Cleaver, Ansel

Last Friday afternoon, Ansel Cleaver, of east Joplin Missouri, while repairing a pump at a 70 foot depth in a shaft a mile east of Lincolnville Oklahoma, met death either by drowning or as a result of a fall. Mr. Cleaver had a ladder hung in the shaft and was working from the ladder. His son was working on top. The son had occasion to go away a short distance and when he returned he noticed his father gone, but supposed he, too, had gone after other tools or supplies and would soon return. The father failing to return in a reasonable length of time, the son became uneasy and looked down into the shaft, when he noticed one rung of the ladder was broken. This alarmed him and he went for help.

Grab hooks were lowered and Mr. Cleaver's body found in the sump in water 14 feet deep. When the body was taken out, and examined it was found there was no water in his lungs, which would indicated that possibly death was due to some cause other than drowning. Mr. Cleaver was 46 years of age, a man of family, and was a mining partner of Amos Hatton of Webb City Missouri.