“The Night the Mountain Groaned”
“The Night the Mountain Groaned” A Christmas Story Rooted in the 1900s Fayette County Mine Disasters “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” — Luke 2:11, KJV Fayette County, West Virginia, had always lived by the mines. In the early 1900s, coal dust clung to every porch rail, every coat, every heartbeat. Men descended into the earth before dawn, and families waited for the whistle that meant another shift had ended safely. But on December 16, 1907 , at the St. Clair Mine near Mount Hope , the whistle never blew. A pocket of gas ignited deep underground. The explosion shook the hills, sending a plume of smoke curling into the winter sky. Families rushed from their company houses, mothers clutching shawls around their shoulders, children crying as the ground trembled beneath their feet. Among the trapped miners was Samuel “Sam” Hensley , a quiet man known for reading his Bible during lunch breaks. His wife, Lila, had packed his tin pail t...