It's difficult to envision today, but there was a time when, as the sun was rising over the hills of east Chariton on weekday mornings, coal miners carrying lunch buckets walked from their homes in White City, along 7th Street and elsewhere in the city to a work train parked on a Rock Island Depot siding nearby.
There, commencing in the teens of the 20th century and continuing into the 1930s, they boarded cars for the brief trip northeast to the Williamson mines.
When tragedy struck, as it did in that hazardous profession, work in the mines halted for the day and the miners returned to Chariton aboard what now were funeral trains, bearing the remains of their colleague.
That was how it went on Tuesday, June 12, 1923, when a young miner named David Lancey (above) was killed in a fall of slate at Mine No. 4. David was 30, born and raised in the coal mining villages of Monroe County to parents native to south Wales, a miner since his teen-age years, married to a miner's daughter and living in one of the dozens of cottages built by the mining company in Chariton's White City --- so called because all of these nearly identical dwellings were painted white.
Here's how The Chariton Leader of June 12 reported his death:
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Again the hazards of work in the coal mine is brought to our minds by the fatality which occurred at Mine No. 4 of the Central Iowa Fuel Co., near Williamson, this morning at a little after 8 o'clock. The work train from Chariton had reached the mine at the usual time and the miners had just commenced work in their rooms when the tragedy was reported.
The victim of the accident's name was David Lancey. He and Willard Laurie were buddys and had finished the morning's work with the mining machine and were attempting to put it on the trucks when in some manner some of the equipment struck a prop and knocked it out of place. This started a fall of slate, and the lump struck Lancey on the back of the head, bearing him to the level of the room and crushing his face against the top of the machine. His position there is too horrible for description, but crushed as his head was, death was almost instantly afflicted.
The deceased was a fine quality young man,, perhaps 30 years of age, and leaves a dependent wife and three children. They resided in a cottage in White City, which is a suburb of Chariton on the east.
As is the custom in tragedies of this character, the workers throughout the mine were notified and operations of the day ceased and what was a work train a short time before became a funeral train, reaching the city between 10 and 11 o'clock a.m.
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Funeral services were held on Friday, June 15. at the Methodist Church in Chariton and burial followed in the Chariton Cemetery. Here is David's obituary, as published in The Leader of June 19:
David Lancey, son of J.W. and Elizabeth Anne Lancey, was born at Hiteman, Iowa, on November 26, 1892. His father passed away when David was two and a half years of age. His boyhood was spent in and around the Albia coal fields. When he reached the years of manhood, he found a place in the mines.
On March 26th, 1917, at Des Moines, he was united in marriage with Miss Julia Thomas, of Chariton. They made their home in Chariton, where their three little ones came to make them happy: David Thomas, Mildred Elizabeth and Helen Darlene.
Their father found his greatest pleasure in this home. He loved it above everything. He was industrious and ambitious and all his plans and ambitions centered around the home and loved ones. It was surely a terrible tragedy when, in the fullness of manhood's strength, this life so full of hope and promise was struck down. The falling slate in Mine No. 4 brought instant death on June 12, 1923. His age was 30 years, 6 months and 17 days.
He had a host of real friends, for he was always jolly and took an interest in folks. He was always faithful to his duties as his country, his neighbors and his fellow workers of the Union. He was an enthusiastic member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
He leaves to mourn his untimely departure, besides the widowed wife and three children, his mother, Mrs. Frome, of Albia; one sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Harrison, of Des Moines; one brother, William John Lancey, of Des Moines; one half-sister, Mrs. Julia Coughlin, of Buxton; four half-brothers, Alfred Frome, of Des Moines and Joseph, Ray and James Frome, of Buxton; and a large number of other relatives.
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Julia did not remarry and continued to live in Chariton where she raised her children. In later years, she moved to Des Moines, where two of her children then were living, and died there during 1981 at the age of 85. Her remains were brought home to Chariton for burial beside David.
I found the image of David used here online at Ancestry.com, uploaded quite recently by Christopher Delia and attached to his family file. I do not know exactly how the donor is related.
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