Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1859-08-11
%, that viii be Joyful. ,
From the Charleston Mercury :
Terrible Accident on. the South Carolina
Railroad.

Tcrf1Dl0 ACclQoht On thc SOutu OuIouud
Railroad.
The locomotive f. IT. EBmore explodedh her boil.
er, on Thursday afternoon, between Lowry's and
Graham's Stations, on the South Carolina Rail-
road instantly killing five men. . g., !:
The locomotive F. Il. Eln,ore was just from the
repair shop Of the South Carolina Railroad in this
city, and was in good working condition. The To-
comotiye left Charleston on Thursday morning for
the purpose of performing road work in the vicini-
ty.of Aiken, to relieve the locomotive 4. Black,
which was needing repairs. The Elmore was un-
attended by train, and followed the regular No.
merchandise train from this city to Hamburg.
Everything progressed well until Lowry's was
reached, st which station the engineer Of the
freight train, true to his schedule, moved off with
his train. By some means the conductor of the
freight train and train hand were left but i'm
mediately got upon the Ezuore to follow to the
next station. When the locomotive had gone but
q short distance from Lowry's it exploded, and
killed every man upon the platform, leaving not
one to tell the tale. At this time there were upon
the locomotive Messrs. Thomas R. Kingdom, the
engineer in charge; q. Won. Delkin,, the conduct
or Of the engine Fl. Donnegan, the fireman; L..
NJ. Chitty, the conductor Of the preceding train; ;
and A. Mitchell, laborer on the train The &C
cident occurred in the vicinity Of three o'clock in
the afternoon, and at q distance Of seventy-si1
miles from this city. g..
/. Mr. Rivers, a carpenter in the employ of the
railroad, heard the explosion and fastened to the
spot. He found the boiler Of the engine in frag-
ments and the machinery destroyed. One wheel,
with its axle, had been wrenched from the other
wheel and thrown q hundred feet to one side Of
the track, while the other wheel was thrown to
the other side. Nothing but pieces of iron indi-
Gated that the engine ever had boiler. 1t was
completely annihilated.
The bodies of the FIVE men were found in diff
ferent portions and horribly mutilated.. Three of
their heads were blown from their bodies; one
was doubled up, with his chest blown away, and
another 80 entirely dis6gured as to be unrecogni-
Fable. The top Of the head of one was blown off.
The bodies of three were readily recognized; the
body of the engineer, Kingdom, was only identified
by his clothing and his grey beard while the
body OF the fifth was determined alone, from the
fact the he was the only man missing. Arms and
limbs were blown off and fractured to an extent
beyond description. The body of one was found
one hundred and fifty yards from the railroad
track.
We learn thatMr Kingdom was one of the oldest
engineers upon the road, Of great prudence and
worth. He was a man Of piety, and invariably
carried his Bible with him upon his engine. His
loss is deeply regretted by all his shop-mates and
the employees of the road. He leaves 8 widow
and FIVE children.
Each of the others was married, and two Of
them had families.
The cause Of this accident was the inadvertent
allowance of the water to get below o safe level
in the boiler. OF this, there can be no doubt in
the mind Of any one familiar with steam engine.
While a. locomotive is in notion the loss Of water
by evaporation is compensated for by the constant
supply Of water from the tank. This supply cea-
ses with the progress of the machine. Under q
hot fire, the water in the boiler while still, would
soon evaporate to dangerous point, and this was
lamentably the case in the present instance. The
terrible destruction of lfe and Of the boiler itself,
proves the substantial condition in which it was.
Had there been weak spot, it would have given
away earlier, and these valuable lives been spared.