Patterson, Ira

Two miners were instantly killed, two men and a woman probably fatally injured and another women slightly injured in an explosion of a powder box in the powder house of the Producers Mine, a hard rock lead and zinc mine, one mile north of Cardin Oklahoma at the noon hour today. John Eddy, aged 28, and a miner named [Gabriel] Evans of Picher were killed. Both were drill men.

Mr. and Mrs. Ira Patterson were two of the seriously injured. The explosion is reported to have been one of the worst in the history of the district. The bodies of the injured were horribly mangled. They were rushed to a Joplin Missouri hospital. The three injured are not expected to live until night. The Pattersons have four children whose ages range from 4 to 11. Ray Hensley has a wife, and he was taken to his home a short distance from the shaft.

A box and a half of powder, 75 pounds, exploded, and it is thought that it became overheated in the engine room. Hensley was making up shots while F. Simmons was drilling the last sump hole preparatory to making the noon shot in the shaft which was down 190 feet. Simmons was uninjured.

Patterson was sharpening steels in the boiler room at the time for use in drilling. His wife had arrived but a few minutes before from their home nearby with his lunch. A son had pleaded with his mother before to allow him to take his father's lunch. Eddy and Evans had run out of water at the drill and had come to the engine room for water. The explosion hurled parts of the boiler room 150 feet from the scene of the accident and tore a hole in the ground two feet deep. Parts of the building were dashed down the shaft where Simmons was working. He was uninjured and was taken out of the ground by workmen who lowered a rope to him.

Seven doctors immediately rushed to the scene of the accident to give all possible medical assistance. Ray Hensley regained consciousness but did not say anything about the accident. Men familiar with powder say the accident was due either to the heating of the powder or the sparks flying from the steels being sharpened, and from striking a cap. Had the sparks struck the powder it would merely have ignited it instead of exploding it. These men also say that the explosion could not have been caused in making up the shots. In that event Hensley would have lost both hands, which is not the case.

The most tragic part of the accident is that the four little Patterson children saw the accident which will probably take the lives of their parents. The oldest sobbing said to some bystanders, "I wanted to take Daddy's dinner to him but Mother would not let me. I wish that she had for then she would not have been hurt." The children will be taken care of by friends of the family until permanent arrangements can be made for their care.

Killed: John Eddy, 28, Ray Hensley, and unknown miner [Gabriel Evans] Injured: Mr. and Mrs. Patterson. This makes the total deaths three. Hensley, who was thirty years old, resided at Tar River Oklahoma , and leaves a widow. Hensley died abut 3 o'clock.

Edde [2 spellings] , who was 28 years old, was also married. He resided in Miami. Edde was instantly killed. The dead and injured were all in the engine house at the new shaft on the Producer Mining Company's lease. Two miners were killed and two men and a woman seriously, if not fatally injured shortly after noon Thursday by a blast in a shaft that is being sunk on Mr. Cardin's land near Tar River Oklahoma, [later called Cardin] while another woman was painfully hurt.

The dead men were employed at the Walker Mine, and had gone over to the new shaft to watch the men at their work, when the explosion occurred. One of the injured men, whose name could not be learned, lost a foot, which was blown 75 yards from the mine shaft. The woman, whose name could not be learned, was practically disrobed by the force of the explosion, and so seriously injured it is believed she will die. The cause of the explosion is unknown. The concussion was terrific, and did a great deal of damage to the surrounding mill property. One miner, who was in the shaft at the time of the great blast, was uninjured, but he had to remain below until the hoist was repaired before he could be taken out.

Little could be learned about the details, but it is known a box of dynamite in a powder house near the shaft exploded, and the explosion was one of the worst in the history of the Miami mining district.

The bodies of the two dead men were mangled almost beyond recognition. The injured were hurried to Joplin Missouri for treatment while the two bodies were turned over to an undertaker to prepare for burial.

Ira Patterson, a hoisterman in the Producers' Mine at Cardin Oklahoma, died at St. John's hospital in Joplin Missouri at 8 o'clock Saturday night, as a result of injuries received in a powder explosion at the mine Thursday. His death makes the fourth victim of the explosion. The others were William Eddy [also called in articles John Eddy/Edde], G. Evans and Ray Hensley, the ground foreman. Mrs. Patterson, although seriously injured, will recover, according to attending physicians. Ira Patterson's death adds even a darker touch of tragedy to the accident, as his children, one boy and three girls, ranging in age from 4 to 11, are now entirely dependent upon their injured mother. Funeral arrangements are not complete.

Funeral services for Raymond Hensley, who was killed in a powder explosion at Tar River Oklahoma last week, were held Sunday at the home of his sister, Mrs. Charles Kittrell, in Joplin Missouri. The Odd Fellows had charge of the funeral and burial which was in Fairview cemetery. Hensley had been in Picher Oklahoma about a year previous to his death and was 26 years old. He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Velma Hensley, his father, James Hensley, three sisters, Mrs. Kittrell of Joplin, Mrs. Jesse Berch of Quapaw Oklahoma and Mrs. Fred Reed of Houston Texas, two brothers, Ray Hensley of Smithfield Oklahoma and Claude Hensley of Picher Oklahoma.

Suit for $35,000 was filed Saturday by Mrs. Velma Hensley against The Producers Company for the death of her husband in a mine accident. Her husband, Ray Hensley, a machine man, was working for the company in October when he was instantly killed in a dynamite explosion. According to the petition, he had gone to a small blacksmith shop near the mine to have some tools sharpened. Dynamite was kept nearby and sparks from the forge caused the explosion. The company is blamed for its carelessness in storing the dynamite so near the blacksmith shop.

Hensley was one of three men who lost their lives near Tar River Oklahoma through an explosion. James Eddy, son of the former United States Deputy Marshal Eddy, and a resident of this city. The third victim was a man named Patterson, whose wife was also seriously injured, but finally recovered. Patterson died in a Joplin Missouri hospital several days after the explosion.