KELVIN TRAIN DISASTER Pinal Co. Az Az Republican Newspaper Feb 7, 1910 The explosion which occurred about 12:30 pm today was a missed shot, which was discovered this morning while excavating in the last cut on the Ray-to-Kelvin Railroad. The foreman in charge of the work notified all his men--over a hundred in number--that he was going to fire the fuse at noon, which he did, after all his men got away and after he had stationed men on both sides of the blast to warn travelers on the wagon road and railroad. The gasoline motor, carrying six passengers besides the motorman approached after the fuse was fired and was stopped. After waiting for some time it proceeded against the warnings of the foreman and reached a point opposite the blast at the exact time of the explosion with the result that all seven were instantly killed and the motor car totally wrecked. The dead are: J.B. Joyce, Denver A.S. Bieber, Cleveland, Ohio J.C. Griffin, civil engineer and all employees of the Ray Consolidated Copper Company engaged on railroad construction R.P. Coleman, Salt Lake City W.H. Freeland, Salt Lake City Walter C. Krenz, Berkeley, mining engineers employed by Henry Krumb and engaged in the sampling of the development work of the Ray Company H.H. Lyall, motorman in charge of the motor car, also an employee of the Ray Company. Relatives of all the killed have been notified. R.P. Coleman, one of the victims, was about 30 years old and was the husband of the youngest sister of J.F. Cleveland, private secretary to governor Sloan. His home was in Salt Lake City and beside his wife he is survived by a baby son about nine months old. His father, also a mining engineer, operating largely in Mexico resides in Los Angeles. Mr. Coleman was a graduate of the School of Mines of Golden, Colo. and was a consulting engineering, an assistant to Henry Krumb who has a contract for doing the sampling on the Ray Mine as development work progresses, as well as doing similar work for the Gila and Hercules Companies in the same district. Mr. Krumb does an extensive business of that kind and Mr. Coleman has been one of his most trusted associates, having accompanied him on many long expeditions, all over the mining fields of the west. He was regarded by all who knew him as a most genial gentleman with unusually bright prospects before him in the line of his profession and for one of his age as highly regarded engineer. Mr. Coleman was in Phoenix Saturday, evidently coming down from Kelvin on some business errand for Mr. Krumb, who is now there. He telephoned to Mr. Cleveland Saturday night from the Hotel Adams, that he was coming out the house to see him but for some reason he could not keep the engagements and yesterday morning he left on the early Kelvin train. Mr. Krumb telephoned Mr. Cleveland last night that he had wired the distressing news to Mrs. Coleman and to Mr. Coleman's father in Los Angeles. Later Mr. Cleveland received a message from Mrs. Coleman that she was leaving for the home of her parents in Denver. Mr. Cleveland will leave on this morning's train for Kelvin and bring the body here and will accompany it to Denver for interment. Arthur Luhrs of this city, who was employed at Ray about a year ago says he knew Mr. Freeland and Krenz and that the former was also a graduate of the Colorado School of Mines. Both men were skilled engineers in charge of the sampling done under the contracts of their employer. Mr. Griffin, another of the civil engineers employed on the same work, was also well known to many in Phoenix. Mr. Joyce does seem to be so well known here thought at first his identity was confounded with that of Fred Joyce, the chief assayer of the Ray Consolidated, who is well known here. February 8, 1910 Six of the seven bodies of the men killed in the Kelvin explosion a little after noon on Sunday were brought to Phoenix on the train yesterday afternoon accompanied by J. Woodrow, the Kelvin undertaker, George Driscoll of the undertaking firm of Mohn and driscoll of this city, J.F. Cleveland, a brother-in-law of R.P. Coleman, one of the victims; T.E. Harwood and D.D. Worcester, both young mining engineers in the employ of the Ray Consolidated Copper Company and personal friends of all the dead and a number of other Kelvin and Ray people. The body of A.L. Bieber, the civil engineer in charge of the engineering work in the construction of the Kelvin-Ray railroad was not recovered until near dark Sunday afternoon, having been buried beneath a heavy tonnage of rock and debris. It was kept in Kelvin for another day so that an inquest could be held and will probably be brought to Phoenix this afternoon. A.L. Bieber was 26 years old and a graduate of Case School of Applied Science, his home being in Cleveland, Ohio. He had a bright future as a civil engineer and for one of his age had had wide experience in the east in railroad engineering. He was in California for a time before coming to Arizona and there engaged in mining engineering. Last October he went to Kelvin and took charge of the engineering work in connection with the Kelvin-Ray Railroad. W.H. Freeland was also 26 years old and his home was at 3024 Lowell Blvd., Denver. He was a graduate of the Colorado School of Mines in the class of 1906. For a time he engaged in professional work in Nevada on his own account and then entered the employ of Mr. Krumb, being assigned to work on the Giroux Mine along with Mr. Coleman. As mentioned above he belonged to the same fraternal society as Mr. Coleman and went to Ray about a year ago. In addition to his work for the Ray Company he has done sampling on three other properties in the same district. His father is in the hardware business in Denver. Walter C. Krenz was 23 years old and a graduate of the University of California in the class of 1907. He was also employed by Mr. Krumb. With Mr. Freeland he was returning from the Troy Manhattan Mine which they had been sampling for Mr. Krumb and were to report to him in Ray. J.B. Joyce was from Lewiston, Maine and was 27 years old. He was a granite cutter by trade and was employed as a rod man in the engineering department of the railroad at Ray, and was making rapid progress and was well liked. He had been there about five months. The body will doubtless be shipped to Lewiston as soon as relatives give instructions. February 9, 1910 The body of A.L. Bieber, the seventh man killed in the explosion near Kelvin was brought to Phoenix yesterday and will be sent this morning to his former home in Cleveland, Ohio. News from Kelvin verified the story of the night before that the coroner's jury merely found that the men were killed by an explosion on the Kelvin-Ray Railroad, without attaching responsibility. In the case of the second verdict, however, over the body of A.L. Bieber, attention was called to the fact that Foreman Jamison had warned him that the blast had been lighted and the explosion was imminent. The funeral of J.C. Griffin was held yesterday morning at the parlors of Mohn and Easterling and the bodies of Coleman and Freeland left yesterday morning for Denver. the bodies of J.B. Joyce and Walter Krenz were shipped last night to Lewiston Maine and Berkeley, Cal. respectively. The body of H.H. Lyall will be taken this evening to Steins, N.M. by his brother, who planned to go last night but did not get back from Kelvin in time. USGenWeb Project NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format for profit, nor for commercial presentation by any other organization. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain express written permission from the author, or the submitter and from the listed USGenWeb Project archivist. submitted by burns@asu.edu