I've written many times about the hazards involved in Lucas County's coal mining industry between its inception during 1876 and the closure of Big Ben mine 102 years later, during 1978.
Robert Rennie, whose grave and recently reset tombstone are located in Fry Hill Cemetery at Lucas, was one of the first losses.
The Chariton Patriot of July 30, 1879, reported his death this way: "Robert Rennie, engineer of the Whitebreast mines at Cleveland, was killed on Saturday last. He had left the engine in charge of the fireman, and was looking down the shaft asking a man below about a pump. The fireman received the signal to let the cage down, which, in its descent, struck Rennie on the back of the head and killed him instantly. He left a wife and nine children without any means of support. He was alone to blame for the accident."
Rennie, born ca. 1841, was Scots by birth and had married Marian (or Mary Ann) Kerr in Scotland during June of 1861.
About 1870, Robert sailed for the United States and found work in the mines of the Midwest. He sent for his family and Mary Ann and their five children, ranging in age from 9 to 1, arrived in New York from Glasgow aboard the S.S. Australia on Nov. 9, 1872, listed as "steerage" passengers.
The first of Lucas County's Cleveland mines, White Breast No. 1, opened during 1876 and it seems likely that the Rennie family arrived in the new mining town of Cleveland soon after it was founded. By the time of Robert's death, there were four additional children.
The Rennie family remained in Cleveland through 1880 but moved soon thereafter to Illinois and I've not attempted to track them down. The eldest son, James, had gone to work in the mines by 1880 and in addition to caring for her children, Mary Ann was taking in boarders. So the family was not destitute.
And they purchased a modest tombstone for Robert, now renewed for the foreseeable future, to remind us that he was here.
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