TWO KILLED AT NATIONAL |
| Coke [Hubert] Mitchell and Bert Wigger,
both well known young men of the lead belt, met a fearful death while being lowered to
work at National Shaft No. 5, Monday night [February 5th] at eleven o'clock. From the evidence brought out at the Coroner's inquest and from statements of those at the scene of the accident, it seems that the only possible theory of just how it all happened is as follows: Mitchell, Wigger and E. L. Boyd were being lowered in the tub, the cage not having yet been put it. The hoisting engineer, Felix Bloom, states that when the tub had descended something like 100 or 125 feet he noticed a sudden jar or jerk on the rope. He then stopped the engine and went out to the mouth of the shaft. There he saw the signal whistle bent over and the signal rope held taut. Realizing that something was wrong, he went back and carefully hoisted [the tub] to the top when he was horrified to find only Boyd in the tub. Boyd had his thumb mashed but didn't know what had happened or what had become of his two companions. Two men, O. A. Highley and H. Barton, got into the tub and were lowered to the bottom of the shaft where they found the mangled bodies of the two unfortunate men. The condition of the bodies showed that they had been struck on the heads by some terrific force, which hurled them from the tub down two hundred feet of shaft to the bottom. In falling the signal rope had become wound around Mitchell's arm. The hoisting apparatus at Number 5 is the ordinary tub with a ten inch beam above through which the rope runs. The beam is four feet long and its ends run on the guys at each end of the shaft. It is for the purpose of keeping the tub from swinging and is supposed to go up and down the shaft on top of the ball. The only plausible conclusion is that this beam stuck at or near the top and did not go down with the tub. That when the tub, bearing its load of human life, had descended some hundred feet, the beam suddenly loosened itself and slipped down the rope with terrific speed, hitting the two men on their heads, bursting their skulls and hurling them to the bottom. Boyd sat at the side of this tub and was not under this beam. In the pitch darkness he never knew what happened noticing only a sudden jar, then the stopping of the tub. After the inquest the bodies of the unfortunate men were removed to their homes in Flat River and Desloge, respectfully. Mr. Wigger's remains were interred yesterday. He was married and leaves a wife and one child. Mr. Mitchell was the oldest son of Mr. and Mrs. William Mitchell of Flat River, and leaves besides parents, two brothers, Claude and Wendle [Wendell] and four sisters. The latter are Mrs. Jno. [John] Knowles and Mrs. [Maude] Robert Dixon, of Flat River, [Nora] Mrs. J. F. McCallen of Springfield, Mo., and an older married sister [Ada Jane "Jennie" Sims, wife of James Sims] in Chicago. The remains will be taken to Bonne Terre today for interment.--Lead Belt News. Additional Information: Full name of Coke Mitchell's mother: Catherine Mahala Mitchell (nee Cunningham), born August 28, 1950, died October 24, 1931, daughter of Catherine and James Cunningham. Catherine Mahala (Cunningham) Mitchell had two sisters, namely: Jennie Coffman and Ella Thomasson. The father, William Highley Mitchell, according to listing Bonne Terre Cemetery listing, was born in 1840 and died October 15, 1924. |