On July 3, 1872, 16 men and a 9-year old boy descended the 170 foot shaft of the Atwater Coal Company Mine in Atwater Township on the S.G. Shaffer Farm, south of Route 224 and east of Route 225. By mid-day, 7 miners survived a brutal fire in the mine. Richard Roberts, Robert Roberts, William Roberts, Thomas Maines, Joseph Otey, John Williams, John Howells, John Jones, and 9-year old George Hufford died in Ohio's first mining disaster and the nineteenth mining disaster in the United States since 1839 with more than 5 fatalities. In 1873, Ohio became the second state to pass a law for the safety of miners.