07 December 2012

Obituary--Linden Little

Today's obituary is from another area paper, and is about an accident by one of the men working on the river.  A sad story, as he was new to the job.  This accident was after most of the area logging was done.  Instead of a log jam, it was from dealing with an ice jam.  But I would imagine this was a type of death that was all to common in the logging days.
From the 27 February 1930 White Cloud Eagle:

MORLEY MAN LOSES LIFE IN ACCIDENT
LINDEN LITTLE DIES AS DYNAMITE BLOWS UP BLOCK OF ICE
Attempting to Break Up Ice Jam in An Effort to Save New Bridge
Linden Little, 21, was instantly killed Saturday afternoon, when an explosion of dynamite blew up a block of ice on which he was standing in the Muskegon river near the Ox Bow Dam.
Little was a resident of Morley and had been employed by the construction crew at the dam only two days.   The crew was throwing dynamite into the stream in an effort to break up the jam and save the bridge near the dam site.  One stick landed near Little and exploded on the block of ice on which he was standing. 
His father, James Little, has been a member of the construction crew some time.  His mother is employed in a restaurant there.

How sad, dying after only 2 days of work.  And with his father also working in the area. 
 I suppose this is more of a news article and notice of death, rather than an obituary.  His fathers name is given, but no birth date.  And readers of the paper would need to calculate what the date of death was, as the paper just says Saturday afternoon.  I suppose during the lumbering era in this region that deaths on the river were common.  But this is well after the lumbering was done.  And how much worse that is was caused by what his fellow workers were doing on the job.

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