To Begin Reading The Book ...
"THE MATHER MINE DISASTER"
Arranged by Tony Bupka
CLICK ON THE COAL MINER BELOW
How I Came To Own A Copy of the Book
My father, Bernard Benamati, started working at the Mather mine in the late 1940's. When I was young, we would drive about 5 miles from Clarksville to Mather to go to the company store. When we drove up third street, I would lay my head back and look out the back window up into the maple trees that covered the street with shade, and say what a beautiful town this was and some day I was going to live here. When I was in the fifth grade in 1960, my dad bought a house on third street. Our neighbors were an elderly man and his wife, Henry "Hen" and Edith Filer. Hen was employed at the Mather mine in 1928 at the time of the explosion, but fortunately was not caught up in it. I would go next door to visit with him and his wife and he would always mention the explosion. Several years later, when I was around 15 or so, he showed me a small black book. He said that it was a book about the explosion and that he knew he was meant to give it to me. I questioned him why he wouldn't give it to one of his grandchildren, why did he want to give it to me? All he would say was, "I know you're the one I'm meant to give it to ... now take it ... go on take it." Maybe it was because I was really interested in his stories - which I wish I could remember now - or maybe somehow he knew that I would someday do something with it, and not let it be forgotten by future generations. I've always believed the latter - that somehow he knew.
I've read this book several times over the past 30 or so odd years. The first time I read it, I remember not being able to put it down, re-reading several entries again and again. I've taken it with me during several moves, and now, since I am living back in Mather, the little black book that Hen gave me so long ago has finally come back home.
Around 1995, when I was first exposed to the internet, I started thinking that the Mather mine book should be on-line so that any one interested in the town of Mather and the explosion, or coal mining history in general, could have the opportunity to read it. I was in college then and too busy to seriously pursue it. Now that I'm living back in Mather, and with the renewed interest that the community has shown with the new memorial, and the reclamation and development project, I again started to consider it ..... this time seriously.
For years I have been doing searches on the internet to see what the name "Mather" would bring up, or doing searches on my family name. Seldom did I find anything new. When I took into consideration the growing interest in geneology, and how the internet is used to do searches by people all over the world, the same as I was doing, and the small amount of information that is on the net concerning the town, the disaster, and most importantly, the names of those who perished in the explosion, I knew that the information should be made available to anyone having an interest. Many of these miners, such as my grandfather, Francesco "Frank" Benamati (who wasn't killed), had immigrated to the US from european countries. Generations have passed since these people came to the United States, and relatives that could help family geneologists to fill in the gaps have passed away. That is why rather than scan a pic of the names of those who died, and pics of the pages of the book, I decided that I should type them in so that names, places, mining organizations, etc, would show up in search results..
For example; a few days ago, I was doing geneological research on an Italian geneology site on my family surname. Right below my family name I recognized a link to a surname that appears on the list of those who died in the explosion - not one person, but three persons with the same last name. Inquisitive as I am, I had to click on the link. The third post down there was a person looking for information on the three brothers of his great grandfather. He said that his great grandfather, grandfather, and father had all passed away, therefore, he couldn't ask them any questions. He wasn't even sure of the three brothers first names. When I saw that his great grandfather and his brothers had immigrated to the US from Italy, and that his great grandfather had lived in Elwood City, PA, I thought that there could possibly be a connection. I am going to e-mail him a link to this site, and the names of the three men who died in the explosion. He can take it from there and do research to determine if there may be a connection between any of the three men and his grandfather. I know what it is like to try and track down family roots, and believe me any informational clue is appreciated.
That is basically what this site is about - sharing of information.
When you have the time, I hope you will read "The Mather Mine Disaster".
If you have the time right now, then let's get started.
TO BEGIN READING BOOK
