Perry Stove Works Explosion Kills Five
September 3, 1888
South Pittsburg Historic Preservation Society
The Stevenson Chronicle
Stevenson, Alabama
Tuesday Morning, September 4, 1888
Fearful Catastrophe at South Pittsburg
The inhabitants of South Pittsburg were thrown into wild excitement on Monday morning at 6:25 o’clock, by the explosion of the second hand boiler used in the Perry Stove Works. This was an old boiler and the safety valve some days ago become useless and the engineer removed it and plugged the hole, and the steam registry being inaccurate, it exploded with terrible force, killing six men and injuring many others, two seriously.
The Killed,
Charles Taylor, superintendent
J. B. Mills, machinist
M. Donovan, foreman and mounting department
Geo. N. Carter, jeweler
Wm. Plumbee, brother-in-law of Carter
Wm. Watson, a molder (not killed)
The injured are: Wm. Gross and Rock Scruggs. Many others received bruises and cuts from flying debris.
Those who are now lying cold and stiff in death were splendid men, every one of them. All were young men who gave promise of usefulness in this life.
Charles Taylor
was the general superintendent of the factory, about 35 years of age; a skilled workman of high order, and one of the most popular and respected men of that city. The same is true of Mills and Donavan. All three had been in the company’s employ a long time and were the best workmen they had. All three were married men. Mrs. Taylor is in Sing Sing, New York; Mrs. Mills is in Columbus, Ohio; Mrs. Donovan and her beautiful little child reside here.
The Case of Geo. N. Carter
is particularly sad. His brother-in-law, a youth of 19 years, came here from Winchester last Saturday to learn the trade of making stoves. Carter and young Plumbee together started for the Perry works, where Carter intended to introduce Plumbee to the superintendent, Chas. Taylor. They unconsciously walked in to the very jaws of death, for they had scarcely entered the engine room when the explosion occurred. Carter’s young wife stood in the door of his jewelry store (which is but a block from the factory and in plain view) watching her brother and husband as they entered the factory, and was still looking towards the works when the terrific explosion occurred. A piercing and heart-rendering scream instantly rang out, and indicated to all in the vicinity that she realized that her husband and brother were no more. But a few weeks ago she mourned the loss of her father. The utmost sympathy is felt for this lovely young lady, and tender, loving hands are alleviating and smoothing her sorrow.
Fully 400 feet from the site of the boiler house is the double building of N. Deitzen. The force of the explosion drove the boiler across the intervening space and directly through the building to the farther side. Deitzen’s house is also a pitiable wreck. Lath, plaster, beams, ceiling, billiard tables, dining tables, beds and bedding, dishes, groceries of every description are lying in conglomerated profusion within what is now a shell of a house.
Some of the escapes were certainly miraculous. The piece of iron which killed Geo. N. Carter passed a boy named Marshal so close as to scratch a finger, and its concussion tumbled him over and over, knocking him twenty feet away. Tom Henning, a skillful moulder, had just spoken to the superintendent and was turning away when the accident occurred. A man on each side of Henning was killed, yet he escaped save a few bruises, caused by his falling amidst some castings full twenty feet away. When the boiler plowed its way through Deitzen’s building a woman with a babe in her arms was in the act of passing from a rear room to the front, used as a grocery store. The boiler passed within two feet of her person. The concussion knocked the babe from her arms and the woman was thrown several feet away neither sustaining any serious injuries.
The overwhelming sorrow which has hung like a pall upon that city all day long Monday only deepens as we begin to realize what has really happened. All day long kind hands have been doing the utmost to soften the grief of the living and prepare the dead for the grave. At 6 o’clock yesterday evening five caskets in the Marion hotel were brought out on the sidewalk and placed side by side. An immense gathering of citizens surrounded them while Rev. T. Handy conducted the funeral services of the Fraternal Mystic Circle, of which order Charles Taylor and M. Donovan were members. Death made them all brothers, and the lodge with no partiality placed a pretty laurel wreath on each casket. After the services, the remains were taken to the depot.
The bodies of Taylor and Donovan go to Sing Sing, N.Y.; those of Carter and Plumbee to Winchester, and that of Mills to Columbus, Ohio. The Knights of Pythias have detailed a Knight to accompany the remains of Carter. The Perry Stove company sends C. H. Hudson with body of Mills.
Watson, who was supposed to be dead, is yet alive, but his condition is unchanged.
The coroner’s jury, which convened at 10 a.m., yesterday, rendered the verdict that those dead were killed by a boiler explosion, but they place no blame
This page was last updated: July 31, 2007
Page built July 23, 2007
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The New York based industry, Perry Stove Works, opened in South Pittsburg, Tennessee in 1887. The following year, 1888, on September 3rd, an explosion of a boiler killed several persons and damaged downtown buildings. Illustration from 1887.
SPHPS
