Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-03-07
LITERALLY ANNllIlLATED.
TREMENDOUS EXPLOSION OF DYNA-
MITE AND ITS RESULTS.

The Only Man at the Scene Blown Abso
Iutely out of Existencc--Not AN Atom a
Him To lie Found where Nothing
Left Of the Building Except PulVerizct
BrIck-A Yawning Crater.
RICHMOND, Ind March About 10 O'Clock
| Tuesday morning tremendous shock was
| felt in this city, and kilograms of inquiry
| from Cincinnati Bradford Junction, Urbana
| Greenville, and Hamilton, O., indianapolis
and other Indiana towns soon followed, show
ing that the shock was general. 1t was sup
posed at first 10 be an earthquake yet it was
not accompanied by rumbling, but was a
short explosive report. But though the shock
was not IA seismic one, it was the result OF
perhaps the most terrific explosion of nitro
glvcerine AMI dynamite that ever occurred in
the United States, and the scene of the explo-
sion was IA mile south of Williamsburg, this
county, where Oliver H. Hampton, IA gener-
al western agent for the Atlantic Dyna-
mite company, has brick sturehouse 1t
contained | 500 pounds of cartridges, by III
inches, containing white paste 30 per cent.
| nitro glycerine, in paratine paper, made eX
preSsly for shooting gas wells; also LOU
pounds of railroad blasting powder and from
10 900 to 5000 pounds of dynamite, most of
which was to have been shipped to the south
west next week Hampton left for st. Louis
Monday night, and before going he instructed
his younger brother, David c. Hampton, who
acts in his place in his absence, dynumitng
stumps, etc, how to prepare some cartridges
with which to shoot II gas well at Hagerstowr,
the paste in them having CONCEALED during the
cold weather,
Tuesday morning David was making ready
IN m hiI at aIsW a
occurred He had driven to the stOrehouse
in one horse wagon, and while parts of the
wagon irons, the horses head, and indis-
tinguiShable parts of its body are found, not
a fragment of Hampton's body as large as his
thumbnail has been discovered nor has there
single brick of the storehouse been seen
The house stood in clearing at the corner
of a wood, and the bricks We're reduced to
dust, by which the trees are redeemed twenty
to thirty feet high and also barked the same
distance, while several were torn out by the
roots and others broken off eight or ten feet
high. Down in the woods piece of Hamp-
toms velvet collar and bit of his undershirt
were found, but that was all. Not even n
fractured piece of bone was discovered, DIR.
Helms said that he had not seen particle of
flesh or bone that gave conclusive evidence
of being part of human body.
Where the storeuouse stood an excavation
was made twenty one feet deep at its center.
At the bottom were assures extending to
either side which raised, in the shape of an
amphtheater, until the excavation was fifty
feet across at the top, around which was
ridge of huge clods like circus ring, while the
earth for an eighth of a mile in all directions
was strewn with these clods, roots, stumpS,
limbs and parts of the fence, which We're
blown to the winds. Houses nearly hall a
mile distant had every pane of glass broken
out on the side nearest the accident, and one
was almost completely wrecked The slate
roof was cracked, the windows, sl5hes and
doors were snatched from their frames, the
plastering shaken from the walls pictures
We're dashed from their frames, and the front
of the house bulged until the ends of the joists
were exposed between the floor and the wall
On the roofs were red lines though dashed
with hanlfulS of briCkdust
The only other person hurt was Mrs, Ma
tilda Chamness who was wounded in the
head by u flying door, and both She and her
daughter We're hurled from their chairs, while
everything movable was dashed from its
place. Mrs Chamness was the owner Of the
house that was SO nearly wrecked