It was in the “dog days” of summer when young Leonard Boyce was hired by a neighbor to clean out an old-fashioned water well. The property was located at Parsley Bottom near Lenore, West Virginia.
It was Aug. 14, 1967, and the 15-year-old Boyce was trying to raise money to buy some new school clothing.
The article in the old archives stated the teenager was “dramatically” rescued after 24 hours trapped under rock and dirt after climbing down in the well to try to clean it out for the owner.
Not only was the youngster in constant danger from further collapse and being buried alive, but so were the rescue workers who worked feverishly to dig him out of the crumpled old well, which was lined with creek rocks when it had been dug and built years earlier.
Boyce had climbed down in the well around 5 p.m. Friday. It was around that same time Saturday when rescue workers pulled him to safety.
Throughout the rescue efforts, workers could squeeze through water, hot chocolate, and sandwiches to the trapped teen. They took turns being lowered into the well, removing rock and dirt from around Boyce.
They deemed that process too dangerous and decided to dig a diagonal trench from the side to rescue the trapped youngster safely.
Among the score of rescue workers included firefighters from the old Williamson Rescue Squad, a part of the Williamson Fire Department (WFD). It was the only ambulance service in the area at the time. Workers from the Department of Highways (DOH) Mingo County office and several friends and neighbors also volunteered to help.
Some of those men who worked to free young Boyce were the late Curt Phillips and Emery Mounts of the WFD, Johnny Owens, who at the time worked for the DOH, local radio personality and musician Jimmy Wolford, who had been a medic in the military before moving back to Williamson and countless others. Wolford was lowered down by others to give Boyce a couple of injections to help him with pain.
Some rescue volunteers were lowered by their ankles, secured by a rope, to remove dirt and rocks from around Boyce’s head and face. A helmet was placed on his head to try to protect him from any more falling debris.
Eventually the DOH brought in an endloader to help dig the trench from the side after men first started digging it by hand with picks and shovels.
Boyce and the workers were still in danger of another cave-in as they labored to free him from this perilous predicament. The volunteers tried to stabilize the wall around young Boyce to halt another collapse of the well’s foundation.
Needless to say, local, state and even national media converged on the scene for this huge news story.
Bobby Phillips, the son of WFD Rescue Squad member Curt Phillips, said he remembers watching the story on Huntley and Brinkley’s nightly report on NBC News. His dad had been able to get to a telephone and call home to check on his own family and give them an update. Phillips said NBC interviewed his dad.
The rescue workers meticulously pulled rocks from around Boyce while the end loader dug the ditch toward him from the side in order to save him. Volunteer workers were obviously worried, and many prayers went up for both Boyce and the rescuers.
“Dad told me that he talked to Boyce and asked him what he wanted to eat when he got out,” Bobby Phillips recalled. “He wanted a cheeseburger. The boy cried and Dad cried with him.”
Eventually the trench made it to Boyce, and he was gently pulled out through a small opening to safety.
He was then rushed to the old Williamson Memorial Hospital by the WFD ambulance. Another firefighter, the late Paul Phillips, was the driver of the red and white ambulance bus. Curt Phillips was in the front seat as they rushed the injured Boyce to the hospital.
“Dad went and got a double cheeseburger from Justice Drive Inn for him,” Bobby Phillips, a longtime firefighter himself with the city of Williamson, remembers. He took it to him at the hospital as he recovered. Boyce mostly had cuts and bruises, but he had no serious injuries from the ordeal. However, he could have easily suffocated down in the well because he was trapped for 24 long hours.
“I think Dad was affected by the incident for a long time, even though it had a good ending. It was the first time I saw him cry about a call,” Phillips recalls.
“As I found out in later years from my own calls and other experiences, the call doesn’t always end when you’re back in the station,” he concluded.
Young Boyce recovered and went back to Lenore High School late that summer. I recall reading that, after graduating, he joined the military.
It was indeed a happy ending to what could have been a sad story. He was one of 14 children of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Boyce. His family praised the rescue workers afterwards and thanked them for their efforts.
“I never gave up hope,” Ben Boyce was quoted in the story from the archives. “My first thought was, thank you Lord, he got out safe.”
After Boyce was rescued, the well was filled up and sealed off.
Stories appeared in newspapers and on television stations for a couple of days afterwards.
But for that short period of time, Lenore, Williamson and Mingo County were the center of attention around the United States from various news sources.
Until next time.
(Kyle Lovern is a longtime journalist in the Tug Valley. He is now a retired freelance writer and columnist for the Mountain Citizen.)