Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-02-11
SHOOK ALL THE VALLEY.
SIXTEEN TONS OF POWDER EXPLODE
WITH FRlGHTEUL EFFECT.

Four Men, Who alone Knew How 1t
Happened, Picked Up In Fragments
Forty Others Wounded, Some of Them
Fatally-The Buildings for Miles Around
Shaken as by AN Earthquake,
| WLKEsBARRE, Pa, Feb 1.-THE Wyo-
ming valley was shaken Friday morning as
it had never been shaken before. 1t was not
an earthquake, as many at Wilkesbarre sup
posed, but a terrific explosion tweIty-on
miles down the river, at WapwalIopen The
| startling shock came at 5 minutes before To-
| A sudden sharp report, then tremor of the
earth, lasting several seconds The explosion
occurred at the packing house of the Dupont
| Powder company, about three quarters of a
mile from the Wapwalloper station Of the
Pennsylvania railway.
The building was not large one, and was
used for packing the powder and preparing
it for shipment. Sixteen tons of powder was
in 1t at the time, but how the accident
Cured will forever remain a mystery, for the
reason that the four men in the house at the
| time were blown to atoms, aud no one else
knew much about it.
There was no warning, nothing to indi-
| cate that danger was to be feared. An aw-
| full shock, a violent shake of the ground, a
| topping over of buildings, the flying Of tim.
bers, iron and other debris through the air,
cry of agony from the wounded, a shouting
for help all came in minute; then glance
| at the place where the packing house stood
and the sad story was told-not vestige of
it was left, The men employed in it were in
eternity, and even their bodies were not to be
found. Pieces of them were afterwards
picked up hundreds of yards away. The
greater portion of the remains will never be
found The largest piece found was the part
of the collar bone and upper ribs Of kish-
baugh that were picked up in field three
quarters of mile from the scene of the ex-
plosion
The hand and lower arm of Rossman was
found on the top of tree half mile away.
Many other bits of charred, scorched flesh
and bone was picked up, but could not be
identified.
The names OF the four men killed are:
john II. RosSman, aged IS years, widowed
with five children; Peter Kishbaugh, 81,
married, six children; o. F. Teets, 10 years,
single; George Stout, aged is years, single.
Close to the packing-houSe were two large
brick buildings-the charcoal mill and the
can factory. These buildings were utterly
wrecked and reduced to piles Of ruins. In
the can factory eleven men were at work
and in the charcoal mill two
Every one of these men were injured,
Three or bhetn so seriously JuaJ tney cannot
recover. They are terribly cut, bruised and
crushed. Their names arei Silas Peters, 50,
married, two children; Frank CorSns, 81,
single; c. w. Totteu, IS, married, large
family.
Altogether about forty men were injured,
most of them but slightly, while the shock
was felt so far away that the telegraph bore
the news from many points that an earth
quake had occurred. In this city the win
dows in all the buildings ratified, aud officials
in the court house here thought there was an
earthquake, as the building shook violently
At Nanticoke and Wanamie chimueys top.
pied from the roofs of buildings, and school
children ran in terror from the school houses
Men and women fiocked toward the mines
where they thought the explosion happened d,
and where the members of their families
were at work, AT Shickshenny the glass in
almost every window was broken. aud many
persons We're thrown to the ground At
Wapwallopen nearly every building was
wrecked.