Wood, Jackson

Two men were fatally injured and eleven others were entombed for several hours yesterday when a $40,000 zinc and lead mill just south of Fillmore's bridge, owned by the Riverside Mining Company of Kansas City, burned to the ground. The fire broke out at 2:30 o'clock, and within a few minutes the mill was a mass of flames. Francis Lewis, 19 year old Baxter Springs Kansas youth, a screen hand, was killed instantly when he jumped from a 50 foot derrick as the flames enveloped the structure. He fell on his head and his neck was broken. Jackson Wood, hoisterman, residing between Joplin and Duenweg Missouri, received injuries which resulted in his death at Freeman hospital about an hour later when he, too, was forced to jump from the derrick just after he had finished bringing four men to the surface, two of them well-known mining men, who had visited the mine. The hoisterman jumped only after he had been badly burned by the flames and after he had made a courageous effort to warn his fellow workers in the mine below. After the four men had got out of the tub he again lowered it and bumped it several times against the bottom of the shaft in an effort to show the miners below that something was wrong. Misunderstanding, one of the miners hooked another bucket of dirt on the hook. Tortured by the flames, Woods gasped, "I can't hold her," and jumped. As he lay on the ground below, his badly burned arms and chest gave mute testimony to the anguish he had suffered before driven in desperation to make the fatal leap. Might Have Saved Life, if he had been able to crawl down the tramway before he had jumped, mine officials believe he might have escaped with perhaps nothing more than broken limbs and burns.

The four who narrowly escaped with their lives were Charles Jobes, prominent Joplin Missouri mine operator; J. R. Price of Kansas City, president of the Kansas City Smelting Company; Sam Smith, groundboss, and Jack Farris, trackman. They were hoisted from the ground while the fire was at its height. The men did not know, when they started the ascent, that they were being hauled into a veritable flaming furnace.

Cut off from the main exit leading from the derrick by shooting flames, the men groped their way into the mill through smoke and fire and finally made their way to safety through an opening in the floor of the mill. They got outside just in time to see Wood jump to his death, his clothing a flaming torch. Had the incident occurred no less that a minute later, the four probably would have been trapped in the derrick or might have been dropped in the mine can to the bottom of the shaft as Wood was forced to leave his post of duty. A tiny drill hole 1,000 feet from the shaft proved the salvation of the eleven miners trapped in the underground workings. Had it not been for this tiny hole penetrating the earth to a depth of more than 200 feet, miners agreed that the trapped men doubtless would have been suffocated. As it was, the drill hole furnished air to the miners and an updraft to keep the smoke and flames from the burning derrick from descending the shaft in any great volume. Considerable smoke filled the mine near the shaft, but it did not drift back into the workings where the men took refuge. Burning timbers, a large sheave wheel and rocks and timbers were hurtled into the shaft, but none of the miners were near the bottom of the shaft and escaped injury. In addition to furnishing air, the drill hole also served as a means of communication with the trapped miners.

The men carried on a conversation with mine officials, newspapermen and others, and if their courage was at times daunted, they were soon assured that it would be only a matter of a few hours before they would be hoisted to safety. They talked and joked among themselves and carried on a rapid-fire conversation with the ones around the mouth of the drill hole. "Yes, we have plenty of smokin', the air's good and there's nothin' we want, except we're getting hungry," was the message they shouted up the drill hole. At 6 o'clock the steel cable was let down the main shaft, after the wreckage had been cleared away, and the men were brought to the surface by means of a hoist mounted on a truck. The fire apparently originated from an exhaust pipe of a compressor in the engine room adjoining the mine. Frank Williams, engineer, attempted to put out the blaze by throwing buckets of water on the burning wood, but the engine house soon was enveloped. It was a matter of a few seconds until the fire, carried to the mill by means of a belt from the engine, had spread to all parts of the structure, and the whole was soon a seething mass of flames.

During the blaze several oil tanks in the mine exploded, although no one was injured. Mine machinery appeared to be damaged beyond repair. In addition, three motor cars belonging to miners were burned, and Jobes' car was badly damage by the flames. Firemen from Joplin Missouri went to the scene, but were unable to save any of the structure. The eleven men entombed in the mine were C. Conrow, R. Huddleson, Floyd Johnson, R. Price, Guy Hendricks, A. Laughray, L. Hill, C. Brennan, C. Odell, R. Hill and A. Turner. Johnson and Hendricks were the first two men out of the ground, coming up in a can at 6:11 o'clock. Grimy from the day's work in the mine and choking slightly from a pall of smoke that hung in the shaft near the surface, the men came out smiling, as a crowd of 200 or more persons looked on. Mothers, wives and children, and sweethearts stood anxiously waiting as the miners were brought to the surface, two at a time. It was 6:25 o'clock when the last pair was hoisted to the surface. As word of the tragedy spread, cars filed out to the scene in a steady stream, and before all eleven men had been taken out scores of cars lined the Fillmore's bridge road and along the sideroad that led up to the mill ruins.

None of those that had been trapped in the ground seemed worried--all were joking and smiling as waiting hands helped them out of the bucket. One miner carried out a chunk of rock for a "souvenir." Exit was effected by using a truck with a mounted hoister. On-lookers stacked charred timbers about the mouth of the shaft and laid a steel drill casing across the top. In a few minutes a pulley was rigged and the bucket dropped slowly to the bottom. A few minutes after the men had been hoisted to safety all but a few of the onlookers had departed, only the smoking ruins and wreckage remaining to mark the spot of the tragedy. R. W. Johnson, superintendent of the mine, said the loss was covered by only $7,000 insurance. While the actual loss was $40.000 he said he believe it would cost at least $85,000 to rebuild a new mill and cover the damage caused by loss of time.

The mine had been in operation for the last three years, and produced on the average of a carload of zinc a week besides a large quantity of lead. Approximately twenty or thirty stockholders have an interest in the mine. Frank Fenix, state mine inspector, who is in Kansas City, was notified of the disaster and made known that he would be here today to conduct an investigation. An inquest for the two miners killed will be held at 9 this morning at Main street and county line by James Nutman of Granby Newton county Missouri coroner. Lewis was the only son of Mr. and Mrs. George Lewis of Baxter Springs Kansas. He belonged to a chapter of DeMolay, holding the office of past master councillor. He was named as head committeeman by the grand order of DeMolay, to have charge of the Greater DeMolay Movement of this district, and had planned to make several trips this summer in which he intended to visit DeMolay chapters in various cities in behalf of the order. He was a graduate of the Baxter Spring high school.

Besides his widow, Mrs. Epha Wood, Mr. Wood is survived by one son, Paul Wood; two sisters, Mrs. F. Gaylon of Baxter Springs, and Mrs. Sarah Thompson of Picher; one brother, William Wood, 710 Missouri avenue, and a father, Harline Wood of Birchtree Missouri. Wood had lived in this district for approximately thirty years. He formerly was a member of the old Bankers ball team of this city.

Funeral arrangements for both miners are incomplete pending the inquest. Lewis' body will be taken to Baxter Springs for funeral services following the inquest. A vivid description of the terror and tragedy which yesterday stalked in the midst of scorching flames and blinding smoke at the Riverside Mine was told by Charles Jobes, district mine operator, who with J. R. Price, president of the Kansas City Smelting Company, Sam Smith, ground boss, and John Farris, track man, was brought to the surface just before Jack Woods, hoisterman, jumped to his death. "We had just been raised to the surface and had gone into the mill when we heard shouts of"fire,'" Jobes said. "We immediately rushed to the mill door only to find the flames shooting in. The only thing to do was to crawl under the floor of the mill. We finally were able to get out on the other side. "I learned that the hoisterman had lowered the tub just after we had gone into the mill. He bumped it against the bottom of the shaft to warn the man below, but the miner misunderstood and hooked on a tub of dirt. It was a good thing he did misunderstand. He might never have reached the top, and if he had, he probably would have been consumed by the flames. "We saw both of the men who were killed jump. I believe they could have saved themselves if they had crawled down the tramway. Then they would have had to jump only about 20 feet." The visit to the mine was the first ever made by Price. He said last night that he did not remember distinctly just how he got out of the mill. Part of his clothing and a number of papers were burned when the fire destroyed a tool house where the miners kept their clothes. R. W. Johnson, mine superin-tendent, told how young Lewis had jumped from the derrick, landing on his head almost at the feet of the mine superintendent.

"The fire started in the engine room," Johnson said. "It must have been from the exhaust pipes of the compressor. We think the fire shot through an opening just under the roof of the engine house where the belt from the engine to the mill ran. The mill was in flames before we had time to do anything." Frank Williams, engineer, who was in the engine room when the fire started, also said he believed the fire originated in the exhaust pipes. He told how he had frantically tried to extinguish the flames with buckets of water before he was forced to leave the engine room. Others told how pieces of oil tanks had blown several hundred yards away from the mill. Little agitation was felt by the eleven men trapped in the mine after the accident, it was revealed in conversation between the miners and a reporter of the Joplin Globe, Joplin Missouri, through the drill hole through which they received air.

The drill hole, located 1,000 feet southeast of the shaft, was about 200 feet deep. The man could be easily heard as they talked, but at the top it was necessary to shout to be head below. O. E. Turner, tub hooker, said the first the miners knew of the accident was when the sheave wheel in the derrick and the tub fell into the sump with a resounding crash. Turner, who was standing about 350 feet away from the shaft, rushed to it and looked up to find the derrick on fire. He hurried back into the heading to tell the other men, who were working there, and the entire crew ran back to the shaft with the thought that there might be a chance of them getting out. "We stood around and talked it over," Turner said, "and at first we sure were scared, thinking maybe we'd have to stay down here two or three days. After a time we got over worrying though, and went back to the drill hole to see if we couldn't talk to someone on top. "We waited about half an hour before anybody came up here to talk to us and before we could find out what had happened. They told us not to worry that they would have us out in a short time, so then we sat around talking and smoking.

"The air is good down here and we're not bothered with smoke. We have our carbide lights and they're working all right. When we went back to look up the shaft, we found that fire, burning timbers and smoke were shooting down into the shaft as the mill burned. This stopped after a time, and then the air was good around the shaft, so some of the men stayed there and the others remained around the drill hole to talk to those on top."The most important question the men had to ask was "What happened to those cars on top? Did they burn up?" When told that all three cars which had been parked near the mine were destroyed by fire, a short silence followed, and then: "Hell." they said. The cars belonged to Floyd Johnson, Arthur Lockery and Jack Woods. Woods was one of the two fatally hurt. "Good," they yelled up the drill hole when told that it would be only a short time until they could be pulled out. The air was good, nobody was hurt and "we've got plenty of smoking," they said, so that they weren't worried. "Are you getting hungry?" they were asked. "Yeh, I could eat," the miner spokesman for the crew immediately responded, "I'll tell you though, you might send us down some whisky," he added after a second thought. In answer to that question, "Do you know where there's a still?" he replied: "There's probably one back up in the woods there." This brought to the ears of those on the surface the sound of laughter he had provoked from his comrades.

Somewhat reticent as to what they had talked about, the spokesman's only answer to that question was: "First one damn thing and then"nother." "We're just sitting around, smoking, talking and waiting," the miner told the reporter when asked what they were doing. They were calmly waiting until the rescuers could let a tub down and remove them. They were wondering if the accident had drawn a "lotta people to the mine," and were told that there were about 300 persons around the scene of the tragedy. The men were somewhat "scared" at first, the miner reported, because they thought the hoister might fall into the shaft and close it up. They knew the mill was burning because of the falling timbers.

The men asked whether the hoistermen were killed or injured, and immediately became silent when they learned the men were dead. They were elated when told that work was progressing toward getting them out and all went up toward the shaft to be ready to go to the top. An airplane which passed over the scene could be heard through the drillhole by the trapped men. They did not know what the roar was, but were told it was an airplane.

Two miners were killed and 11 others trapped for four hours by an explosion and fire in a zinc and lead mine near Joplin Missouri. Jacob Price, president of the Kansas City Smelting Company narrowly escaped death.