William Guy Dotson and Harry Beggs

DOTSON, BEGGS

Posted By: Rick Shelton (email)
Date: 11/4/2001 at 08:04:21

Newspaper Clipping: Newspaper unknown.

MINE CLAIMS TWO; Gas From Explosives Overcomes One and Companion is Asphysiated in Attempting to Rescue him--Community Shocked by the Awful Calamity; MEN RESIDE NEAR DOUDS

Meet Terrifying Death: Death in hideous form visited our sister city, Douds, last Saturday forenoon and like a bolt from a clear sky, shocked the entire community by the sudden and terrifying visitation. Death at all times is sad, and comes with a feeling of depression to the surviving friends, but when the grim reaper picks for the sacrifice two stalwart young men, filled with the vigor of perfect healthand manhood, the blow is doubly severe, and shocks the community past realization. Gas from a shot in the shaft on the AlbertSeaman place, about two miles north of Douds, Saturday, caused the death of Harry Beggs and Guy Dodson, two young men of that place. The facts of the case as gleaned by our representative are as follows: Dodson and Beggs, men of considerable experience inmining, had been engaged by Seamans to sink a shaft on his place, same to be used in tapping a vein of coal known to exist at the ninety foot level. The work progressed to a depth of about forty feet when the accident above recorded happened. In sinking a shaft, the opening is made in side 10x6 feet, and down the center ofthis is run a partition, to within a few feet of the bottom, dividing the opening into spaces about 6x5 feet each, and the idea is to force artificial circulation of air by placing a fire-pot on one side, the heated atmosphere in moving upward drawing the fresh air from the other compartment through the opening in the bottom. We explain this in order to show just howthe accident happened. On the morning in question, the two young men were working in the shaft, and Mr. Seamans was at the surface, attending to the raising and lowering of the buckets by means of a horse and windlass. A shot had been fired, and after waiting a few moments, the men made ready to descend, and Mr. Seamans states that he warned them not to be in a hurry as he could yet hear the gas, (which is formed by the burning explosives), but they said that it would be all right and they were lowered to the bottom. As everything s3emed well, Mr. Seamans busied himself in getting the horse ready, and shortly his attention was called by the men shouting to be hauled to the surface. He promptly hitched the horse and pulled the bucket up and found only one of the men therein, Harry Beggs, he explaining that they were afraid to trust the rope with both in the bucket. They then turned their attention to the man at the bottom and Mr. Dodson was seen falling at this moment.
Then occurred an act of heroism that will long stand in the history of this county, and especailly in the hearts of the people of that neighborhood, as a life was given up in the futile attempt to save another. Mr. Beggs hurriedly tied a rope around his body and was again lowered into the gas filled shaft and on reaching the bottom untied the rope and was in the act of placing it around the body of his unconscious friend and co-laborer, when he too was overcome by the deadly fumes and was seen, by the horrified man above, to fall. You can imagine the helplessness of Mr. Seamans at this moment. No one was near to summon help, and should he descend to the bottom no one remained to hoist the bucket when loaded with human freight, and Mr. Seamans was compelled to leave the mouth of theshaft and run for help, and as it was some distance much valuable time was lost, so much in fact, that when they werebrought to the surface, life was extinct. The bodies were taken to the homes of the men, after the terrible news had been broken to the families, and all possible was done to relieve the suffering of the surviving members. Harry Beggs was a young man and leaves a wife and three children. Mr. Dodson leaves a wife and two children andone step child. The funeral of Dodson was held Sunday afternoon and Beggs was buried the same day, both funerals being largely attended. Oscar Hootman, an experienced miner ofthat locality stated to our representative that he had called at the shaft on the preceding day and had noticed that the boys were not using the fire-pot, they explaining that the shaft seemed to clear readily without it. He admonished them them to take all possible precautionary measures, which possibly would have averted the calamity. The partition in the shaft was completed only partially and at the lower end a blanket was hung to bring the dividing wall to the properdepth, and this would have probably served had the fire in the one side had been used. The deaths of these two men bring the total to six claimed by the mines, four others sacrificing their lives developing the rich deposit which underlies this section of the country, in the years gone by. Several years have elapsed since a serious mishap has occurred, and this probably has lulled to sleep the fear of the terrors which lie at the bottom of many mines.