 1873 - 1919 (45 years)
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| Name |
Lawrence Bernhardt Finzel |
| Birth |
8 Aug 1873 |
Finzel, Garrett County, Maryland  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
19 Jan 1919 |
Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland |
| Notes |
- Miner Recollections, published in Cumberland Sunday Times on November 25, 2018
Although a man of only average height and weight, Lawrence Finzel’s strength and endurance earned him legendary status among Appalachian coal miners.
Lawrence routinely produced as much coal in a day’s work as the combined output of several men his size. After setting production records in Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania over the course of his career, Finzel was proclaimed “The World Champion Coal Miner.” In his obituary, published in the Cumberland Evening Times on Jan. 20, 1919, it was stated that “he leaves home with his fellow miners and returns with them, and does as much work as two or three miners with apparent ease.”
A physical examination at Johns Hopkins Hospital resulted in Finzel being pronounced “the finest muscled man that ever came to the institution.”Lawrence Finzel was born at “Johnsons” (now known as Finzel) in Garrett County on Aug. 8, 1873. Lawrence was the son of German immigrant Henry Finzel and Garrett County native Sarah Catherine
(McKenzie) Finzel.
In 1901, Lawrence married Garrett County native Mary Caroline Crowe, daughter of George and Louisa Swan
(Chaney) Crowe. The marriage produced a daughter and four sons.
While working for the Consolidation Coal Co. in Allegany County in the early years of his career, Lawrence collected the highest “total wages paid” to a miner working the small vein mines in the state of Maryland. In early 1915, Lawrence left Western Maryland and his job with Consolidation Coal and moved to the Richwood, West Virginia, area (southeast of Charleston) to work in the small vein mines of the Saxman Coal and Coke Co. While employed by Saxman, Lawrence averaged 12 tons of mined coal per day, which was three times the average output for a single miner. For this, he earned an annual wage of $2,360.60, or an average of $196 per month. During his one-year stint in West Virginia, Lawrence mined 4,000 tons of coal. In his Cumberland Evening Times obituary, it was stated that “without doubt, this was the greatest amount of coal ever dug in West Virginia in a single year by a miner.”
Among the many anecdotes recounting Lawrence Finzel’s coal mining prowess is an episode that occurred in 1916, when Lawrence was working in West Virginia. The mine superintendent had given Lawrence the sole responsibility for driving a heading, while two Austrian miners, who were splendid workers, were assigned the duty of driving the air course. After a month’s work, Lawrence had driven the heading 60 feet deeper into the coal than the other two miners working in the air course.
Lawrence’s stint in the underground mines of West Virginia, however, proved to be one of the saddest and most difficult periods of his life.
In February 1916, Lawrence’s eldest son, 14-year-old Bernard, was killed by a roof fall while working in an underground coal mine at Keeney’s Creek, New Haven, Fayette County, West Virginia. Bernard was brought back home to his native Garrett County and laid to rest in the Finzel Cemetery. Perhaps the loss of his young son soured Lawrence to life in the mountains of West Virginia.
The following year, he relocated to Pennsylvania, near the city of Johnstown, where he proceeded to set state production records.
In the month of April 1917, Lawrence drew a monthly pay of $294.60. Several months later, Lawrence’s daughter Pansy went to visit her grandparents, Henry and Sarah Finzel, at their residence on Bowery Street in Frostburg. Pansy received an urgent message asking her to come home to Hooversville, Pennsylvania, because her father was seriously ill. Lawrence obviously recovered; in 1918, he was working at the Listonburg Mine, in Somerset County, near Addison, Pennsylvania. The superintendent of the mine was Lawrence’s oldest brother, Patrick Finzel. Patrick was a former Maryland delegate, having served from 1900 until 1902.
In January 1919, while living on Bowery Street in Frostburg, Lawrence was stricken with the Spanish Flu. The legendary coal miner passed away on Jan. 19. According to his obituary in the Cumberland Evening Times, Lawrence had once produced the remarkable quantity of 600 tons of coal in a single month. Even a man with his remarkable physical strength and stamina could not overcome this deadly influenza virus.
Lawrence was laid to rest near his son Bernard, in the Finzel Cemetery.
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| Person ID |
I06605 |
McKenzie Genealogy |
| Last Modified |
29 Oct 2021 |
| Father |
Henry Finzel, b. 1847, Saxoney, Germany d. 7 Dec 1928, Finzel, Garrett County, Maryland (Age 81 years) |
| Relationship |
natural |
| Mother |
Sarah Catherine McKenzie, b. 5 Dec 1852, Greenville TWSP, Somerset County, Pennsylvania d. 19 Jul 1916, Finzel, Garrett County, Maryland (Age 63 years) |
| Relationship |
natural |
| Marriage |
May 1915 |
| Family ID |
F00728 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family |
Mary Caroline (Carrie) Crowe, b. 2 Sep 1870, Maryland d. 26 Aug 1937, Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland (Age 66 years) |
| Marriage |
1901 |
| Children |
| | 1. Pansy Marie Finzel, b. 27 Feb 1896, Finzel, Garrett County, Maryland d. 29 Jan 1975, Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland (Age 78 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] |
| | 2. Bernard Finzel, b. 1901 d. 1916 (Age 15 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] |
| | 3. James L. Finzel, b. 1 Dec 1903, Barton, Allegany County, Maryland d. 5 Jan 1988, Midlothian, Allegany County, Maryland (Age 84 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] |
| | 4. Lawrence Edmond (Larry Allen) Finzel, b. 19 Oct 1908, Mt. Savage, Maryland d. 12 May 1975, Mexico City, Mexico (Age 66 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] |
| | 5. Raymond M. Sr. Finzel, b. 9 May 1912, Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland d. 22 Jan 1991, Key West, Monroe County, Florida (Age 78 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] |
|
| Family ID |
F03601 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
29 Oct 2021 |
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