Benjamin Wesley Bartee
Fourth child of Thomas Perry  and Emaline (Hubbard) Bartee.

Benjamin Wesley Bartee was born August 2, 1875 in Montgomery County, Missouri. He married Dora P. Cook, born in November of 1881 in Illinois. They were married in 1897 in Camden Co., Mo..

Benjamin and Dora had these children; Hubbard Ray, born June, 1899 in Linn Creek Village, Osage Township, Camden Co., Missouri.; Pauline, born abt. 1902 in Camden Co., Mo.; Frank, born abt. 1903 in Camden Co., Mo.; and Francis, born August, 1909 in Nebraska.

On September 12, 1918, Benjamin noted on his WWI draft card registration that his closest living relative was his son, Ray Bartee, Dora had died before that date. This information is also confirmed by the 1920 census which lists Benjamin as being a "Widower".

Benjamin worked as a coal miner. He was one of the 23 men who survived a disaster at Dawson New Mexico in October of 1913. Two hundred sixty three (263) other men died in that disaster.

From an article about the Dawson Coal mine incident:

"On October 22, 1913, Dawson, New Mexico suffered its first major disaster. Stag Canyon Mine No. 2 was shaken by an explosion that was felt two miles away in the town proper. Relief teams rushed in from surrounding communities, but of the 286 men who arrived to work in the Stag Canyon mine that morning, only 23 survived. Two rescuers died during the rescue effort. It was later determined that the explosion was caused by a dynamite charge set off while the mine was in general operation, igniting coal dust in the mine. This was in violation of mining safety laws.

The other mines remained productive after the disaster in Mine No. 2. Then, on February 8, 1923, Stag Canyon Mine No. 1 suffered an explosion. A mine car derailed, igniting coal dust in the mine. 123 men were killed in this explosion, many of them children of the men who died in 1913."

Some of the places Benjamin lived are; Montgomery Co.; Dallas Co.; and Camden Co., Missouri; Clay Co., Nebraska; Dawson, New Mexico; Cochise Co., Arizona; and Mission Twp., California. The 1930 census lists Benjamin as living in San Bernardino, Mission Twp., California. Per that census, he was 54 years old, living by himself, and still a Widower.

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