Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Boyle, George 1895 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Sandy Heintzelman sheintz@iserv.net November 30, 2014, 12:30 pm Belding Banner, 29 Aug 1895 Suffocated To Death. George Boyle the Victim of a Cave In – Buried Under Several Tons of Earth. George Boyle came to his death suddenly Friday afternoon of last week in an excavation for a sewer leading from the Angell block to the main sewer in the center of the street. He in company with Samuel Meginley had taken a contract for Mr. Angell to open the sewer and lay a new drain tile. Richard Carten was working with them also in the ditch and they reached the old drainpipe at the depth of eleven or twelve feet. Connection had been made with the main sewer and while Mr. Boyle was engaged in laying tile the earth began to give away. Mr. Carten and Mr. Meginley both saw the break and gave the alarm to get out of the sewer. Carten was near the approach and got out quickly. Meginley gave a spring upwards and was caught up to his hips in the dirt but could not extricate himself without assistance. Boyle was completely buried under several tons of earth which had caved in from the east side coming against him with such force as to cause suffocation in a few minutes if his life was not already crushed out. A large crowd was quickly attracted to the spot and a dozen willing hands with shovels and picks worked hard to remove the dirt from the entombed man. Fully twenty minutes passed before he was discovered nearly in an upright position against the west side of the ditch. Drs. Pinkham and Stanton as soon as his head was uncovered made an examination and pronounced life extinct. His body was taken into Holmes and Robinson’s vacant store and after a coroner’s jury was called by Justice Lapham, summoned by E. E. Fales, to view the remains, Undertaker Wilson prepared them for burial. Boyle was 33 years old and came here with his wife in May from Six Lakes. He was a good workman and well thought of. A brief service was held at the home of the grief stricken wife by Elder Munger Saturday and the remains taken to near Charlotte for burial. The coroner’s jury was composed of H.L. Page, Romaine Robinson, Eugene Moulton, Dr. Millard, Frank Holmes and Geo. Hauck, who returned a verdict that he came to his death by suffocation, no blame being attributed to anyone. The accident is an unfortunate one and should serve a warning to ditchers to be more cautious in opening sewers. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/ionia/obits/b/boyle29185nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/mifiles/ File size: 2.9 Kb