Billed as an event over 20 years in the making, the dedication of an Ely Miners Memorial sadly started in 1889 when the first of 218 men didn’t come home from work.
The miner’s name was John E. Ogren. He died in the Chandler Mine on Jan. 31, 1889. He was 28.
A report of his death and many others are in included in this week’s Ely Echo. For ones that could be found, a newspaper clipping is reprinted just as it was written. In researching these deaths, the Ely Arts and Heritage Center gathered scans of newspapers that listed miners lost in the Ely area. “We had a number of volunteers going back 20 years who did research,” said Nick Wognum, president of the EAHC. “Ely native Michele Lammi and her team did a very thorough job and collected screenshots of newspaper reports. We were able to reprint many of those in this week’s paper.”
The reports were gruesome at times, including Ogren’s in the Ely Iron Home.
“The first fatal accident in the history of the Chandler mine occurred last Thursday evening, about five o’clock. John M. Ogreen (SIC) a Swedish laborer, was employed at running some machinery in one of the lower levels of No. 1, near the foot of the main shaft.
“A part of the casing of this shaft had been removed for some purpose, and Ogreen carelessly put his head through the aperture to look up the shaft. Unluckily for him, the cage was at that moment descending and with irresistible force it struck him a terrific blow dashing out his brains in an instant and shattering his chest and shoulders. Death was instantaneous. No blame can be attached to the company in any way as his duties did not call him within several feet of the spot where he met his fate.
“The deceased had been in the employ of the Chandler company for some time.
“The funeral was held Friday, the Baptist minister of Tower officiating. Work was suspended at the mine on Friday to give his companions an opportunity to attend the land sad rites.”
On Sunday at 2 p.m. a dedication ceremony will be held to commemorate the memorial which includes two granite tablets listing the names of the 218 miners. “We want to thank everyone who donated to this project and helped us raise over $50,000 to make this project a reality,” said Wognum. “We have plans to add two statues of miners, one who looks like a miner in the late 1800s with a candle on his helmet and the other representing a miner when the Pioneer closed on April 1, 1967.”
The project had been discussed for several years before being publicly announced in 2008.
The Ely city council gave the go ahead in 2011 with a goal “to create a memorial to the miners who died here and whose work contributed to the success of industry during World War II.”
In addition to private donations, the city of Ely provided $15,000 and the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board funded a $15,000 grant. Twin Metals Minnesota donated $5,000 to the EAHC.
“We were just under $2,000 short of our goal when a gentleman named Hank Shea, a relative of the Swanson family, brought in a check to cover the shortfall,” said Wognum. “So many have worked hard to make this happen. Now we will have a permanent monument to remember Ely’s mining history and to remember those who lost their lives mining iron ore to help build a country.”
