Originally published in the Black Diamond Bulletin, Fall 2013
By JoAnne Matsumura
Six generations and 119 years later, a safety lamp still lives on. It was found unscathed by the bodies of John E. John and his son, Evan, who were clutched in an embrace in the aftermath of the tragic Franklin mine disaster in August 24, 1894, that took 37 lives.
This 1880s safety lamp’s survival is a testament to the quality of the American Safety Lamp and Supply Company in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Scratched on the lamp’s base is the date “August 24, 1894,” and it has remained the link to the six generations of memories the lamp continues to “tell.”
John, a gas tester, was 43; Evan, 19, known as “Peg Leg”—as he had only one leg—worked with the mules.
They are interned in the Franklin Cemetery, but there’s no marker. Their names, however, appear on a monument of wife and mother Ruth at the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Renton.
[…] The lamp survives, yet John E. and Evan John perish by JoAnne Matsumura, Fall 2013 Six generations and 119 years later, a safety lamp still lives on. It was found unscathed by the bodies of John E. John and his son, Evan, who were clutched in an embrace in the aftermath of the tragic Franklin mine disaster of August 24, 1894. […]
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