Leon Reporter, Leon, Iowa,br> Thursday, January 3l, l90l

From the Chadron, Neb., Journal we glean the following account of the accident which cost T.C. BURNS, his nephew, STANLEY BURNS, and a helper named JACK CHAMBERS, their lives, while at work in an irrigating ditch near Chadron:

"People of Chadron were shocked Wednesday evening when it was heralded on the streets that T.C. BURNS and two of his helpers had been buried alive in the irrigation ditch they were constructing six miles east of the city by a bank of sand caving in on them.

It was soon found out that one of the helpers was STANLEY BURNS, a nephew of MR. BURNS, and later developments proved the other to be JACK CHAMBERS, lately of Spearfish.

The place where the accident occurred was a narrow deep cut, slightly wedge shaped, perhaps fifteen feet wide at the top, six feet at the bottom and twenty-seven feet deep. The formation of the soil was fine white sand, and several times small portions of this had caved and at one time a large amount had to be removed. In the bottom of this ditch MR. BURNS was placing tiling and only a few more minutes remained in this special place. In fact he had told one of the men less than five minutes before that they would soon come out. When Mr. Lecher, who had gone over to the house only a few rods away after a log chain, returned, he saw that the sand had caved and realized in a moment his comrades were buried beneath it.

Jack Wilson was sent to Chadron for help and in answer to his call a large number of men went down. They soon discovered that nothing could be done with any degree of safety to themselves until the overhanging earth was braced and held in place. The switch engine was loaded with timbers and sent as near as possible to the scene, from whence they were transported by wagons. Men with shovels went to work. All lent a willing hand and finally about noon yesterday the lifeless bodies of the three men were lifted from their awful graves of sand. The first man discovered was CHAMBERS, who had an ax in his hand and was standing on a pole that was across the ditch. He had probably just been bracing the earthen walls and the jar thus occasioned, hurried the slide of sand. MR. BURNS was next discovered, standing erect, looking slightly upward, shovel in hand. STANLEY was near the outlet of the ditch and in a running posture. Only a few more feet farther and he would have been safe.

MR. BURNS leaves a wife to mourn his loss; STANLEY, a father and mother besides two brothers and two sisters; MR. CHAMBERS, a wife and two children. The funeral will occur Sunday afternoon from the Baptist Church, Rev. Edwin M. Jeffers conducting the services.

The whole cummunity is saddened. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, three lives were cut off. Dawes County cannot estimate its loss. The completed ditch would have added untold value to its realty.

MR. BURNS had only come to Chadron last summer. In viewing the country he was convinced from observation that a luxuriant soil was only prevented from producing by the lack of water, and knew from long experience in irrigation in Montana that a system could be successfully worked in this region. It was with great faith and activity that he began work. The successful end of his greatest ambition has been hampered only by this terrible catastrophe."

Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert
"With permission from the Leon Journal Reporter"
January l6, 2003