In March of 1940, George W. Parfet received a rush order for white clay. The company’s vein of white clay had recently been exhausted, so they needed to open a new one. Parfet’s usual “powder man” was confined to a hospital at the time, as a result of an accident in the mine several weeks previous, so Parfet decided to do the blasting himself.
From the March 28, 1940 Colorado Transcript:
He unlocked a small metal powder house, removed a box of dynamite, opened it and took out four sticks. With the powder under his arm and caps and fuse in the other hand, he started south from the magazine in an effort to get a safe distance from the other explosives before preparing the powder for blasting. He had gone only eight paces from the magazine when the explosion occurred.
The blast shook houses in the adjoining neighborhood…. David Coolbaugh and Prof. J. C. Fitterer say that they saw a huge cloud of dust and a body hurled high into the air.
Parfet was rushed to St. Anthony’s with both legs blown off. He died three hours later.
Subsequent to this, Parfet’s life insurance company declined to honor his policy, claiming that he had committed suicide.
82 Years Ago
The October 15, 1942 Colorado Transcript announced that the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that Parfet’s death was accidental, and the life insurance company needed to pay up.
Many thanks to an anonymous donor for sponsoring Golden History Moments for the month of October.
