Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1882 — DREADFUL ACCIDENT. [ARTICLE]

DREADFUL ACCIDENT.

Explosion of Three Boilers in an Agricultural Manufactory at Canton, Hl. The Building Demolished and Nine Workmen Killed. Nine men were killed at Canton, HL, by the explosion of a boiler in the agricultural implement works of Parlin & Orendorff. The building was nearly torn to pieces and then set on fire. We glean the following particulars of the shocking accident from dispatches telegraphed from Canton to the Chicago papers: At about 7:10 o’clock a deafening sound was heard, and buildings throughout the city shaken from the foundations up, causing the people to rush to their doors to learn the cause of the unusual occurrence. In a very short time afterward the fire-bell sounded an alarm, and a dense volume of smoke and steam was observed over the extensive agricultural-implement works of the Parlin & Orendorff Company, located on Elm street, in the east part of the city. It was at once inferred that the shops were on fire—people not imagining the awful catastrophe that had just occurred. Three large boilers, which supplied the manufactory with motive and heating power, had exploded, scattering death and destruction and completely demolishing the brick engine and boiler room. The extent of the calamity could not be seen from the street, the boiler-house being located on the south side of the north wing of the building, which is three stories high. The force of the explosion tore out about forty feet of the brick wall of the three-story section, the brick and debris falling directly upon the wreck of the engine and boiler room, and breaking all the windows in the north side of the building. In the ruins could be seen the bodies of some of the workmen, and it soon transpired that others were missing. The fire company, which was promptly on hand, soon extinguished the flames that had burst forth in the ruins, and, with the assistance of hundreds of citizens, commenced the mournful task of removing the dead and wounded as rapidly as they could be got at. Six lifeless bodies were removed, and three more were taken out before life was entirely extinct. Two of the latter did not "regain consciousness, one of them dying while he was being carried home, another living but a short time after his removal to the office of the company, and the third, who was conscious for several hours, expired at 4 o’clock this afternoon, making the total number of deaths from the explosion nine. William McCamey, engineer, crushed out of shape; found lying across the engine, with his oil-can in his hand. Lemuel Hunnicut, fireman, burned and mangled horribly. Hiram Palmer, crushed and scalded William Miller, crushed to death; founct a circular-saw table, with a stick of timber in his hands, in the work-room, just in the rear of the boilers. Archie Henderson, crushed and scalded so as to be almost unrecognizable. Alexander Nickerson, literally cooked ■ Joshua Oldham, burned to a crisp on the arms; head crushed and scalded all over. Robert McGrath, the last man taken from the ruins, was crushed and cooked into an almost shapeless mass, one foot hanging by shreds of skin, bowels crushed out, aucl bones all broken. Samuel Bell fearfully scalded and bruised about the head and chest Only two persons in addition to those killed" received injuries—Calvin Armstrong and Joe Drake being slightly Injured by bruises and scalds. The cause of the explosion is a mystery, and will probably never be known. Two of the boilers were "torn into small pieces and scattered all over the yard. The third boiler was one-half blown away and the other half forced through the partition wall into the woodwork-room adjoining. Pieces of the boilers were hurled a distance of 10V yards.