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