'It was not bad'
Local man mourns loss of relative in mine disaster, shares victim's note written just before death

By Pamela G. Dempsey
Staff Writer

This note was scribbled by Martin Toler Jr. before he died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a coal mine in West Virginia. The note says "Tell all (I'll) see them on the other side. Jr. It was not bad, just went to sleep." Toler is the cousin of Doug Cline, overseer of the Church of God Southwest Indian Ministries. [Courtesy Photo]

GALLUP — While the Sago Mine tragedy may be nearing its one month anniversary, the loss feels just like yesterday for one local family.

Doug Cline, overseer of the Church of God Southwest Indian Ministries, had tears in his eyes when he spoke about the death of his cousin, Martin Toler Jr., who died Jan. 2 in the Sago Mine explosion in West Virginia. The explosion killed 12 miners and raised questions about mine safety.

Toler's death hit Cline particularly hard as Cline himself was once a miner in a site near Sago before he moved to Gallup 16 years ago.

His cousin, Cline said, was a mine foreman, just like Cline.

"A coal miner, he's a different breed of person," Cline said. "He doesn't look at danger as a person who's never been underground."

Miners, he said, make a good living, and often have no need to leave the counties they work in.

"I knew all about the coal industry when I was 10 years old," Cline said.

His father was a miner and would leave a half of a sandwich for the young Cline after he returned from a long day's work.

"It was special to me because it went from our kitchen, into the mine, and came back out," Cline said.

In the drift mines that Toler, and his nephew Jeff Toler, worked in, miners are hauled in and out with "man trips".

Cline compared these to a bus, but said that miners sit in metal cars similar to that of a train.

Toler took his crew further into a mine, past an "old works" a mine that has been closed off. It was this former mine that exploded soon after Toler passed by, trapping the miners inside.

According to Cline, Toler took his crew out of the man trip and walked toward a mine face, knowing he could not go back the way he came in.

"It was too hot, too much dust, and too much methane," Cline said. "He did only as a professional would do."

Toler sealed off a spot with a special tarp to protect his crew from the carbon monoxide.

While the miners do have respirators, they have an hour of oxygen.

"It was 42 hours before the rescue crew got to them," Cline said. "They had been dead about eight hours."

Cline said that Toler, who knew he and his crew could die, started praying with his crew.

Toler also wrote a note and simply said "Tell all (I'll) see them on the other side. Jr. It was not bad, just went to sleep."

As Cline read this, his eyes became wet.

"Coal miners are the bravest people in the world," he said.

While this tragedy has raised eyebrows in America about mine safety, Cline dismisses it as bad press.

"People who don't know about coal mining, look at (this different)," he said, "but a miner doesn't look at it any different than before."

It is a danger, he said, that miners are constantly aware of.

Toler, Cline said, helped so many people in his community and is missed by family and friends.

It's his grandchildren, Cline said, that are taking it the hardest of all.

"They ask, 'Why him?'."