Samuel P. Booker died attempting to save John J. and Mathias P. Mayer, Jr., from, suffocation, Neodesha, Kansas, September 19, 1922. Following a dynamite blast in a well 33 feet deep, John, 17, farmhand, was overcome by gas while working at the bottom of the well. Mathias, 19, farmhand, descended and placed John across a box on the end of a windlass rope, but Mathias then collapsed across John’s body. Booker, 42, railroad guard, went a quarter-mile to the well and was badly out of breath when he arrived. Without taking precautions, he slid down a rope and descended 20 feet on a ladder to the bottom of the well, the father of the boys having told him that his two sons were in the well, dying. After lifting Mathias off John, Booker was overcome. John was then drawn up in the box. He regained consciousness nine hours later. His father descended and put a rope on Mathias, but the father was overcome. Mathias was removed, but he died two days later. Booker and the father of the boys were taken out after they had been in about a half-hour. They could not be revived. 22830-1786
22830 – 1786
22830-1786