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Published June 07, 2009 08:14 pm - PITTSBURG, Kan. — The numbers are impressive: At 344 pages, it weighs in at 2 pounds, 14 ounces. Between the covers are 900 names. But for Pittsburg resident Debby Ossana Close, who spent Saturday morning and evening at Frontenac Homecoming festivities publicizing her new book, “Coal Mining Days,” it was a project about much more than numbers. Andra Bryan Stefanoni: New book documents lives of coal miners PITTSBURG, Kan. — The numbers are impressive: At 344 pages, it weighs in at 2 pounds, 14 ounces. Between the covers are 900 names.
But for Pittsburg resident Debby Ossana Close, who spent Saturday morning and evening at Frontenac Homecoming festivities publicizing her new book, “Coal Mining Days,” it was a project about much more than numbers. Close battled winds and heat at a small, unassuming but attractive booth on McKay Street to spread the word about what the book represents: heritage. She didn’t get many buyers at the event, which draws hundreds of people to an annual parade, carnival and street dances. But her goal wasn’t to write a best seller. Close, a retired teacher, has a passion for history. For the past six years, she has worked on compiling information she gleaned from interviews and newspaper clippings into a comprehensive record of the miners who settled in the area once known as the Weir-Pittsburg Coal Field. “We found such valuable information, we can’t let it get lost,” she said. By “we,” she is referring to her uncle, Louis Casaletto, who married Louise Casaletto, Close’s father’s sister. Louise and Joe Ossana were grandchildren of Johann “John” Christian Ott, a German immigrant who settled in Chicopee and later Arma, and worked as a coal miner in the deep shaft mines. “He’s my great-grandpa, and he was the inspiration for the bronze statue of the miner at Immigrant Park,” Close said. “Now, posthumously, he’s getting recognized along with all the other miners.” Louis Casaletto was instrumental in developing Immigrant Park, 106 W. Second St., where walls of granite inscribed with 1,015 local miners’ names pay homage to their contributions and sacrifice. She immersed herself in their histories, and those miners have become like family to Close, she said. “After the last edit, you’d think I’d be sick and tired of it, but I still love them,” she said. “I love their stories of struggle and then success.” Among her favorites are the poignant ones, such as the story of a miner who worked at Mine No. 7, and one day decided to smoke a cigarette before boarding the cage that would take him down into the deep shaft mine. Another man got in the cage in his place, and on the way down, the cage cable broke. All six miners on board died. In another story of reverse fortune, a miner left his pipe in the mine and returned below to retrieve it. He lost his life when a rock fell on him. “Reading about those life-changing yet everyday simple choices they made was sobering,” Close said. 
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