The Madisonian. (Virginia City, Mont.) 1873-1915, 1896-07-25
THU SUMMIT ACCIDENT
JOHN MCGUIRE, A WELL
KNOWN MINER, KILLED
of the Summit Placer Company's
froperty-N lillian LefS Miraculous
Escape.

Escape.
John Mcclure. a well known young
miner, met death in a most horrible
form at Summit, about 1880 Wednes-
day morning. Mcclure was in the en-
ploy of George Henderson, Of the Sum
nit Placer Company, as q drifter. and
while at work in the tunnel, was caught
by q fall Of ground in the face of the
drift and instantly killed, his body be-
ing frightfully mangled, both neck and
back being broken. VIM. LEI. who
was McGuire's partner on the Shift es-
capped ~miraculously. LET heard the
report of the fall, and made a rush for
the tunnel, but was caught and pinned
down but his head was protected by a
broken piece Of tagging, and this
chance circumstance saved his life.
1t seems that a rivalry between Chas.
Gray, another drifter. and the dead
man. is partially responsible for this
distressing accident. Both were anx-
ious to excel in amount of work done
during each single shift. Mr.. Hender-
son was with Mcclure in the tunnel at
1870 and gave him his Instructions.
McGuire, in his anxiety to do a big
days work, drove his tagging too far,
which caused the accident.
LET came out of the tunnel 10 minutes
before the accident, with a car load Of
dirt and reported everything safe. Mr..
Henderson entered the tunnel a few
minutes later, and heard LET cry out.
He rushed to the face of of the drift.
and realized in a moment, what had
happened. He at Once summoned help,
and for rs hours the rescuers worked
faithfully. LET'S head was free and he
could talk to the men who were work.
ing to save him. After about three
hours of hard work, Lief was taken out,
largely through the bravery of Jack
Wesley, who went under the timbers
at the risk of his own life and brought
LET out.
McGuire's body Vas recovered after
26 hours Of continuous work. Among
the men who worked this long shift
without in~terlnission we're Jack Wes-
ley, VIM. St. Clair, w. H. Gilbert,
Charles Gray, Jack Barrada, Henry
Ptomey, J. H. Beal, j.. Rosenberg, J.
Rodgers, Arthur Davis and others.
Will N~urenberger also did heroic
work. When the body was finally
reached several of the men tainted from
extreme fatigue.
Coroner McNulty. who in the mean
time had arrived on the ground, then
impanneled a jury and investigated
the causes leading up to the accident.
The testimony was as follows:
Testimony of Charles Gray-The
mine is worked in a workman-like man
ner. Mr.. Henderson takes every pre-
caution to secure the safety of the men
working in the mine, the mine was we'll
timbered. When I quit on my shift
the morning of accident, July 22d,
1896, [ had put in the main set of tim
beers, the timbers were in good shape.
I worked in the same place; came off
shift at 6 O'Clock in the morning.
Started a few tagging on left hand side
where the ground was q little loose and
heavy. I told John Meg ire the ground
was heavy and advised him to put in
another set of timbers as quick as pos
sible. And the reply he made me was
that he thought there was too much
scientific work about my advice and
thought common sense was all that was
necessary to hold the ground. There
was no danger in the ground if proper
precautiOn vas taken. I was not afraid
of the ground. The cause of the acct
dent was caused by driving the spiling
too far, thus throwing the weight on
the point of the spiling and causing the
cap to rock.
George Henderson That on the
morning of the accident O after !
o'clock, I went into the mine: wen
where John Mcclure was at work:
looked over the condition of the face of
breast and saw some toggling in the
left-hand corner, told Mcclure to set
his timbers as soon as he could and to
put them so the cap would come inside
OF the toggling and for him not to dis
turb the toggling until after he had his
main set in place. He said there was
trouble in driving his spiling ahead