The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-02-19

BRADFORD, Pa, February

BRADFORD, Pa, Februarya.
Z A terrible nitro-glycerine explosion
occurred at nine o'clock this morning at
Corwin Centre, a short distance from
Bradford. Howard Sackett, of Forest
vile, N. Y, aged twenty-five, and un-
married, was fcarfully mangled and
killed; James Feeney was fatally in
jured, q team of horses killed, and
three houses were wrecked, the inmates
having a marrow escape from death.
Sackett and Feeney started from Brad
ford this morning for Colville with 100
pounds of glycerine. They were driv-
ing pair of horses attached to box
sleigh. The deadly compound was put
up in ten-quart cans. The roads were
very rough. About half a mile from
Corwin, in crossing bad rut, the sleigh
upset, and, the ground being hard and
frozen, an awful explosion occurred.
Sackett, who was driving. was literally
torn to pieces. He was thrown high
into the air, and hurled alb ut seventy
feet, his clothes being torn off, his
head being almost severed from his
body, and his right arm torn out at the
socket. He Wa d@embowelsd and
otherwise fearfully mangled. Feeney
was on the seatwith Sackett, and, see-
ing that the sleigh was about to upset,
jumped backwards, a distance of per-
haps ten feet, falling on his face and
hands. In less than a second after
the explosion occurred hole five feet
deep and about nine feet in width was
made. Feeney was found on the edge
of this hole, covered with ice, dirt and
several broken fence-rails. Remarks
BILE to relate, he escaped alive. The
force of the conclusion caused the
blood to stream out of his mouth and
ears, while his eyes were badly. discol.
ored. Two men picked him up, and
he walked to neighboring house, ap-
parently not seriously hurt. His in
juries, however, are thought to be fatal.
1t is, perhaps, the only case on record
where such an escape from instant
death was made.
The shock was akin to an earthquake.
The one-and-a-half-story frame house of
Charles Seely, about forty feet from the
road, was totally wrecked, the roof be-
ing torn of, the front blown in, and all
but the side and back reduced to kind
ling-wood, Mrs. Seely was in the
kitchen when the explosion occurred.
She escaped from the flying debris with
out even a scratch. Further west the
house of Charles Dolloph was wrecked;
windows with the sashes were blown in,
and everything in that place ratified up.
Mrs. Dolloph and four little children
were In the house. ! Entie.E da was bad
ly cut in the breast by flying glass, and
her sister was burned by the falling
stove. A barn close by was also laid
low. The escape from death was in
deed miraculous. Of the sleigh moth
ing but the seat and whitfletrees were
found; the remainder was thrown to
the four winds of the heavens.
Sackett and Feeney took the place of
two men killed by a :imilar explosion
last September. In the first case there
was not enough found of one of the
men to fill cigar-box. Both men were
sober and industrious. Charles Dol
loph, a farmer, was less than twenty
rods away when the explosion occurred.
The shock threw him from his seat, and
the horses were badly frightened.
Feeney was brought to this city. and is
receiving the best medical aid.