Members of the Colorado Scientific Society attending the 127th Regular Meeting held at the Masonic Hall in Cripple Creek July 1st, 1895, visited on the 2nd of July several mines and mills; Portland, Raven, Ruby, Lucky Guss, Zenobia, Pharmacist, Victor, Buena Vista, Londonderry, Climax, Deerhorn, Summit mines were visited, and also the Brodie and Hartzell Mills were inspected.

Principal Producing Cripple Creek Mines - 1898:

Name: Londonderry Mine (Ironclad Hill)
Owner: Londonderry Mining Co. et al.
Capital:
President:
Vice-President:
Secretary:
Treasurer:
Superintendent:
Manager: Robert Harper
Lessees:
Description: 200-foot shaft; 25-horse power boiler; 6x8 cylinder hoist.
Employes:
Contact: postoffice, Cripple Creek
Notes:

THREE LIVES LOST IN THE LONDONDERRY
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Fire in the Mine on Ironclad That Will Probably Result in Three Deaths.
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ORIGIN OF THE FLAMES NOT KNOWN
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J. W. Foster and —. Jones Underground When the Fire Broke Out Last Night.
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IT IS THOUGHT THAT THEY HAVE SMOTHERED
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Superintendent W. H. Pine, Who Went Down the Shaft to Rescue His Men, Thought to Be Overcome By Smoke.
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Three men are thought to have lost their lives last night in what was one of the most terrible accidents ever known in the history of the district. Two were suffocated in a burning shaft, and the third, the superintendent of the ill-fated mine, was lost in a brave effort to rescue them.
The men are:
J. W. FOSTER, single,
—. JONES, married,
W. H. PINE, superintendent of the mine.
It was shortly after 11 o'clock when the shaft house of the Londonderry mine, on Ironclad hill, just above Midway, was seen to be in flames, and the news soon spread that two men were in the shaft.
J. W. Foster and a man named Jones were the only men working below on the night shift. The top man had stepped out of the building for a few minutes, and when noticed the fire was beyond all control.
Superintendent Pine, who lived in a cabin quite near, was soon on the ground, and many men who were going to or from work stopped. Two men rushed into the building and carried out in safety four or five boxes of powder, and the connections were knocked off the boiler and the steam allowed to escape, doing away with the danger of an explosion.
As soon as the wreck could be cleared away from around the collar of the shaft, which was not for nearly two hours after the fire began, arrangements were made to try to learn whether the two men were still alive.
The day engineer, Albert Gross, wanted to be lowered into the shaft, but the other men considered it too dangerous and refused to hold the rope.
Then a force of men went to work in a drift from an old shaft 70 feet deep, which was partly connected with the main workings. They soon cut a way large enough for a man to pass through, and set about getting down the shaft.
Three men volunteered to go down and see whether anything could be done for the poor fellows imprisoned below. They were known to be in a drift at the 300-foot level.
Superintendent W. H. Pine led the way, and he was followed by two men named McNamara and Pierrot.
All the time the crowd around the shaft was frantic, and could do nothing to assist. The men on top kept calling down the air pipe, but got no answer. A signal rope was lowered, but no sign was received from the men below.
The three rescuers went to the bottom of the 70-foot shaft, crawled through the drift, and started down the ladder of the main shaft in the smoke and foul gas. They got as far as the 240-foot point, when McNamara and Pierrot saw that they could not endure the terrible air, and started for the surface. The last they heard of Pine, he was still on the ladder, and said he was going on to the bottom.
They climbed with the greatest difficulty to the drift and crawled to the surface, more dead than alive. They lay for a long time exhausted on the ground, and had to be led home.
They said there was absolutely no hope for Pine. He was still about 60 feet from the bottom, and it is the opinion that he lost consciousness and fell to the bottom. He talked for a little with the men around the collar of the shaft, and called up to them:
"We're lost two men."

A little afterward he called for a rope to be lowered to him. From his tone it was plain that he was very sick. The rope was down in the other shaft, and while it was being sent for he called two or three times more, telling the men for God's sake to lower the rope to him. Then he was silent, and nothing more could be heard from him. It was conceded by all, and there were many in the crowd who were used to such work, that Pine's lifeless body lies at the bottom of the shaft.
All effort to get down has been suspended until the shaft can be cleared of smoke and gas. There was no water, and the collar of the shaft is still on fire, with great danger that it will cave in and bury the body, unless the fire can be put out.
Pine and the others lived in a little cabin near the mine, and little was known of their by their neighbors.
Jones is said to have a wife in Cripple Creek, while the other two are single.
Pine was formerly superintendent of the Old Gold tunnel under the west side of Beacon hill.

GUILTY OF NEGLECT
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Coroner's Jury Fixes the Blame for Disaster.
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ENGINEER LEFT HIS POST
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MANAGEMENT HELD RESPONSIBLE
FOR NOT HAVING A MAN ON DUTY—
BODIES OF THE THREE MEN RECOVERED YESTERDAY.
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Guilty of negligence. This is, in brief, the verdict of the jury against the management of the Londonderry mine, in which three men lost their lives Saturday night, a full account of which was published in the Times Sunday morning.

The guilt lies in the failure to have a man on duty on top at a time when there was a fire under the boiler and men at work below. The man who was supposed to be on duty on the surface, and who was superintendent for the company, made such atonement as he could by giving up his life after it was too late to do anything for the men below.

The bodies of Jones and Foster, the two men who were at work at the time the fire broke out, were found at the breast of the drift. They had not suffered. The air, drawn upward by the flames, had exhausted the oxygen very sudenly, and they fell down and expired with their tools at their side.
They had not moved from the spot where they were working.

The body of W. H. Pine, the superintendent, who went down the shaft to try find the two men, was found hanging on the ladder, where he had been overcome by gas. His feet had caught in the rungs of the ladder as he fell over backward, and he was hanging by the feet, head downward.
The theory of the miners that he would be overcome before reaching the bottom was correct.

The bodies of all three were taken out at 9 o'clock Sunday morning, Pine and Jones were taken to Fairley & Lampman's and Foster to White & Martin's. All day there was a crowd of people in the morgues to look at the remains and discuss the latest horror.

Pine has a wife and three little children in Marlborough, England. Jones leaves a wife and daughter here, and one daughter in Missouri. Foster was a single man.

Last evening at 8 o'clock the funeral services were held by Rev. Charles Stevens of the Christian church, of which Foster was a member. The remains were then sent to Seymour, Iowa, where his father resides.

At the Catholic{???] church this afternoon
??? {more text missing, maybe only one line more, maybe two - either way, it's impossible to read what happen to the bodies of the two other men. But, from an entry in same newspaper later on, I read that O.D. Jones's funeral was to be held at the First Baptist church at 2 p.m that day]

There are various theories as to how the fire originated, but there is no evidence. Some incline to the theory of incendiarism. Others think it originated from the forge or from the boilers. The blacksmith left at 5 o'clock and says the fire was out when he went away.

The Londonderry horror is the first of its kind in the history of Cripple Creek. There have been caves, explosions, broken cables, and all other kinds of accidents, but this is the first time a burning shaft house has caught the men below.

O. D. Jones and J. W. Foster, miners working on the night shift at the Londonderry mine at Cripple Creek, lost their lives by suffocation as the result of the fire which destroyed the shaft house last Saturday night, and W. H. Pine, the superintendent, was killed in a heroic attempt to rescue them.

The Londonderry is being worked by lessees, and is a claim close to the Climax claim. A cross cut is being driven to cut the Climax vein and there is 70 feet more to drive which will be completed in about three weeks.
Both of these claims are owned by the Londonderry Gold Mining Company.

One of the largest consolidations of property within, the Cripple Creek district is announced from the Colorado Springs office of the Woods Investment Company. Parts or interests in the Londonderry claim is included in the deal.

Work is at present being done to show up the apex of the Wild Horse vein claimed to be on Londonderry ground in part. At present the suit has not been set.
The company tried several times to get an injunction against the Wild Horse people, restraining them from taking out certain ore, but without success.

Londonderry—Quite a little work is being done preparing for the lawsuit with the Wild Horse. The controversy is over extralateral rights, each side claiming the apex of the vein from which some of the ore in the Wild Horse is taken.
A reciever appointed by the court looks after the ore in controversy and the expense of taking in out, etc. This suit bids fair to be an important one.

Bull Hill Consolidated Mining Company.
H. G. Lunt and O.B. Wilcox, trustees for this company, have conveyed the Horseshoe, Londonderry, Fairview, High Tide and Bertha mining claims to the United Mines Company.
The claims are favorably located on Bull Hill, and are considered to be very valuable. The consideration cannot be learned.

Londonderry Case Decided.
Judge Seeds in the District Court at Cripple Creek, May 23rd, handed down his decision in the Londonderry versus the United Gold Mines Company case, involving apex rights. It is a signal victory for the United Gold Mines Company. The case was appealed by the plaintiff to the Supreme Court.
The suit not only involved apex rights but the ownership of some seventy odd thousand dollars, now in the keeping of the court. That, however, will not be paid until a final determination by a higher court.
The court held that in conflicts between mining claims located and afterwards each party secured by patent ground originally, in conflict, the party who had prior location is entitled to all extralateral vein rights. The decision is very important in more respects than one. The court overruled the objection to the evidence that was offered on the part of the defendant.
The T. F. T. claim is an older location and is entitled to all the veins beneath and apexing in its ground.
The Londonderry is entitled to all the veins beneath and apexing its ground.
The court finds that the T. F. T. is entitled to all the veins in controversy except that part of the vein which crosses the southwesterly end line nine feet from corner No. 3 and passes out of the side line northwesterly fifteen feet from corner No. 3
There being no ore in that part of the vein remaining to the Londonderry, the judgment of the court was in favor of the T. F. T. as against the Londonderry claim, and the judgment for the defendant for costs.

Londonderry vs. United Gold Mines Company, Colorado.
This suit over ore rights in the Wild Horse vein of Cripple Creek, which has been pending for three years in the district court, has been settled, whereby the contested sum of $67,000 is equally divided between plaintiff and defendant.

A New York syndicate has taken a bond and lease on the Manhattan G. M. Co.'s property - the Londonderry, Wichita and Climax claims on Bull and Ironclad hills - and work will be carried out on an extensive scale.
Little wort has been done on this property since the disastrous fire at the main shaft house several years ago. The Londonderry has produced much high-grade ore.
Negotiations are under way looking to operation of the property through the deeper workings of the Wild Horse shaft of the United G. M. Co.

Cain and Whitmore have taken a two years' lease on the Londonderry and Climax claims located on GlobeIronclad hill, near Midway. The work will be done through the Londonderry shaft.

The properties of the Londonderry Gold Mining Co., the Wichita and Londonderry lode mining claims, at Midway, in the saddle between Bull and Ironclad hills, have been leased to J. W. Hemby and are being operated through the Wild Horse shaft.