The story of Mom’s double first cousin Laurla (Lurlie) Justice is, in my opinion, one of the saddest of the many stories Mom can tell. Laurla was the oldest daughter of Bob Justice (Grandma Rachel’s brother) and Bea Looney ( Grandpa John’s sister). Laurla was a full sister to Olen and Aaron.
Laurla married Hobert Estep and they had five children, three boys and two girls. Hobert was a coal miner and found work in a mine near Grundy, Virginia at Garden Creek. It was there in July of 1942 that Laurla and all five of their children were killed by a slate dump explosion. A build-up of gas exploded within the slate dump causing a massive landslide which destroyed several miners homes and dammed up the creek along which they were built. Laurla was trapped in the debris. She pleaded with rescuers to cut off her leg so she could escape but there was evidently nothing they could do and she drowned in the rising creek waters.
The event made national news and articles like the following appeared in newspapers across the country…
(Don’t you just love how the coal company steps up right away
to blame ‘weather conditions’.)
Here are links to several other accounts of the incident:
6 Killed, 4 Hurt By Slag Blast .
St. Joseph Gazette - Jul 21, 1942
least six persons were killed and four others seriously Injured tonight when a slag pile at the Oakwood smokeless coal mine here exploded and burled miners' …Hunt Bodies Of Children .Three Believed Trapped In Huge...
Reading Eagle - Jul 20, 1942
... were known to be dead as a result of the blast, which buried the miners' cabins at the operation of the Oakwood Smokeless Coal Company last night…Six Buried Alive In .
Saskatoon Star-Phoenix - Jul 21, 1942
Ritchie chief bookkeeper at the Oakwood Smokeless Coal Company at whose operation the tragedy occurred said the bodies of Mrs Robert Estop and two of five…
Hobert Estep was at work in the mine when this happened and came out to find his entire family gone. He began another family but died in a car wreck just a few years after Laurla and their children. They are all buried in the cemetery at Fords Branch very near Jennie’s Great Grandmother’s gravesite.
Whenever we weed-eat, clean and decorate Jennie’s family’s graves, I always check on Laurla and her children too. I know it is what Mom would want me to do.
3 comments:
I had this story wrong too. I thought it was a flood that killed a lot of people. Yes this is a very tragic part of our family history.
Lordy, how blessed we are!! We have each other and that is a lot.
I love my bubby and sissy!! :)
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