Leslie Alvin Baldwin

L.A. BALDWIN MEETS DEATH IN EXPLOSION

TELEGRAM FROM OSAGE FIELD RELATES BUT LITTLE OF ACCIDENT

Man Was Resident of Lusk for Many Years: Family Still Makes Home Here

A telegram reaching Lusk last (Wednesday) evening stated that L.A. Baldwin had been killed yesterday afternoon at Osage, by the explosion of a boiler.

These meager details are all that are known to us as we go to press, of the manner in which the life of this man, just in his prime, was cut short.

Mrs. Baldwin took the early morning local east in hopes of being able to make earlier connections with the Burlington in Crawford.

Mr. Baldwin was well known here, having opened up Lusk's first real bakery about nine years ago. He also took up a homestead on the road between here and Manville on which he proved up. During the oil boom here he entered the oil game and has followed that line of work most of the time since in and around Osage and Newcastle, where he was also proprietor of a hotel for a time.

In Mr. Baldwin's sudden death the fact is brought home that life is surely uncertain. During court week he was in Lusk and in the best of health, and his death at this time comes as a shock to his friends here.

Besides his wife, he leaves to mourn, two little children, a son and daughter.

The details of the accident and the obituary will be published next week.

BALDWIN MET DEATH IN BIG EXPLOSION

The Lusk Herald-Standard, February 15, 1923

Two Other Workers Die in Wreckage in Cave; Were Going After Supplies

Cause of Blast Will Probably Never Be Known; Baldwin's Body is Buried in Lusk

The news of the death of L.A. Baldwin came as a shock to this community Thursday morning of last week, and details regarding the accident which took his life were but meager.

Since that time it has been learned that Mr. Baldwin, in company with Joseph Klodt of Newcastle and Barton Rabun of Casper, entered a cave where commissaries for the Midwest Oil company were kept and that an explosion followed which buried two of the men under the wreckage and threw the third, which was Mr. Baldwin, some 30 feet from the entrance, killing him instantly.

The exact cause of the explosion will probably never be known but it seems that here were gas pipes entering the cave and that a sort of jet was kept burning to prevent freezing within the cave.

Whether the gas pressure became so low that the flame went out and the escaping gas filled the cave or leaked from a pipe or joint cannot be determined but it is evident that the cave was filled with gas and one of the men was either smoking or had lighted a match, causing the explosion.

Mr. Klodt was a Newcastle man and leaves a wife and one son. Mr. Rabun had only shortly before gone to Newcastle from Casper. He leaves a wife and daughter.

Mr. Baldwin's remains were brot back to Lusk for burial. The local members of the Odd Fellow lodge took charge of the funeral which was held at the Fraternity hall building Sunday afternoon, Rev. H.W. Johnson officiating, and the remains laid to rest in the Lusk cemetery.

Leslie Alvin Baldwin was born January 22, 1882, at Alerton, Ia., and died February 7, 1923, being 41 years and 15 days old at the time of his death. He followed the trade of chef for a good many years and had worked in many states which included residence in Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma, before coming to Wyoming in 1913.

He was married to Miss Nina Chattle at Kansas City in 1907, and to this union three children were born, one of which died in infancy.

He is survived by his wife and son, Lee, and daughter, Sadie May, his parents, Mr. and Mrs. O.J. Baldwin of Fay, Okla., and three brothers, C.O. Baldwin of Casper, Ira Baldwin of Newcastle, and Harley Baldwin of Enid, Okla.

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