Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Turner, Junius C. 1907 ************************************************ 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 July 13, 2011, 4:11 pm Lyons Herald, 19 Sep 1907 Junius C. Tuner, a prominent Danby farmer, was fatally injured at the site of the Portland-Danby bridge about 10:00 o’clock Wednesday morning. He was using dynamite on a steel tube which had been lying in the river since the old bridge went out and was caught by a premature explosion. His skull was crushed and there was no chance for recovery, though he lived until 9 o’clock the same evening. Mr. Turner was highway commissioner of Danby township and the tube was being blasted so as to remove it before the new bridge was constructed. The tube was filled with cement, which was as hard as rock, and it was necessary to blast this out before the tube could be moved. Operations were being carried on from a boat, Mr. Turner, handling the dynamite and J.D. Guilford, a son of Edward Guilford, steadying the boat. The end of the tube, where blasting was being done, was on the up-stream side and Mr. Turner was in the end of the boat with one foot in the tube and the other in the boat, to assist in steadying it. To light the fuse, which connected with the dynamite, a torch was employed. Mr. Turner had arranged the charge and had applied the torch to the fuse. Ordinarily a fuse shoots out smoke and blue flame as soon as it ignites and this is the signal for getting away. In this case no smoke or blue flame appeared and Mr. Turner stood holding the torch to the fuse, waiting for it to ignite, when there was a deafening roar and he fell bleeding and senseless in the bottom of the boat, his head resting on the box of dynamite. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/ionia/obits/t/turner14657nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/mifiles/ File size: 2.1 Kb