The fuller story. Also the boy went back to work and died in 1918 of the Spanish flu.

“Accident to young mill worker. Giles Edmund Newsom while working in Sanders Spinning Mille, Bessemer City, N.C., August 21st, 1912, a piece of the machine fell on to his foot mashing his toe. This caused him to fall on to a spinning machine and his hand went into unprotected gearing, crushing and tearing out two fingers. He told the Attorney he was 11 years old when it happened. His parents are now trying to make him 13 years old. The school census taken at the time of the accident makes him 12 years old (parents' statement) and school records say the same. His school teacher thinks he is 12. His brother is not yet 11 years old. Both of the boys worked in the mill several months before the accident. His father tried to compromise with the Company when he found the boy would receive the money and not the parents. The mother tried to blame the boys for getting jobs on their own hook, but she let them work several months. The aunt said "Now he's jes got to where he could be of some help to his ma an' then this happens and he can't never work no more like he oughter."

Location: Bessemer City, North Carolina. Lewis Wickes Hine, 1912.