Caldwell County MO Archives History .....DEATH OF PAT KELLY OF NETTLETON IN A WELL 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 4:24 pm

DEATH OF PAT KELLY OF NETTLETON IN A WELL
	Narrator:  Mrs. Ida Hargrove, 76

     The digging out of old wells in the drought summer of 1934 reminded Mrs. 
Hargrove of something of interest along that line which happened back in 
1887.  She was then living on a farm near Nettleton.  Pat Kelly was a citizen 
of that town.  He and Alec Scott, a neighbor, had been blasting in an old well 
which he owned which they were trying to make deeper.  It was a very dry 
summer and wells were in great demand.  They had blasted in the morning and in 
the afternoon, Mr. Kelly went down on a rope to see the results of the 
blasting.  He apparently did not realize the danger of gas in an old well.  
They had been calling back and forth to each other.  Mr. Kelly finally ceased 
to answer Alec's call.  The latter, fearing the worst, summoned more men, and 
tying a rope around his own waist went down on a rope.  He told the men to 
hoist him at a given signal.  But he too began to succumb to the deadly gas.  
He gave no signal, and the men on top, fearing for him also, began to pull him 
up furiously.
     They got him to the top just in time, for he was unconscious and dizzy 
for quite awhile.  They finally got poor Pat Kelly out of the bottom of the 
well, but of course, too late to save his life.  He was probably dead before 
Mr. Scott started down after him.  This calamity put an end in that community 
to careless investigations after blasting old wells.
     Interview  1934.


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