100 YEARS AGO Coal slide kills worker

Edward Olsen, 35, of John Street in Rensselaer, was working as a coal heaver for the C. M. Stuart Coal Co. at Fourth and Dongan avenues in Albany when he and another heaver climbed to the top of a pile in one of the plant’s pockets to loosen some coal that had become frozen. The coal slid and carried Olsen through a chute, followed by 70 tons of coal that crushed him to death. His fellow heaver was working the other side of the pile and turned around just in time to see Olsen disappear through the chute. It took firemen and volunteer workers more than an hour to extricate Olsen’s body. A similar slide occurred the year before, but the heaver, trapped for three hours in the coal pile, was rescued.

—Times Union, Jan. 30, 1922