The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1906-01-20
Woman Gurerintends Mine,

Woman su2erinterds Mine.
Mrs. W. Z Morgan, wife of a Com.
Gilman of Joplin, is recognized rs tha
only woman mine superintendent in
the district, and she is a superin.en-
dent in every sense of the word
The Sunbonnet Boss is the way her
. employees refer to her, and it is with
sense of pride that the men employed
at her mine tell a visitor that thci:.
superintendent is a woman, and it Is
with no intent OF discourtesy that they
use the pseudonym Sunbonnet Boss.
Mrs. Morgan a few weeks ago or
! gained the Togo Mining Company and
| began working in an old abandoned
| mine on the Rob Roy lease, two and
one-hal: miles southeast of Joplin. Tn
mine was originally known as the
Dugan Diggins. Mining was carried
on at depth of eighty feet, and after
few successful months operation at
the Dugan Diggins was declared of
The property was abandoned
1t was not only abandoned, but it
was condemned. Most any miner who
knew the ground would volunteer TIE
information that there was nothing
there. 1t was 'pockety,' according TO
their explanation. The one big pocket |
of ore had been worked out and moth
ing remained.
But women have no given rules for
doing things. They do not reason as
do men, and the haphaZard manner in
which Mrs. Morgan selected her ficld |
of operations perhaps is responsible
for her prOtOp!ast success. But the
permanent success which has attend
ed her mining operations may be at
tributed only to the fact that her
executive ability is excellent and 70
the fact that she is at TIE mine almost
every minute in the day
When Mrs. Morgan first went to the
old Dugan Diggins there was nothing
there but large dump pile and a mine
filled with water. Her knowledge of
ground formation was limited but she
examined the character of the rock
that had been thrown upon the dump
and decided then and there that she
would engage in mining. And she did
A boiler, pump. engine and the necas-
sary supplies were purchased by Mrs.
Morgan and the work of draining the
mine OF its water was soon under wsy.
With the water out, Mrs Morgan en-
tered the mine and took a look at the
irifts. She examined the side walls.
The roof, the face and the bottom Of
he mine. She decided that the mine
1t that level had been pretty thorough
Y proSpected. The only thing to be
lone, then, was to sink the shaft deep {
r. At depth Of little more than |
90 feet a nice body of steel jack ,
steel colored zine ore) was encounter '
ID. The shaft was sunk to a depth of /
"A feet, and still there is ore in the /
'ottom. But drifting was started at /
his level, and some of the richest ore v
yer found in the district has been c
aiken out. f
There is not man in Mrs. Morgan's $
mploy who would not risk his life for Il
er. They like her-they like her way S
t managing. and work harder under a
he guidance of their "Sanbonnet t.
loss than they would for znybody
lse.
AT the mine Mrs. Morgan is well
quipped with a miners wearing ap- y
arel. She has rubber skirt, coat, d
at and boots, and when she is called II
pom to go into the mine she does So 81
18th much comfort and rides a tub
LIST as gracefully as any man.-Joplia OF
lobe. N