER, and George ONTKO ¾ spent some time working in the coal mines of Cambria and Somerset counties. Most of them made a career of it.Coal mining has always been a dangerous profession, but particularly so in previous generations. Read below about the two relatives who were fatally injured in mine accidents.
"Windber Miner Fatally Injured In Fall of Rock"
WINDBER
¾ Park Green, 56-year-old Windber R.D. miner, was crushed to death under a fall of rock in the Dean Shaffer Mine near Walsall yesterday afternoon. The accident occurred at 12:30 o'clock and Green died enroute to Windber Hospital.Dr. A.M. Uphouse, Somerset County coroner, said death was caused by a crushed chest and fractured skull. Investigation showed the miner was digging coal when the heavy rock broke loose and struck him on the back and head. Green's head was buried in loose coal he had dug a few minutes before.
Fellow workmen removed him from under the rock and took him to the surface. A coal truck took him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Mr. Green was married and the father of five children.
The case was referred to Cambria County Coroner Paul J. Wills of Loretto. Coroner Wills will await a report of the state mine inspector before determining the necessity of an inquest.
It was reported that Mr. Green was an experienced miner and had worked in this district for many years.
Special to The Tribune
(Johnstown, PA: "The Daily Tribune" (newspaper), 16 Mar 1932)REVLOC, March 16.--August Lesser, aged 47, a miner employed by the Monroe Coal Company, was injured fatally yesterday afternoon at 3 o'clock in an accident at the mine. Lesser, who was employed as an operator of a mining machine, suffered a crushed skull.
The manner in which he sustained the injury has not yet been determined by officials at the mine.
Coroner Cyrus W. Davis, of Conemaugh, will make an investigation today.
The deceased is survived by his widow, Mrs. Bertha Lesser, and the following children: Walter, Raymond, Bernice, Betty, and Naomi, all at home.
The body has been prepared for burial by Undertaker Duke J. Rosensteel, but arrangements for the funeral have not been completed.