Aiken County ScArchives News.....Fatal Accident August 26, 1884
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Angie Rapids angierapids@gmail.com  February 26, 2023, 3:42 pm

The Aiken Recorder 26 August 1884 August 26, 1884
page 3

FATAL ACCIDENT.

A Man Falls Over 100 Feet to the Bottom of a Well.

Yesterday while Rube Franklin, the well known colored well-digger, was engaging 
in cleaning out the well on the farm of Mr. David Wise, about two miles from 
Aiken, lost his life under the following circumstances: It appears that Rube 
declined to use the new well-rope of Mr. Wise, but preferred to bring his own 
rope from home, with which he commenced his descent into the well, seated upon 
the top of the bucket, and only five or six feet from the top the rope broke and 
he was precipitated to the bottom of the well, which is 108 feet deep.

It will thus be seen that the unfortunate man fell a distance of over 100 feet. 
As soon as possible the body was removed from the well, when it was found that 
life was extinct, his neck having been broken, as well as one of his arms, and a 
hole knocked into his skull, besides other injuries.

Rube Franklin, or "Old Rube," as he was called, was probably the oldest and most 
experienced well-digger in Aiken County. He has probably dug more wells than any 
man in the County, and his work invariably gave satisfaction. If he has been a 
man of sober habits he might have saved from his earnings what to a colored 
person would have been a very snug sum, as the digging of a well in this 
vicinity is a serious and expensive matter.

Jabe Franklin, the son of "Old Rube," was murdered by Virgil Briggs several 
years ago, Briggs dying in jail after trial and conviction, pending an appeal of 
his case to the Supreme Court. The father and son were both well-diggers, and 
both have perished by violent deaths.

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