A Sawmill Worker’s Leg Was Cut Off. His Boss’s Quick Thinking Saved Him.
At a mill near Auburn, Edward McKeown lost a leg to a circular saw. W. M. Rodgers’s makeshift tourniquet and a hurried call for doctors kept him alive.
Edward McKeown, an employee of the Rodgers & Nettleton lumber mill at Christopher, had his left leg completely sawed off below the knee yesterday morning while at work on the movable carriage. W. M. Rodgers, one of the proprietors, was standing within a few feet and turned in time, horror-stricken, to see the dismembered foot cut off through the air as McKeown fell from the carriage. He rushed to him and, with the help of his son, picked up the wounded man and tore the clothing from his bleeding limb to see the extent of the injury.
Fearing the man might bleed to death, Rodgers hurried a messenger to Auburn for medical aid, then wound leather strips tight above the knee to stop the flow from the main artery. The rapidity of Rodgers’s movements saved McKeown’s life. Three-quarters of an hour later, when two Doctors Hoy of Auburn arrived, the bleeding had almost ceased. The surgeons amputated the leg above the knee, and McKeown bore the ordeal bravely and came out of it in fairly good condition. The bottom of his right foot had also come into contact with the saw and received a deep gash, which was not expected to endanger the toes.
McKeown was in destitute circumstances, so Rodgers came to Seattle and secured an order from the county commissioners for his admission to the county hospital. McKeown was brought in that evening and taken to the county farm, where he was resting easy. The exact manner of the accident would not be known until he could talk. Rodgers said McKeown had been cleaning up; the large double saws were in motion, but the carriage was empty and still. He thought McKeown, brushing something off the carriage with his left foot, brought his trousers into contact with the saw, was dragged forward, lost his balance, and let his leg below the knee reach the saw. In falling, his right foot was also cut about half an inch.
McKeown was an American and a carpenter by trade. Failing to secure carpentry work, he had taken a position at the mill about a week earlier. He had been in Seattle for several years and had acted as foreman for a number of contractors. His 15-year-old son, Frank, was staying temporarily at Mount Vernon with his mother, who was divorced from McKeown.
“The rapidity of Mr. Rodgers’s movements saved the man’s life, and three-quarters of an hour later, on the arrival of the two Doctors Hoy, of Auburn, the bleeding had almost ceased.”
Washington’s lumber mills were among the most dangerous workplaces of the era, and an injured man like McKeown depended on an employer’s quick action and county charity rather than a modern workers’ compensation system. Today the state’s Labor & Industries system exists precisely because these accidents were routine — though amputations and workplace deaths still make the news.
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