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Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Thomas Hepworth Falls Down Elevator Shaft.

     Second Great Grandfather Thomas Hepworth at age sixty eight is still working and in very good health when dies from an accident at the Lambert Paper Company.  I would assume he was at the paper company to  purchase  'butcher paper' for his butcher shop.  I wonder if he was carrying the roll or rolls of paper and didn't notice that someone left the door of the elevator open.  How awful.  In the Newspaper it  reports he fell ten or twelve feet.   What a jolt.  Did he have internal injury?  Or die of shock?  A death certificate is not found for Thomas which is unusual because I have found many digital images of a death certificate for Hepworth's on theUtah Gov. Archive.

Business Stationary used in the Butcher Shop located on 62 W First South Street, Salt Lake City, Utah.
The only good picture of Thomas in Renee Petersen's possession.
Two articles in the Deseret News
Two more articles appeared in the Salt Lake Newspapers concerning Thomas. 
Deseret Evening News  ---  20 June 1895
Thomas Hepworth's Accident
     As noted in the NEWS the death of
Thomas Hepworth was due to his hav-
ing fallen into the shaft of the elevator
in the rear of the Lambert Paper Com-
pany's office  It is but fair to the
company, however, to say that the
responsibility does not rest upon them.
They are not the only users of the elevator, 
and other parties had opened it
for use at the time the accident happened.  
______________________________________________________________________

Salt Lake Tribune  21 June 1895
DIED
_________________________________________________________
HEPWORTH ------In Salt Lake, June 19, 1895,
Thomas Hepworth, a native
 of Yorkshire, England, aged 68 years, 
Mr. Hepworth came to Salt Lake 
in 1852, and lived here or in this immediate
 locality ever since.  He has always
 been an active, strong man until the accident
 came which took his life.  He has 
been a true citizen, an earnest, honest
 man, and  his death is deplored by hundreds
 of friends who have know him 
and who appreciated his honest life.
    The funeral will be from the family
 residence 725 West First North street, 
on Sunday at 3 p.m.. Friends are invited.
______________________________________________________________________
     GGGrandfather Thomas was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.  Thomas and Mary were married for forty seven years.  I can just imagine the sadness of this untimely death.   Mary Hepworth does file a lawsuit against the Lambert Paper Company which I will write about in the next post.

Renée

3 comments:

Nancy said...

How sad. I'm sure it wouldn't have helped if he were carrying a roll of butcher paper. I hope his widow was able to obtain some settlement money considering that she probably didn't have a means of livelihood on her own.

There have been several deaths due to accidents among my own ancestors. When details aren't provided, I always wonder what happened between the time of the accident and time of death and wish for more specifics. I know doctors understood far less in those days than they do now.

Nancy said...

Renée, I forgot to mention how much I enjoyed the fact that you have a receipt (or is a bill of order) from his store and a photo and that you put it all together for your post. I so often wish I had some of the paper items from my ancestors.

Cassidy said...

If only they had OSHA back then. That is so sad. It is so crazy you have a receipt but not a death certificate. Love you grandma.