Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1883-05-30
Explosion and Death.

From the Bay City Tribune of Nav &c,
we learn the following particulars rela.
tive to the awful death of Joseph Sham.
burg:
A few minutes after 2 o'clock vester-
day report reached The Tribune by
telephone from the water works that a
terrible explosion had occurred down the
river, which was either a mill boiler or
the nitro-glycerine factory of the Roberts
torpedo company, situated on the bay
near Oak Grove. A few minutes later a
message from the same source stated that
the glycerine works had really blown up
and the men employed therein were miss
ing. a representative of The Tribune at
once started for the scene of the disaster
and in passing along the route through
the village of Essexville heard the usual
exaggerated reports of the accident. the
number of men killed varying to the diff
ferent versions from two to nine. Arriy-
ing on the scene picture of destruction
of the most complete character was seen.
The report was verified for an explosion
had blown the nitro-glycerine factory al
most literally into atoms. The building
was utterly demolished, portions looking
as though they had passed through a ma.
chine for grinding pulp. Over an area
of several acres the debris lay scattered
in every direction, as though the power
of the explosion had been exerted equal
" on all sides. The work was located on
a sand ridge along the bay shore, flanked
on the inside by marsh. While the
sand on the ridge was strewn withe frag-
ments, to the marsh were seen sticking
out of the mire, having been blown in
the air and dropped point downward. On
the surface of the bay were floating many
pieces of the building, and one large frag-
ment was standing out of the water, hav.
ing fallen with such force as to drive it
into the sand at the bottom. Battered
tin cans twisted into fantastic shapes and
shattered and torn were strewn over the
sand, and here and there were portions of
the machinery, pipes, connections, tubes,
etc. But the saddest of all was the hor-
rifying sight of the remains of a man
strewn over the ground and floating in
the waters of the bay. In one place was
portion OF the neck and shoulders with
the back scalp adhering to it, showing
that ne to whom the fragments once be-
longed, was black-haired person and
wore his hair short-clipped In another
place portion of an arm and few other
shreds, while on board near the water
was to be seen a great number of small
shreds of flesh, rib and portions of the
Intervals which had been carefully gath
cred from the water by Charles Rouech,
OF the Oak Grove House, who with pa
tient diligence was gathering others to
be found floating about and tenderly
placing them on the shore. A short dis
lance from where the works had stood
was seen one horse wagon pretty nearly
demolished and upon it a coat, which had
been torn almost into ribbons. The
pockets were intact, and in one of them
were found some letters and postal cards.
The address On these and other facts at
hand conveyed the intelligence that Jo-
seph G. Shamburg had been instantly
killed and his body blown into unrecog-
nizable fragments by the terrible explo-
sion which haG made havoc with the
works. There were a number of persons
on the ground, few from the city, but
up to the time the reporter left no official
recognition of the disaster had yet been
made.