1925 — May 27, Carolina Coal Mine gas & dust explosions, Farmville (Coal Glen), NC–  53 

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 3-19-2025 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

 –53  Bureau of Mines. Report of Mine Explosion, Farmville Mine…Coal Glen, [NC] 5-27-1925.

–53  Cohn, Scotti. Disasters and Heroic Rescues of North Carolina. Globe Pequot, 2005, p. 99.

–53  Mine Safety and Health Administration, Department of Labor.

–53  National Fire Protection Association.  Key Dates in Fire History.  1996. 

–53  NFPA. U.S. Unintentional Fire Death Rates by State. December 2008, p. 24.

–53  National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety. Mining Disasters.  2010.

–53  United States Mine Rescue Association. Mine Disasters in the United States. Farmville.

–53  Univ. of NC at Chapel Hill. “The Carolina Coal Company Mine Explosion.”  Learn NC.

Narrative Information

Bureau of Mines. Report of Mine Explosion, Farmville Mine…Coal Glen, [NC] 5-27-1925:

“Introduction. An explosion occurred in the Farmville mine, Carolina Coal Company, Coal Glen, Chatham County, North Carolina, about 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, May 27, 1925, resulting in the death of 53 men, at least 3 of whom died from suffocation and 50 from a combination of after damp, burns and violence. None were rescued, although one of two men, who had entered the mine after the first explosion, was caught in a second explosion, and although hurt, managed to crawl out of the slope….” (p. 1.)

“Gas.  The mine has been rated as gassy since operations were started by the present company7 in 1921. A fire boss was employed to make an examination of all working places before the shift of men entered the mine. He reported verbally to the mine foreman but made no written report.

“During the investigation third left had to be cleared of gas three times and the rooms to the rise off third left heading contained an explosive mixture of gas. The face of this heading also contained explosive gas.

“All gas feeders appeared to be in the lower coal bench and therefore most of the gas comes from that part of the bed. Undoubtedly large quantities of firedamp are liberated in the upper bench also….” (p. 5.)

“The explosion and its extent. After the first explosion, there was little damage done in the upper part of the mine…the second explosion obscured the evidence of the preceding one….

“One theory, prevalent after the disaster, was that matches were the source of ignition of the explosion. One undertaker found matches on at least 5 bodies, one of whom was the fire boss, George Anderson, who had 5 matches in a box….However, no evidence was found showing an origin due to this cause.

“The second explosion was probably caused by the detonation of explosives in a car in fourth left heading. There is evidence that flame entered the pair of entries….” (pp.15-16)

“Source of the explosion. ….The presence of large volumes of firedamp and dry fine coal dust presents an extremely hazardous condition. The fact that a miner was overcome in this entry [4 right] the day prior to the explosion most certainly indicates poor and sluggish ventilation, and it is very probably that standing gas was present in explosive quantities, especially so since the last open crosscut was over fifty feet from the face of the heading….

“The evidence of …[a] blown out shot, the location of the battery, and shooting cable and the men are the strongest evidence that this was the origin of the first explosion. The indications were, therefore, that at the time the two shots were fired there was present an explosive mixture of gas and air, and that the upper shot having an overcharge of explosive, blew out, stirred up the coal dust, which, with the gas present, became ignited and initiated the explosion….” (pp. 23-24.)

United States Mine Rescue Association. Mine Disasters in the United States. Farmville:

“Fatalities in the Coal Glen Mining Disaster

“Pittsboro, N. C. — The following listing was obtained from the Death Certificates on Record in the Register of Deeds Office, Pittsboro, North Carolina:

UNC: “At 9:40 in the morning on May 27, 1925, a massive explosion shook the town of Coal Glen, N.C. “All at once, we heard this big noise, like booooom, and black smoke just boiled and rolled up in the sky,” recalled Margaret Wicker, who was a young girl at the time. The blast came from the Deep River Coal Field, where local miners were working nearly a thousand feet underground. The explosion, probably touched off by either coal dust or natural gas, was devastating: fifty-three miners were killed….

“The tragedy helped to speed passage of the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act, passed in 1929. North Carolina was the forty-fourth state to pass such legislation.

“Historical background

“The presence of Deep River coal was first noted in print in 1820 in a letter to the American Journal of Science by Professor Denison Olmsted, chair of chemistry, mineralogy, and geology at the University of North Carolina. Olmsted, and later H. M. Chance in an 1885 report, noted that earlier uses of coal to meet local needs most likely dated to before 1775. The Deep River Coal Field is the only noteworthy source of coal in the state. There are some “sporadic deposits,” as Chance described them, in the Dan River region from the Virginia border southwest to Germanton on the border between Stokes and Forsyth Counties.

“Attempts to develop commercial mining efforts in the Deep River Coal Field began during the early 1850s, and had a rocky history. The Western Railroad, chartered in 1852, was the first railroad to reach into the region. Completed in 1863, its purpose was to connect the coal mines centered at the village of Egypt (renamed Cumnock in 1895) to the riverside port of Fayetteville on the Cape Fear to the southeast. Coal was mined at three towns within a four-and-a-half mile band, all within close proximity of the Deep River: Egypt, Gulf (upstream to the west of Egypt) and Farmville (downstream and directly to the east of Egypt).

“The mine at Egypt closed down in 1870 and remained flooded until 1888. Three years earlier, in 1885, H. M. Chance submitted his “Report on an Exploration of the Coalfields of North Carolina,” which identified two coal beds between Egypt and Farmville that might be worthy of thorough exploration, but doubted the likelihood of large scale production. Furthermore he did not believe further expenditures would be justified outside of the limited area. When Chance described Deep River Coal Field, he listed eight “Obstacles to Successful Mining,” he wrote:

In the Richmond coalfield great trouble has been caused by what is called spontaneous combustion. Judging from the similarity of the coals it seems possible that this same difficulty may obtain here. While this is a mere supposition, it is one that cannot safely be ignored.

“The Egypt mine reopened in 1888 and ran continuously through 1902 after sizeable gas explosions in 1895 and 1900, and financial difficulties once again forced closure. In 1915, Norfolk Southern Railroad obtained the property and ran the mine under the name of Cumnock Coal Company, the word Egypt having become synonymous with explosions and failures. The company supplied coal primarily for railroad purposes and was a small operation. In September 1922 the Erskine Ramsey Coal Company purchased the company with plans to significantly enlarge the enterprise and its output. Around 1921, the Carolina Coal Company developed a mine on the site of the old Farmville village on the Chatham County side of the Deep River, less than two miles east of the Cumnock Mine.

“There is some confusion over the name of the event. The News and Observer called the event the “Cumnock Mine Disaster” in its initial coverage and a negative envelope in the Ben Dixon McNeill Collection carries the same title. The Cumnock Mine, however, was not the mine where the accident occurred. Farmville was later renamed Coalglen, or alternately Coal Glen at a date not readily available. The disaster has since been referred to in association of one of these three nearby locations.” (Univ. of NC, Chapel Hill. “The Carolina Coal Company Mine Explosion.” Learn NC.)

Sources

Bureau of Mines. U.S. Department of Commerce. Report of Mine Explosion, Farmville Mine, Carolina Coal Company, Coal Glen, North Carolina, May 27, 1925. Accessed 3-19-2025 at: https://usminedisasters.miningquiz.com/saxsewell/farmville_1925.pdf

Cohn, Scotti. Disasters and Heroic Rescues of North Carolina. Globe Pequot Press, 2005.

Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Historical Data on Mine Disasters in the United States. Arlington, VA: MSHA, U.S. Department of Labor. Accessed 10-5-2008 at:  http://www.msha.gov/MSHAINFO/FactSheets/MSHAFCT8.HTM

National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 1996. Accessed 2010 at:  http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=1352&itemID=30955&URL=Research%20&%20Reports/Fire%20statistics/Key%20dates%20in%20fire%20history&cookie%5Ftest=1

National Fire Protection Association (John Hall, Jr.). U.S. Unintentional Fire Death Rates by State. Quincy, MA: NFPA, 31 pages, December 2008.

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Mining Safety and Health Research..  Mining Disasters (Incidents with 5 or more Fatalities). NIOSH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2-26-2013 update. Accessed at: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/statistics/disall.htm

and http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/statistics/content/allminingdisasters.html

United States Mine Rescue Association. Mine Disasters in the United States. “Carolina Coal Company, Farmville Mine Explosions, Coal Glen, Chatham County, North Carolina, May 27, 1925, No. Killed – 53.” Accessed 3-19-2025 at: https://usminedisasters.miningquiz.com/saxsewell/farmville_news_only.htm

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “The Carolina Coal Company Mine Explosion.”  Learn NC, North Carolina Digital History, North Carolina in the Early 20^th Century, Industry and Labor.  Accessed 4/7/2010 at: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-newcentury/6008