Newspapers: Article Charles W. Knighten: Trail, Jackson Co., Oregon

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KNIGHTEN, Charles W., Medford (Oregon) Mail, Oct. 13, 1905  
Killed By Dynamite Explosion -- Charles W. Knighton, a prominent
and very much respected farmer living near Trail postoffice, was
instantly killed Tuesday afternoon by the explosion of a box of
dynamite.

The circumstances surrounding the accident are these: Some few
days ago, Mr. Knighton, who is a blacksmith, had removed a box of
dynamite from an exposed place in a nearby building to his
blacksmith shop. There were also several caps with the dynamite
and these were wrapped in a paper and laid on the dynamite box,
from which a couple of sticks of the explosive had been removed.
Tuesday Mr. Knighton and his son, twelve or thirteen years of age,
were at work in the shop. A spark from the red-hot iron which Mr.
Knighton was working hit on the paper in which the caps were
wrapped and ignited it. This was noticed by Mr. Knighton and he
dropped his tools and shouted to his son to run. They both started
but too late the explosion caught them and they were hurled
against a log twenty feet away. Mr. Knighton was killed instantly,
his lower jaw bone, his hands and his left leg being literally torn to
pieces. His feet were torn into shreds, as were also his shoes, which
were torn from his feet. 

The escape of the boy with only a few bruises was indeed
miraculous. A small missile struck him over the left eye and this,
aside from his face and one arm being filled with fir bark splinters,
was the only injury sustained. Immediately after the explosion the
young man, with a rare presence of mind, and with his clothing on
fire, jumped up and ran to the house, about a hundred feet distant,
to see if it had caught fire.

The only thing that marks the place where the blacksmith shop
stood is a great hole in the ground made by the explosion. Every
window was broken out of the house and everything badly shaken
up inside. Pieces of the blacksmith shop were scattered over the
whole side of a nearby mountain. It is thought there were twenty-
five pounds of dynamite in the box. Dr. Jones, of this city, was sent
for to administer to the injured boy and leaving here at ten o'clock
Tuesday evening, reached the scene at day light Wednesday
morning. The boy's slight wounds were dressed and he will get
along all right. 

Deceased leaves a wife and children. Funeral services were held
Thursday and interment was made in the Phoenix cemetery.