Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 December 1882 — A BURSTED BOILER. [ARTICLE]

A BURSTED BOILER.

Terrible Accident at Shawnee own. 111., by the Explosion of a Boiler. Eight Men Killed Instantly, and Another Employe Probably Mortally Wounded. Eight men were instantly killed and one fatally Injured by a boiler explosion in the saw-mill of Vincent & Son, at Shawneetown, TH The remains of the victims were shockingly mangled, and the mill was completely wrecked. A telegram from the scene of the disaster furnishes the following particulars: It appears that the men were seated around in various positions in the cicinitv of the boiler, eating their noon luncheon, when the boiler exploded, creating terrible destruction. There were eleven men in the mill at the time, and of these the following eight were instantly killed: William Montgomery, Charles Bloss, Henry Hughes, Charles Baker, George Price, W. P. Grove, James McLaughlin, Samuel Kennedy. Several of these were blown into fragments. The sawyer was blown to pieces, so that scarcely a common pailful of his remains could be picked up. One corpse was blown into the river, and two others were thrown a distance of fully 200 yards. Wade Kee, another employe, was thrown a long distance from the mill, and had his legs and arms broken and otherwise injured. He was picked up shortly afterward and died in less than an hour. The other two men are hurt, one probably fatally. The mill is a complete wreck, portions of the boiler lying in different directions and at various distances, ranging from 100 to 600 feet. The accident is the worst ever recorded here, and has created great excitement Several of the victims leave families, some of them in comparatively destitute circumstances. Nobody is left to give any clew as to the probable cause of the accident, and nothing apparently can be'known but that the disaster is appalling and complete.