To request a copy of this photo for your own personal use, please contact our state coordinator. If you are not a family member or the original photographer — please refrain from copying or distributing this photo to other websites.
Thank you for visiting the Missouri Gravestone Photo Project. On this site you can upload gravestone photos, locate ancestors and perform genealogy research. If you have a relative buried in Missouri, we encourage you to upload a digital image using our Submit a Photo page. Contributing to this genealogy archive helps family historians and genealogy researchers locate their relatives and complete their family tree.
Submitted: 9/18/23 • Approved: 9/18/23 • Last Updated: 9/21/23 • R832082-G0-S3
11 Jan 1872 MO
16 Apr 1912 Prosperity, Jasper, Missouri
Son of Adam Bush and Emily Moore
Husband of Margaret "Maggie" A Criss Bush Townsend
Married 15 Jun 1895 Joplin, Jasper, Missouri
Maggie is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery with her second husband Thomas Townsend.
Newspaper Report of Accident:
AN EXPLOSION BLEW MAN'S HEAD OFF - Harry Bush victim of Horrible Disaster in Prosperity Mine - Saying He'd Take One More Chance, Machine Man Went to Doom.
The old, old story of going back on a shot and a tragedy following was enacted again at Prosperity yesterday in all its horrors. Harry Bush, a young machine man, put a shot at the Gobbler mine, north of that city, the last thing before going out to dinner. He returned at 1 o'clock and before going to the drift, in which the explosive had been placed, he asked other employees who had remained there, if the shot had gone off. He was informed that a small explosion occurred. He had placed several sticks of dynamite and this information led him to believe the shot was defective. A minute later he was leaning over the drill hole when the explosion occurred. His head was blown entirely off.
When other employees at the mine heard the shot they knew that Bush had been killed. They rushed into the drift and his headless body, horribly mangled otherwise, was lying several feet from the point where the shot had been discharged.
The victim of this tragedy went to work at the Gobbler mine one week ago. It is said by other employees that he had been contemplating quitting mine work and taking up another occupation. He was an expert and while machine men are all well paid for their work, he is said to have constantly feared the danger of handling this explosive of which he posessed such broad knowledge.
When he returned to work a few minutes before his death yesterday he remarked that leaving a shot that he himself had put in and trusting to the judgment of others as to whether it had fully exploded was one of the dangers and uncertainties of his business.
"We will chance it once more," he said, as he started to the place where he met his doom.
Harry Bush was 36 years old and is survived by a wife and a 15 year old daughter, Flora. He resided at Prosperity and was one of the best known miners in the district. The inquest will be held this morning by Coroner F. H. Baird at the Webb City, Undertaking Company's rooms, after which the body will be removed to his home.
Funeral services will be held over the body of Harry Bush this afternoon at 2o'clock at the Baptist church. Rev. Frank Jones of Stotts City, Mo., will conduct the services. Interment will be at the Old Peace Church cemetery.
Contributed on 9/18/23
Suggest a Correction
Record #: 832082