Tank Brown and Robert Sessions could dig a well with the best of them. Dr. W.B. Taylor hired the well diggers to construct a shallow well on his farm. Brown descended to about fifty feet below the surface in an attempt to remove an annoying rock. He placed a shot of dynamite next to the boulder and returned to the surface to ignite it. When the explosive failed to detonate, Brown left the site, only to return the following day. He slid down the rope to figure out what went wrong. Something did. The helpers up top felt him strongly pull on the cord indicating he was in trouble. When Brown was half way up to safety, he inexplicably turned loose from his secure grip and fell to his death.
Robert Sessions was summoned. He reluctantly agreed to fetch the corpse of his friend from the void. He managed to get a noose around Brown's lifeless body, only to realize that he too was in trouble. This time, his rescuers managed to hoist him to safety. When he was pulled from the mire, Dr. Taylor determined that Sessions had been overcome by nitro glycerine gas, which formed in the base of the well when the water saturated dynamite decomposed.
(@Macon Telegraph, 4-26-1921)
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