Kate’s Notes: Although this article appeared in a Connecticut paper the subjects were from Pennsylvania, which is why this transcription has been placed among the Pennsylvania news archives.
   Reports of this tragic accident appeared in papers around the country, including the New York Times, which provided a few more details of the rescue. See:
http://tinyurl.com/nostcv
   You can find a photo of the tombstone for John Gilleland and wife  Diadamey here:
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/pa/county/fayette/headstones/bowmanfl/target864.html
A photo of the tombstone for sons James and Winfield:
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/pa/county/fayette/headstones/bowmanfl/target863.html
   In the 1900 census for Franklin, Fayette County, PA, John Gilleland's household consisted of John, 45; wife Damey, 47; sons James, 9 and Winfield, 12; and Jane Levingston, 77. I am presuming Jane was John's mother-in-law. There are a large number of Livingston/Livingstones in that area.
   In the 1880 census two other children shared the household, Augusta, 7 and Joseph, 1. Since some other reports of this incident stated that John was survived by his wife and several children, we can assume that Augusta and Joseph were two of the older children who survived after the death of their father and brothers.
   Many thanks to the generous help of the researchers who participate on the message board for Fayette County, Pennsylvania message board for providing the background information on this family.

From the Naugatuck (CT) Daily News
Monday, October 14, 1901

OVERCOME BY BLACK DAMP
________________

A Miner and Two Sons Lost Their Lives in
an Air Shaft

Connellsville, PA., Oct 14. -- Their lives were lost in an air shaft, only two feet in diameter and 20 feet deep but filled with black damp, at the mines of the Juniata Coke company near Juniataville, Sunday. The dead are John Gilleland, a miner, aged 50 years, and his two sons, James and Winfield, aged 11 and 15 respectively. All three bodies were recovered, but in the effort John Nicholson, mine foreman at Juniataville, and John Baker, a mine fire boss, were seriously overcome by black damp.
   Near the home of the Gillelands is a deserted air shaft. Yesterday the two boys were playing around the shaft, which is boarded up for about two feet from the ground. James climbed to the top shouting to his brother. Then as he leaned over, a gust of the deadly fumes struck him, and with a scream he fell forward into the pit. His brother ran to the top of the shaft and started down a rickety ladder that, years ago, served the miners with means of descent. The elder Gilliland lost his life in trying to rescue his sons.

-- Contributed and transcribed by Kate Maynard, 2009.