Daniel Thomas was born in Scranton, Pa., on Feb. 19, 1888. He was one of three children born to Hosiah Thomas and his wife, Elizabeth Davis, and was the grandson of immigrant Welsh coal miner John J. Thomas, who arrived in America in 1848. Daniel was married to Elizabeth, and they had one child, Thelma.
Jeffrey L. Thomas of the Thomas Family Website http://thomasgenweb.com/ wrote a tribute to Daniel in 2003 and much of this information comes from that tribute, http://thomasgenweb.com/daniel_thomas2
In 1916, Daniel Thomas was a mine plane runner at the Mount Pleasant Colliery, in the Hyde Park section of Scranton. The US Census listed nearly 400 jobs in coal mines. One of these was mine plane runner. When we think of mine haulage “back in the day,” we might think of something like a 20-mule-team Borax commercial. Although mules were used a lot in the mines, they were not the main haulage in any but the smallest mines in 1916. Typically, mules were used in gathering filled cars from the working to main haulage ways, and mechanical – rope or locomotive haulage was used for the main haulage. In the second half of the 19th century wire rope became available, and large stationary steam engines on the surface with cables reaching underground were commonly used for mine haulage. It utilizes a main haulage roadway in a mine, along which run-of-mine coal is drawn by engines operating cable-hauled sets of small carts. In 1916 the Mount Pleasant mine had at least two planes in operation. A Plane-Runner kept watch over the machinery and ropes making sure they were in good working condition, ensuring that the plane roadways were clear of spillage. Daniel Thomas, plane runner, kept the haulage system running smoothly.
The Mount Pleasant slope was opened by John Lewis (1834-1905) and Daniel Howell (1826-1892) in 1854. It was operated by Howell until 1864, Mount Pleasant Coal Company from 1864 until 1877, then by William Tallman Smith (1834-1898). After 1901 it was operated by Scranton Coal Company. In 1916, the mine was operated by a 552-foot shaft, the slope abandoned in 1890. They mined eleven seams, from bottom, Dunmore No. 3, Dunmore No. 2, Dunmore No.1, Clark, New County, Big, Rock, Diamond, Four Foot, Five Foot, and Olyphant, with large areas of the upper three seams collapsed. An ongoing investigation by Scranton City and the Commonwealth was looking at a mine caving problem. 213 men and boys were working inside in 1916.
During the morning of December 19, 1916, an explosion occurred in a gangway of Dunmore No. 2 seam a third of a mile from the shaft of the mine. Harry Shawnskie/ Scavinski, Russian miner, Joseph Stepanich, 17, driver and Joseph Rogne, driver were within about 400 feet of the scene of the explosion. Daniel Thomas, who was returning from the shaft, having followed the last trip, and others, who were nearer to the shaft, started to run from the explosion site. Thomas, who had shortly been with Stepanich and Rogne, proposed returning to find them. The miners with Thomas refused to accompany him and urged him to go on to the shaft, but Thomas turned back alone.
He heard cries of a fellow employee and ran in the direction of where they came. Whether he reached Scavinski then struggling with life is not known. Sometime later, Thomas’ body, a victim of black damp, was found. Nearby, the man he tried to help, Harry Skavinski of Old Forge, was found dead, badly burnt, near the scene of the explosion. Stepanich and Rogne had escaped by taking a different route than that taken by Thomas.
The mine officials at first did not know Scavinski’s name, but said he was in a part of the mine where he had no business. The foreman said the dead man of having carelessly left a door open in the airway and that the chamber where he worked was one hundred feet away. “The man had been there only a month or so,” said the foreman. Newspapers reported that Superintendent Dan Young, of the Scranton Coal Company, said that he was surprised to learn of a gas explosion in this particular mine as it was thought that the workings were free of gas, and there had been no explosions there in many years, he said. The supposition was that in his ignorance of mining customs, the “foreigner” went into the intake, and his open flame light struck a body of gas that had accumulated.
Reverend W.R. Edwards, pastor of the Hyde Park Tabernacle Congregational Church, who took part in Thomas’ funeral; and Fifth Anthracite Mine Inspector Samuel James Phillips (1872-1942) petitioned Scranton’s congressman, John Richard Farr (1857-1933) to recommend Daniel Thomas to the Carnegie Commission. Thomas was added to the Carnegie Hero rolls in January 1918 and a silver medal was posthumously awarded, along with a $20 monthly award to his wife Elizabeth and $5 monthly to daughter Thelma.
Like most Welsh families who came to Scranton in the mid to late 1880s, the Thomases were coal miners, and the sons of John J. Thomas, including Hosiah, followed their father into the mines at an early age. As Hosiah’s first-born son, it is likely that Daniel was named after Hosiah’s younger brother, Daniel, who lost his life in a mine accident in 1888 at the age of 16. Daniel’s younger brother Harry also died in a mine accident. Daniel, who was in school at age 11, had gotten a broken collar bone in an accident at the Brisbin Colliery in 1905, when he was 16.
Thomas’ burial was described in the Scranton Republican, December 20, 1916:
“Mine Hero Was Buried Yesterday
“Friends and Members of Col. T. D. Lewis Council At Funeral of Daniel Thomas
“The funeral of Daniel Thomas, the young man who died a hero’s death in the Mt. Pleasant mine of the Scranton Coal company last Saturday morning while attempting to rescue another workman who was burned to death in the explosion of a pocket of gas, was held yesterday afternoon with a short service at the residence, 550 North Decker court.
“The funeral procession next moved to the First Welsh Baptist church where the service was continued. Rev. T. Tiefion Richards, the pastor, officiated, assisted by Rev. W.R. Edwards, pastor of the Tabernacle Congregational church. There was a large attendance of relatives, friends and fellow workmen and a delegation from the T.D. Lewis council, No. 115 Junior Order United American Mechanics, of which Mr. Thomas was a member.
“Many beautiful floral tributes were sent. These were carried by Thomas Phillips, Stanley Lekrey and John Koleski, from the Mine Fund. The pallbearers were: James Phillips, Oscar Bates, William Madden, Louis Biggs, Gomer Thomas and Thomas Thomas. Interment was made in the Washburn Street cemetery. The members of the T.D. Lewis council had charge of the services at the grave.”