Obit: Wagner, Bernard (1955? - 1974)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Wagner, Oliver

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 8/22/1974

Wagner, Bernard (1955? – 16 August 1974)

A nineteen-year-old Colby man was killed last Friday when two sticks of dynamite exploded after a fuse malfunctioned on the charge.

Dead was Bernard Wagner, son of Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Wagner, rural Colby. Injured was Paul Oliver, 18, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Oliver, Greenwood, who was assisting Wagner in “blowing a well” on Wagner’s parent’s farm.

The time of the accident was placed at approximately noon when the explosion occurred in the hand of Wagner, who was later pronounced dead on arrival at a Marshfield hospital.

Oliver suffered cuts and bruises from the explosion but was listed in good condition at the Marshfield hospital.

In reports to investigating officers, the two had struck rock thirty feet below the surface and decided to blast the hard material loose. Wagner lit the fuse as Oliver held the charge, then handed the two sticks back to Wagner for the drop into the well. Oliver stated that the fuse was improperly burning prior to the blast.

Services for Wagner were held Monday at a Colby funeral home, with burial at a Manfred, North Dakota, Cemetery. He is survived by his parents, two brothers and four sisters.