Mine Gas Kills Thirteen
Logansport Pharos, Indiana
November 25, 1903
Fort Smith, Ark., Nov. 25. -- Thirteen miners were killed and great damage was done by an accidental explosion of gas in coal mine No. 20, at Bonanza, Ark., twelve miles from this city. Only ten of the victims have been recovered at this writing.
The dead are:
Bob Drysdale
Ira Strickland
Will Kehoe
Mike Walkie
William D. Moore
John Wesley Pettit
Fred Arnold
Joe Carr
Paul Walton
Bruce John "Grandpa" Brown, father of Pit Boss Brown
There were about 175 men in the various shafts at the time. All escaped without injury except the thirteen who were employed in entry "K", the scene of the explosion. The force of the explosion was terrific and timbers were torn from the walls of the passages for several hundred yards at the mouth of entry "K." The passages were so completely obstructed that the work of rescuing the entombed men was tedious in the extreme and several hours were consumed before the first body was found. It is thought that the gas was accidentally ignited by a miner's lamp.
