Knox Coal Company Port Griffith, Pennsylvania January 22, 1959 No. Killed - 12
The Knox Mine disaster was a mining accident that took place in the Greater Pittston, Port Griffith, Pennsylvania,
near Pittston, on January 22, 1959.
The River Slope Mine, an anthracite coal mine owned by the Knox Coal Company, flooded when coal company management had the miners dig too close to
the riverbed. Tunneling sharply upwards toward the Susquehanna River, the miners reduced the thickness of rock between the mineshafts and the
river bed to about 6 feet (1.8 m) -- 35 feet (10.6 m) was considered the minimum for safety.
It took 3 days to partially plug the hole in the riverbed, which was done by dumping railcars into the whirlpool formed by the water draining into the
mine.
12 people died; 69 others escaped. One miner, Amadeo Pancetti, was awarded the Carnegie Medal for leading 32 miners to safety. The bodies of
the 12 who died were never recovered, despite efforts of divers and an attempt to pump the water out of the shafts. Their names were:
Samuel Altieri, John Baloga, Benjamin Boyer, Francis Burns, Charles Featherman, Joseph Gizenski, Dominick Kaveliskie, Eugene Ostroski, Frank Orlowski, William Sinclair, Daniel Stefanides and Herman Zelonis.
Eventually an estimated 10 billion US gallons (38,000,000 m³) of water filled the mines. Ten people, including the mine superintendent and August J. Lippi, the president of District 1 of the
United Mine Workers, were indicted on a variety of charges, but only 3 (including Lippi) served jail time.
January 22, 2009, marked the 50th anniversary of the Knox Mine Disaster, with special ceremonies held at the site of several monuments and a
National Historic Marker, erected in 1999, by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. This site is located in Port Griffith, Jenkins Township, PA, both on and near the property of the former
Saint Joseph's Roman Catholic Church. The church was closed in May, 2008, due to a consolidation of area parishes and put up for sale in July, 2008.
