George Payne (-1895)

PAYNE

Posted By: Mark Christian
Date: 5/16/2006 at 08:04:10

The Roland Record, Roland, Story County, Iowa, October 17, 1895.

Disasterous Accident at the Story City Coal Mines

The four miners constituting the night shift at the Johnson Mine, south of Story City, were sufficated by smoke in the mine Friday night. They were Messrs. Inerbret Enge; Alfred Peterson, Alexander Osterland and George Payne and were working in the mine preparatory to the sinking of the air shaft. The engineer had built a fire in the furnace and had left. The supposition is that after the fire had been banked up, the gases which formed, caused a slight explosion, and some of the coals thus thrown out ignited some of the wood work near and the horrible fire was started. On discovering the fire the men made their way to the main entrance intending to escape by that means, when they discovered that egress by that way was cut off by the fire. They then rang the bell repeatedly for the engineer to hoist them in the cage, but before word could be got to him, and he could reach the engine, the intense heat had so affected the cable that when he attempted to hoist, the cable at once gave away. Thus cutting off all means of escape for the doomed men. The miners then made their way to one of the rooms, and it is supposed attempted to so bank them selves in, that the smoke could not reach them, as the entrance to the room was banked up with large chunks of coal and other available material. When found at six o'clock the next evening, they were all huddled up together, dead. The bodies were taken out and a post mortem examination held Sunday morning which brought in a verdcit of "Death met by accident." The verdict brought in neither blamed nor exonerated the managers of the mine. The State mine inspector was up yesterday and looked the matter up, but as yet we have not heard of his decision. The funeral of the three Story City men was held Monday and was largely attended, and that of Ingerbret Enge, was held at the East church in Roland at 2 o'clock, Monday, and was attended by a large congregation of friends.