Carr, Jess

During the last 30 years, Jess Carr, Picher Oklahoma ore loader, estimates that he has loaded approximately 9, 000 cars of jack ore. Carr, who owns a farm at Southwest City Missouri, does no farming. He simply loads jack and likes it. In fact he leveled his first car of ore when he was eight years old. When he was a youngster he loaded jack during vacation time and went to school in the winter and spring. Although the fingers of his right hand have griped a shovel handle for so many years that they can no longer be straightened out, Carr still is at the same old game. The highest priced ore Carr has handled was the $130 a ton jack he loaded during World War I. This ore was just as heavy to load as the $17 ore of the depression days, Carr states. During the war Carr received 30 cents a ton for loading, but in recent years he has been loading for from 17? cents to 20 cents a ton. Carr assisted in the loading of the Webber Mine ore pile, which was known as the biggest pile of ore ever put on top of the ground in the Tri-State district. Carr tells that approximately 35 teams were hauling from this pile at the same time and that a year's time was required to load out the pile. This was done about the time of the close of the war. He also helped load the giant Mont B Mine ore pile between Webb City Missouri and Carterville Missouri. Carr left Webb City Missouri and came to this section of the district when the Picher field opened.