Awful Accident The news article to the left outlines the accident that caused three men to be injured when 90 dynamite caps exploded. Clicking on the artice will make it bigger for easy reading, a synopsis follows.
The accident occurred on Monday, October 26, 1908 at the Scott Mine in the Florida Mountains, a small mountain range about 15 miles southeast of Deming, New Mexico. New Mexico mined a lot of silver and gold early in the century but I haven't been able to find any further information about that particular mine. Deming was an important railway and mining town, most of the ores from the surrounding area were shipped directly to smelters from Deming. The town was at the junction of the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific railways.
The North/South streets in town are named after trees, Maple, Pine, Hemlock, etc. The East/West avenues are named after minerals, Copper, Zinc, Gold etc. The Tidmore family ran a restaurant on and lived on Silver Avenue. Curiously an 1898 map shows the restaurant at the corner of Railroad Avenue (the only street that doesn't follow the aforementioned rule) and Silver. In the one block of Silver Avenue between Railroad and Pine are listed 5 establishments labeled, "chinese laundry!"
There were 3 people in the camp blacksmith shop; Mr. Scott*, Clarence Tidmore and "Little Dick Tidmore." Clarence, age 24 and Dick, age 15; sons of Martin and Mary Tidmore. Mr. Scott was sharpening tools at the forge, Clarence was blowing the bellows. The accident was caused by the explosion of 90 dynamite blasting caps that had been left in an uncovered box on top of the forge. A spark is supposed to have fallen in the box, setting off the caps. It is reported that Mr. Scott had bent over for some reason and Clarence, 18 inches away, received the full force of the explosion. His body from the waist up was riddled with pieces of the caps , the paper reports "It is almost certain that both eyes are out." The paper further reports that "Little Dick was knocked down and stupified considerably."
What follows is like a horrible Keystone cops episode. "The news of the terrible accident was brought to town as quick as possible." The paper does not elaborate on how the news was brought nor just how quickly. The local doctor, two brothers of the Tidmore's as well as "others" left at once in an automobile for the scene. After administering some care the three were placed in automobiles and driven to town. The party of automobiles encounted a "series of accidents" on the way to town. They "lost the road" several times, broke down and "all such." The party did not reach the hospital, 15 miles from the mine, until after 1:00 a.m. the following day a full 16 1/2 hours after the accident!
Doctors stated that Clarence, if he did not contract lockjaw, would probably recover although he might be badly disfigured. The reality is nowhere near as rosy.
An update in the newspaper 3 weeks after the accident says that Clarence has been taken to El Paso, in the hopes the young man's sight may be saved.
The 1910 census, enumerated on April 25, 1910, shows that the family still runs a restaurant and has a home on Silver Avenue. Clarence, the oldest child in the home, is 27 years old and his occupation is listed as none, the column "Blind" is checked.
Mary Tidmore, died on June 4, 1910, her obituary said she had been ill for four months. She was 51 years old. Her husband and all 7 children are listed as surviving her. She was a woman of "fine attainments" according to the newspaper. An obituary in another newspaper says, in a single sentence, "Since coming to Deming the family seems to have been particularly unfortunate, meeting with financial reverses, and sickness something over a year ago the oldest son M. C., Jr. was blinded for life by an explosion of Dynamite caps in at the mine where he was working in the Floridas."
It is my belief that after the death of Mary the family was unable to care for Clarence and he was institutionalized. His sister, Ruth, at 14 was the youngest and only girl at home. She was sent to live with her sister Annie in Seattle.
In September of 1918 a World War I registration card is filled out on behalf of Clarence Tidmore by the Superintendant of the New Mexico Insane Asylum. His permanent address is given as the Miners' Hospital in Colfax County, New Mexico. His next of kin is a brother in California. It is noted he is of medium build and height with light brown hair and blue eyes and that he is "blind in both eyes and insane." In the 1920, 1930 and 1940 census he is listed as an inmate in the New Mexico Insane Asylum in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Clarence died in 1948 and is presumed to be buried in the hospital cemetery. The cemetery was abandoned and the Bureau of Land Management took control. It is said cattle roamed the cemetery area and at one time a mechanical weed hog ripped the headstones to fragments. Some data has been released by the New Mexico State Hospital but the vast amount has not been. The Mental Health Association of New Mexico is attempting to preserve the area and document the dead.
Little Dick Tidmore who, according to the article, was stupefied in the accident seems to have had a rough life following the accident. He is shown here with his father Mark, the date on the back of the photo is 1910. He seems to have worked at the family restaurant or at the family mine. For a short while he works in his brothers clothing store. In 1915 he participates in a wrestling event in which M. Livo, who claims to be wrestling champion of the U. S. Navy, says he can throw 3 men out of the ring within an hour. Dick was the second man thrown out, having lasted 10 minutes. The following year he became a part owner in a shooting gallery. The following week Dick was arrested for discharging a pistol in front of the store, he was fined $10.00 and released. Four months later he was again arrested on the much more serious charge of furnishing whiskey to prisoners in the jail. He was fined $50.00 and the charge changed to vagrancy. In 1917 he and his brother joined the Fourth Texas Infantry at El Paso and were sent to France where their unit is involved in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Dick served as a cook and his brother in the Infantry. Dick mustered out in 1919 at Fort Bliss, Texas. In 1923 he married in El Paso and had two sons. One son, Robert, died at the age of 5 1/2 of diptheria. In the 1930 and 1940 census he has no occupation listed, in the 1950 census he is listed as unable to work. He died in 1955 in Prescott, Arizona where he is buried in the National Cemetery.
*The Mr. Scott, owner of the Scott mine, is never given a first name in the news article but an ancester of ours named William Scott did not arrive in Deming for another 7 years. He was the fourth and final husband of Leona Weldon, the mother of Edna Pearl King, aka Mary Creamer.