Maryland Bureau of Mines, Inspector's Annual Report

March 16, 1905----William Trappe, miner, aged about 50, married and having a large family, was fatally injured in Carlos mine, of the Barton & George's Creek Valley Coal Company, "on the hill". He was engaged in what the miners call "scutching" when he "faced" a V-shaped "slip". The cross-bar the men had set up had but one timber prop; the other end resting in a hole dug in the coal at the side of the excavation. When the weight of the loosened coal, a ton or a ton and a half, fell to the bar, the sunken end tore out of the coal, swung out, and dropped the mass on Trappe. The practice of putting cross-bars in holes in the coal cannot be too strongly condemned. It is not often that this coal will hold solid for any length of time, and it is hardly ever safe if weight comes upon it.

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Miner Recollections: William Trapp by Bucky Shriver

William Henry Trapp, son of German immigrants Casper Trapp and Catherine Dretz Bache Trapp, was born in Mechanicstown, Frederick County, MD on November 30, 1850. Originally incorporated as Mechanicstown in 1751, the name of the town was changed to Thurmont by an act of the Maryland General Assembly in 1894. William Trapp found his way to western Maryland, where he met his bride-to-be, Mount Savage native Mary Rose Tighe.

Born on September 3, 1857, Mary Rose Tighe was the daughter of John Michael Tighe and Catherine Magdalena "Lena" (Heller) Tighe. The Tighe family took up residence in Bowery Furnace, (now known as Midlothian) named for the Cumberland Coal & Iron Company's iron furnace. On January 14, 1876, Mary Rose's younger brother, John Tighe, was working in the Borden Shaft Mine. When he did not return at the expected time, his alarmed family and friends initiated a search. The sixteen year-old's body was found at midnight in an unventilated section of the mine. The young miner had suffocated when he became lost in the dark mine tunnels after his lantern was accidentally extinguished. John Davis, who found the boy's body, was overcome by the foul air to such an extent that he had to be helped from the mine.

A few years after the tragic death of her brother John, Mary Rose said "yes" to William Trapp, and they married on August 11, 1878. To support their growing family of seven girls and one son, William worked as a miner for the Barton & Georges Creek Valley Coal Company. The company operated three mines in Carlos, all of which shipped coal via a tipple on the Cumberland & Pennsylvania Railroad's Carlos Branch. The product taken from the Hill Mine was the only coal in Carlos that the company owned. A percentage of the profits from the other operations was paid to the Consolidation Coal Company, from whom the two mines were leased. On March 16, 1905, William was working at the Hill Mine, engaged in what the miners called "scutching." A word of Scottish origin, scutching was the process of making vertical cuts down each side of a face prior to downing the coal by wedge or blast. The men had placed an overhead cross bar with one end resting on a timber and the other end set in a hole on the opposite side of the excavation. According to the Annual Report of The Mine Inspector: "When the weight of the loosened coal, at ton or ton and a half, fell to the bar, the sunken end tore out of the coal, swung out and dropped the mass on Trapp. The practice of putting bars in holes in the coal cannot be too strongly condemned. It is not often that this coal will hold for any length of time, and it is hardly ever safe if weight comes upon it." The sting of death from within the underground coal mine rose to haunt Mary Rose Trapp, again. The funeral for William Henry Trapp took place on Saturday, March 18th, at St. Michael's Catholic Church in Frostburg, and burial was in the church cemetery. He left behind a widow and eight children, three of whom were younger than ten years of age. Mary Rose spent the rest of her life in Midlothian, outliving her husband by 34 years. She died on January 14, 1939 and was laid to rest beside William in St. Michael's Catholic Cemetery. St. Michael's Church must have touched and guided the heart of William and Rose's daughter Rosita, who was just shy of her 14th birthday when that fall of coal took her father's life. She faithfully attended St. Michael School, and two years after that tragic day, she entered the Ursulines. Sister Martha Trapp was professed in Frostburg on January 3, 1910 and served various convents over the years. In January 1985, Sister Martha celebrated her 75th anniversary of religious profession at Bedford Park, Bronx, N.Y. She was the first to attain that distinction in the Eastern Province of the Order, where Ursuline history dates back to 1855.