Dr. BENNETT asked for a salary.  This I objected to as I could easily fill all positions and save the company money.  I wanted to pay all stockholders back their money before increasing expenses, but BENNETT did not like my attitude and laid plans to get rid of me.  This he did at the next annual meeting.  I had acted unwise in giving him a majority of stock in the mine.  This he divided among his relatives, placing them on the board of directors.  He wanted me to stay on.  I told him I did not want to hold on as I had another proposition offered me.  I had treated Dr. BENNETT well; better than he expected.  He purchased this lease from Caleb POWERS for $12,500.  This gave him $25,500 in stock, which gave him a majority.  BENNETT's company was capitalized at $50,000.  Some of the stockholders would have me promise that I would not leave while they had their stock.  This kept me from resigning.

A meeting was held and I was voted out and also let out as a director.  Although I was the next largest stockholder to BENNETT, I was not even selected as a director.  I was the only one with a mining experience and education.  In less than two weeks, the mine boss and others quit the mine and so they go into trouble trying to operate. They then leased the mine.  This did not prove satisfactory.  Another meeting was called and a committee came to see if I would inspect the mine twice a month.  Said they would pay me my price.  BENNETT had opened another mine a half a mile away.  He also wanted me to inspect that one.  I was slow in consenting, but he was now feeling his mistake.  He told some of my friends that he lost $25,000 by acting as he did.  He afterwards did all that he could to please me.  He was my friend until he did a few years afterwards.

At a meeting held to displace me, at the office, all his friends and Dr. BENNETT also, with two men walking up and down in front of the office, carried revolvers.  I suppose that they must have thought that I would make trouble at the meeting.  With my friends, none of us were armed.  I told some of them after the meeting that I did not understand why BENNETT and his friends should carry guns.  I think they felt that they made a silly mistake and got scared.  A party came and offered a good price for the mine and they all agreed to sell.  A short while before the sale, I had opened a mine to work the coal left in the old East Jellico Company's mine.  I operated it a few years and then leased it to others.

I had received a proposition to become manager of other mines and could not feel free to accept any of them.  For the past few years, I had had several attacks of indigestion.  This was weakening me and was getting on my nerves.  It seemed only a question of time when I would have to cease working.  I tried my best to keep going and not to give up and it suddenly left me.  I soon got worse and my strength almost left me for seven years.

One instance of importance happened while I had charge of the BENNETT mine.  I was standing near the mine tipple one Saturday morning, in 1906, when I heard a peculiar rumbling sound much like a heavy blast near Williamsburg, Kentucky, on the L. & N. Railroad.  They were doing railroad construction work through rock, and I thought that was the cause of the rumbling I heard.  Late that evening, word came to me that a car loaded with dynamite had exploded at Jellico, Tennessee, a distance from where I stood of about twenty-five miles by air line.

As the lines were torn down, I could not get any news from Jellico and I decided to get over there some way, as I was living there at that time.  I walked out to Artemus, five miles away, and took a train there to Corbin and from there to Jellico.  I arrived in Jellico early in the morning.  I could hear all sorts of rumors while on the train.  I was uneasy about my family, knowing that my house stood on a hill and only 1500 feet from where the dynamite exploded.  On reaching the place, I found a great hole in the ground, torn up railroad cars and buildings torn to pieces and cattle dead in the fields from shock.  I looked toward my home on the hill.  It was still standing.

People all around were in great distress.  I made my way up the hill to my home.  I met my neighbor, U. S. JONES.  When he saw me the first words he uttered were, "FRANCIS, what you told me one year ago has happened."  I had repeatedly told those in charge of the depot that they would surely have an explosion by the reckless way they were handling explosives.  I had to testify to this advice given before the explosion occurred.  I was familiar with the handling of dynamite.  Suit was brought by those who were damaged, but only enough to cover part of the loss.  I received $600.00.  I had spent $800.00 on repairs to the house.  The house was split apart several inches and was moved several inches off its foundation.  Later on, the house was torn down and built over into a new home.  Eleven people were killed and many were injured.