MINER INDEX
HOME PAGE



SMOTHERED IN ORE BIN.
Bonne Terre Register, Bonne Terre, MO, Friday, Jan. 15, 1909

   The dead body of Leslie Wood was found in the chute of an ore bin at Federal Mill No. 3 early Wednesday morning. 

    Although there was no witness to the accident, the young man, it is generally believed, accidentally fell into the bin while walking around it and was smothered to death.

    The bin is about 35 feet deep and about 25 to 30 feet square at the bottom, with a chute in the center, and holds hundreds of tons of finely crushed ore, which feeds through the chute on to an elevator belt.

    About five o'clock Wednesday morning the chute became stopped up and was not feeding properly, and when other employees opened the chute so it would feed properly the dead man's body was discovered in the chute. The unfortunate man, who was smothered by the crushed ore, had been in the bin several hours, it seemed, and it took about two hours to get him out.

    Wood was employed on the screens and went on shift at 3 o'clock Tuesday afternoon and was supposed to leave duty at 11 o'clock.   He was last seen about 10 o'clock that night.  As there is no railing around the bin, the supposition is that he accidently slipped and fell in.  As the ore is very fine and heavy, he was unable to get out of the chute.  No one worked near him, and owing to the noise caused by the machinery, a cry for help could not have been heard by any of the other employees about the mill.

    While the dead man's body was being taken out of the chute another man fell in and for awhile he was thought to have been seriously hurt.  It required some time to get him out also.

    After being taken from the chute, Wood's body was taken to Deimer undertaking establishment where the inquest was held, after which the body was prepared for burial and later moved to the home of his father, John Wood, who lives on the Jeff Simms farm near Elvins.

    The deceased man was 20 years  of age and a member of Modern Woodmen Lodge at Bismarck.  The funeral was held at Bismarck yesterday.  ----Farmington News.

LESLIE WOODS KILLED

Leslie Woods, aged 21 years, and who was raised at Hickory Grove, was killed while at work in the Federal mill in Elvins, Tuesday night, Jan. 5.

The exact cause of his death is not known, but it is thought that he was smothered under the fine chats in the bin in which he was found. About seven hours after he was last seen this bin stopped feeding and when the men began looking for the obstruction they found his body.

Mr. Woods was a model young man, well known and liked by everybody. The funeral was held at the Baptist church in this city and the Odd Fellows' cemetery was the burial place.  

MINER INDEX
HOME PAGE