Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1876-10-20
A Terrible Explosion.


PIrTsBuRGH, Oct. IL. d.
At 8;45 this morning a terrible eXplo-
sion occurred at Zug & Co.'s mill, corner
of Thirteenth and Etna streets, which
was attended with great loss of life.
The boilers in the nail mill exploded, lit
orally tearing the building to pieces. At
the time of the explosion $50 men and
boys were employed in that department.
The roof was blown up and in falling it
fortunately rested on the nail machines,
thus enabling most of the ,workmen to
crawl out and escape before the fires from
the furnaces set fire to the mass of the
wreck.
The list of the killed and wounded, as
far as could be asccrtained, is as fol-
lows: Killed-Thomas Murphy and An
drew Dellinan, fremen; Frank Cupps,
Peter Kendrick, John and Joseph An
derson, feeders; two brothers named Nc
Afferty and an unknown man whose head
was blown off. Frank Marquis, Andrew
Marquis and Louis Schrank have since
died from their injuries, and Pat Griffin,
John Higgins and James Loper will prob
ably die. Wounded-John Reitzell, arm
broken; M. Eberhart, badly scalded; Bar
nard Kelley, head and arm injured; M.
Snyder, boy, leg and back severely in
jured; Elmer McGool, badly cut about
the head; James Boyd, arm fractured;
Otto Crook, ribs fractured; Fred Recher,
John Brosey, John Martin, William
Krupps, seriously cut about the head;
Simon Boland, arms and legs broken;
Thomas Bonnelly, badly cut about the
head and body; - Bowen, badly cut
about the head and face; Wendell Ub-
belhart, head and body; T. Mackey, John
Smith and Michael Sullivan, both legs
fractured; Kendrick, eyes blown out.
The Pittsburgh Commercial says:
The work of taking the bodies out from
the ruins of the building, a task upon
which the workmen who were unhurt en-
tered with commendable alacrity, was a
task attended with painful, heartrending
scenes. Mangled, bleeding men, held
to the earth by heavy timbers and
broken wheels and fragments of iron
pipe, rent the air with piercing cries
of agony; ;blackened corpses were strewn
about the earthen floor in the vicinity
! of the nail machines and rolls, where
hOul OClOlS hCh hu0 DOOh Sh
gagged at work, little dreaming of the
terrible calamity that was so soon tc
overtake them; women and children,
crazed with grief, ran wildly about in
search of loved ones, shedding tears Of
Joy at finding husbands, fathers and sons
uDhurt, and uttering walls of anguish or
beholding the mNngled corpses, or the
manned though still living bodies of thos(
who were their idols. These were scenes
I to thrill the stoutest heart with pain.
The wounded, as they were rescued
were carried over to the main office O.
the works, corner of Twelfth and Etni
streets, where a number of the best sur
geons of the city rendered all the ai(
possible. Here the families of the work
men congregated in large numbers abou
the doors and frantically asked to be ad
mitted. and it was with great difficult,
that they were prevented from enterin;
the already crowded room, through thei
anxiety to learn what proved to many o
them terrible news. AS fresh victim
were carried in, and the full extent o
the disaster became known, the excite
ment became terrific. A number o
women tainted, and the wife of one man
who had learned of her husbands death
made a desperate effort to commit suicid
by endeavoring to throw herself beneat
a pair of passing timber wheels Anothe
managed to elude those at the door, an
gained entrance to the office. She wa
nearly demented, and was looking fo
her little son, boy of about six years o
age, named Louis Strang. He had bee
in the nail factory, and was missing. H
was not in the Office and, after assurin
herself of this fact, the mother rushe
out TO search elsewhere. Hardly ha
she got away from the office when fou
men wended their way through tn
crowd, bearing the body of small boz
They brought it into the Office. It wa
the womans son, horribly mutilated an
dead. Shortly afterward the father cam
to the Office and, approaching the diminl
tive body, he lifted the coarse clot
!. which covered the face and recognize
his little son. The scene that ensue
beggars description.
The number of killed and fatally il
. jured is eighteen; seriously injured, fort.
The boilers which exploded were !,
=, Gently examined by the County BoilerI Il
\ spector, and found to be sound and SAT,
Only a thorough and searching inquir
can elicit the cause of the explosion
Many theories and speculations are il
dulgod in, but they amount to nothing
1t is difficult as yet to estimate the loi
sustained by the proprietors of the mil
1t will probably be about $25, 900. I'll
insurance is not available in this acc
dent. Hl'ItHi
AZ TTTT-T''-''7'1'-- - g.. I.