Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1897 — DYNAMITE IN WHEAT STACKS. [ARTICLE]

DYNAMITE IN WHEAT STACKS.

Michigan Thrashers Blown Up by Malicious Persons. Farmers throughout Southwestern Michigan are looking for persons who have secreted sticks of dynamite in sheaves of wheat. Near Galesburg, while Louis Lefevre was thrashing, an explosion took place, which wrecked the separator, stacker and attachment, and the flames destroyed every bushel of wheat and the farm buildings. Several men at work on the thrasher were blown many feet away and severely injured. Saturday afternoon while Harmon Delong was thrashing wheat on George Townsend’s farm, near A andalia, a terrific explosion took place, blowing the separator to fragments. At least half a dozen of these explosions have occurred in different parts of the country, and the losses have been large. Farmers have hired detectives to investigate.