Clifford Holley, 35-year old Flat River man, met instant death in a fall down St. Joseph Lead Co. mine shaft No. 12, near Elvins, about 3:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 21, 1944. The shaft is about 550 feet deep.
From the best information available, Holley stepped on the cage and gave the signal to the hoisting engineer to be lowered into the mines and about the time the floor of the cage was about two feet below ground level he attempted to jump and the bonnet of the cage, in other words the top of the cage, struck him crushing his head and he fell to the bottom of the shaft.
It was his job on split shifts, with another employee of the company, to keep the skip pockets clean between hoisting shifts, so there would be no delay in hoisting rock to the surface.
Company officials told The News that there was an established rule that there must be at least two persons going down on the cage. Evidently some confusion must have happened somewhere.
Holley was married but had no children. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Holley of Flat River. The body was taken to Hood's Funeral Home.
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