The true northerner., 1882-12-22
DREADFUL ACCIDENT.
Explosion of Three Boilers in an
Agricultural Mandatory
at Canton, Ill.
The Building Demolished and Nine
Workmen Killed.

Nine men were killed at Canton, Ill by
the explosion of boiler In the agricultural
implement works of Parlin a. Orendorh. The
building was nearly torn to pieces and then.
set on fire. We CLEAN the following particulars.
of the shocking accident from dispatches.
telegraphed from Canton to the Chicago.
papers:
At about 7:1o o'clock a deafening sound
was heard and buildings throughout the
CITY shaken from the foundations up caus-
ing the people TO rush TO their doors to learn
the cause of the unusual occurrence In a
very short time afterward the hre-bell
sounded an alarm, and dense volume OF
smoke and steam was observed over the ex-
tensive agricultural implement works OF the
Parlin & Orendorff Company, located on
Elm street, in the east part OF the city. 1t.
was at once inferred that the shops were on
fire-people not imagining the awful catas-
trophe that had just occurred
Three large boilers, which supplied the man
ufactory with motive and heating power,
had exploded. scattering death ana destruc-
ton and completely demollshlng the brick
engine and boiler room. The extent OF the
calamity could not be seen from the street,
the boiler-house being located on the south
side of the north wing of the building, which
is three st ories high The force OF the ex-
plosion tore out about forty feet OF the brick
wall of the three-Story section, the brick and
engine and boiler room, and breaking all the
windows in the north side of the building
In the ruins could be seen the bodies of
some of the workmen and il soon transpired
that others were missing. The fire com
pany. which was promptly on hand, soon
extinguished the flames that had burst forth
in the ruins, and, with the assistance OF
hundreds of citizens, commenced the
mournful task of removing the dead and
wounded as rapidly as they could be got at
Six HtalaSg hOIiag rpTnnVaH three
more were taken out before life was en-
tirely extinct Two of the latter did
not regain consciousness, one OF them
dying while he was being carried home, an
other living but a short time after his re-
moval 10 the office of the company and the
third, who was conscious for several hours,
expired at o'clock this afternoon. making
the total number of deaths from the explo-
sion nine.
William Mccartney, engineer, crushed out
of shape; found lying across the engine, with
his oil-can in his hand
Lemuel Hunnicut, fireman, burned and
mangled horribly
Hiram Palmer, crushed and scalded
William Miller, crushed TO death; founo "a
q circular saw table, with stick of timber
in his hands, in the work-room, just in the
rear of the boilers
Archie Henderson, crushed and scalded so
as TO be almost unrecogniZable
Alexander Nickerson, literally cooked.
Joshua Oldham burned to crisp on the
arms; head crushed and scalded all over.
Robert McGrath, the last man taken from
the ruins, was crushed and cooked into an
almost shapeless mass, one foot hanging by
shreds of skin, bowels crushed out, and
bones all broken
Samuel Bell, fearfully scalded and bruised
about the head and chest
Only two persons in addition to those
killed received injuries-Calvin Armstrong
and Joe Drake being slightly injured by
bruises and scalds
The cause of the explosion is a mystery,
and will probably never be known. Two of
the boilers were torn into small pieces and
scattered all over the yard. The third boiler
was one-half blown away and the other half
forced through the partition wall into the
woodwOrk-room adjoining Pieces of the
boilers were hurled distance of 100 yards