The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1884-08-23


and in his terror dashed the horses into
a gallop. at which pace he drove
through the streets of Titusville to Rob-
erts' residence, the packages of glycer-
inc bouncing around in the wagon at
an alarming rate, at least it was alarm
ing to the terrified citizens who saw
him pass. West miraculously escaped
that time, only to meet his fate few
weeks later at Reno. The terrible
shock of Palmer's death decided West
to quit the business, ard one day in the
early autumn he left his home in Oil
City to put in what he said would be
''his last torpedo" The torpedo was
lowered in the well at Reno, but failing
to explode when the weight was
dropped, West drew it out. Just at
the top of the hole it exploded, launch
ing Is victim into eternity.
In the spring of 1873 doc" Wright
torpedo agent, and a young man named
Wolf, telegraph agent at Scrubgrass
Station, were blown up at Roberts
magazine, near Scrubgrass. In mid
summer of that year, Andrew Dalrym-
pie, '.moon-lighter" living near Tidi-
QUITE, was blown up in his house and
killed, together with his wife. TWAS
supposed that he had been filing a
shell when the explosion occurred. The
house was turned into pile of kindling
wood by the force of the explosion, but
Dalrymple's two-year-old child was
rescued from the debris almost unin-
inred, and was afterwards adopted into
the family of a wealthy Tidioute man.
In July the following year, John
Osborne was blown up while driving
his torpedo blackboard along Bear Creek
Valley below Parker. In 1875 Alonzo
Taylor drew an unexploded torpedo
from we'll at Troutman. Butler
County, and to guard against danger to
his companions carried the shell into
the woods to take of the cap. An ex-
plosion followed, which killed Taylor.
February Is, 1876, very cold day,
James Barnum, then torpedo agent at
st. Petersburg, drove to Edenburg for
three hundred pounds of glyccrine.
On his return trip he was accompanied
by q fellow-townsman who rode with
him until he turned off the main road
to drive up to his magazine, and only
left him then at his request. His COM
panion had just reached the town when
he was mortified by terrific explosion
in the direction of Barnum's magazine.
The excited crowd that soon gathered
at the locale of the magazine witnessed
horrible scene. The ground was torn
up; trees were denuded of bark and
limbs; one of Barnum's horses terribly
mutilated, was dying in agony. The
other had been blown to atoms, and the
buggy was reduced to splinters. Frag-
ments- of human flesh and horse flesh,
clots of blood and pieces of bone
covered the ground for rods in every
direction from the spot where the maya
zine had been, and were seen clinging
to the branches of neighboring trees
One of Barnum's ears was afterward
found nearly mile from the scene of
the explosion.
July, 1876, w. II. Harper, patentec
of Harper's torpedo, drew one of his
shells, which failed to explode, from a
well at Keating's furnace. In his en-
deavor to ascertain why it did not work,
the shell exploded, driving pieces of
tin through his body. After nine days
of intense suffering he died, August l.,
1876. William Clawson was killed near
Edenburg. The writer met him on the
road near the scene of the explosion an
honr before the occurrence, when Claw
son told me he intended to put in no
more torpedoes after that day. He
had with him at the time six
quart, four-quart and a two
quart shell. The first two were ex-
ploded safely, but the two-quart shot
failed to go, and in the attempt to draw
it out it was exploded at the top of the
hole, beheading the well-known moon
lighter. December 10, that year,
Daniel Smith and William Humphreys
were killed at Roberts magazine at
Petrolia, where they had gone to unload
six hundred pounds of nitro glycerine.
The explosion was most terrific one.
May %, 1877, a man by name of Ali
son, and others found ten-year old
gunpowder torpedo on the river banks
near Scrubgrass. Allison expressed
an intention to s'dissect it." saving he
had ''seen lots of them in the old days"
He was advised not to fool with it, but
went on trying to pry the top of The
explosion killed him instantly. Oc-
tober 2, J. T. Smith, of Titusviile, was
killed at Roberts factory on Boil
var Run, near Bradford, and Col
onel Roberts and his nephew Owen
were both injured. The factory was a
new one, and the accident resulted
from experiments with the first run of
gIycerine. December 5, Ellery
Bartlett, Roberts agent at Red Rock
was exploding empty cans. One which
had been placed on the fire was slow
going, and Bartlett picked it up to look
for a cause. The main part of his re-
mains were divided from one leg and
an arm. April 10. 1878, while Joseph
Either was lowering an eight-quart
Mcintyre torpedo in a well near
Gilmor, it exploded, cutting him in the
side and splitting open the head of
Frank Hill, pumper. September Is,
an explosion took place on the Curtis
farm, two miles south of Bradford,
which resulted In the death of N. b.
Pulver, agent of S. 0. Gotham, Of
Petrolia, j. B. Burkholder and Andy
IN 2