My Great Uncle Ot (pronounced 'Oat')Uncle
Ot was the elder brother of my Grandmother, Hally Evelyn Butrick Inman. As a young teen, he had been hunting alone
and suffered a tragic accident.
Although, I am not exactly clear on circumstances, he was shot in the
right arm and the right eye. Incredibly,
he was able to get himself back home for treatment, but he would lose the eye
and the lower half of his right arm.
At
the time of his hunting accident, he was employed by the local mining camp, and
local thinking was that his days of employment were at an end. However, they underestimated the hardy stock
of the Butrick clan. Once his wounds
healed, he returned to the mine and convinced them that he was able to
work. He not only continued mining coal,
but on many days, he proudly out-produced men with two good eyes and arms.
Fate
wasn’t yet finished with our Uncle Ot. While
digging coal at the back of the tunnel, a coal car broke away and sped toward
him. Several of the other miners yelled
out warnings about the run-a-way. Uncle
Ot saw it coming, but there was no place for him to go. His only option was to make himself the
smallest target possible.
Fortunately,
he survived the collision, but his left leg crushed under tons of coal and the
cart. His fellow miners carried him out
and back to his home. They wanted to
amputate his leg, but he steadfastly refused.
For months, his mother tended to his wounds. It was probably a miracle that he avoided
gangrene, but once his wounds healed, he started his own rehab program. Eventually, he got his leg back to where he
could walk on it.
Once again, his miner friends were amazed that he survived. They were stunned, though, that he returned to work with a more dangerous job. He returned as a Shot Firer!
Reference: Shot Firers, the men who drilled holes in the coalface and inserted tubes filled with black powder, and then set off explosions to loosen the coal. This was one of the most dangerous jobs in the mine. The mere proximity of the miner’s oil lamp to the black powder was sufficient to ensure that. Then there was the danger of a premature detonation. For additional information see: http://www.perryopolis.com/coal.shtml
Uncle Ot stayed with mining until he
retired. He was proud of his work with
the mines, but he never missed an opportunity to show off a letter that he
received from John D. Rockefeller IV, Governor of West Virginia, thanking him
for his service in the mining industry.
&
Below: is a Shot Firers
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