The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1890-10-17
x1XI.., SEW
DESTRUCTION OF THE DUPONT
MILLS IN DELAWARE.

ings Destroyed--A Dozen or More Work
men Killed and Many Injured.
WILMINGTON, DEL, October 1.-THE
ONCE and six mills of the Dupont Pow
uer WORKS, near here are in ruins
- fiity or more houses of workmen AZ
tpe upper yard" are wrecked. A dozen
y perhaps more. workmen are dead. and
(, ascore or more others are injured. as :,
! result OF series of powder explosion g
at $50 this afternoon.
!. 1.-The sSlTlhe Dupont works which are wall
known Throughout the country, are the
powfter faI HIS IN ana slyaIed.
states. The mills extended along th;,
banks of the Brandywine, chiefly on the
west side, for about two miles. They
are divided into upper" "IIagley"
and flower" yards. The first named
niXhere the office of the company is 10.
: ted, is about three miles. and the last
named about five miles from WHINING.
ton.
~ workman named Grau, in one of
the packing mills connected with tho
upper yards, was receiving a can of
hexagonal powder to be shipped for the
use of the United States Government
when in some way spark commmni'
Cateu 10 the can and it blew up. Instant
~ the packing mill exploded, and the
other mills in the upper yards. seven
OF eight IN numbers followed at inter.
Eais OF less than one second from the
concnssion. All these, except one. vera
Iolllng mills in which the ingredients
~ gunpowder are pulverized by the ac-
tion or vertical rollers of stoneturning
Slowly around central post. The |
WrNe machinery Is driven by water +
power. The odd one was a mixing
The shock was simply terrific. and 7
was lett even in Philadelphia, thirty -
lve miles away, and in New Jsrsey and d
elsewhere. "''u
AT the supper yards" where the ex- X
pioslon occurred, are some fifty houses =,
ihhablted by employees of the powder q
NIL aliiiS' ana they are all wrecked. The !,
oillcc or the Dupont Company IS a COM W
piete wreck, aud six mills are in ruins o.
Al buildings within radius of half a u
lniie are damaged, and the concussion. ~
SveA eve, Df"ke windows in some parts of w
w wilmington, four or five miles awav
after the explosions the aatt
large h"lldlng known as the "reIinerv al
located near the centre of the viilags 10
;ook fire. 'N0 'i'iage' a
Il, IL was matter of life and death to Jo e
Ihe Whoie population that this fire ue
mould oe extinguished before it COM Cn
hutlcated with the powder the bnijd. eo
asrr s ~ Miss satae4 btrsaef ~ ~
'ought the tiaiiies, which had caught io
he roof. It was touch and go between mi
success and destruction, but the fire. tr,
men won. Had the roof fallen in it is A
doubtful if any man, woman or child th
in the vicinity would have escaped su
leath or serious injury. od
About fifty families are rendered hi
homeless by the disaster, and many of A
them were SO. daZed by the terrible in
events of those few seconds rs to seem rC
hardly conscious of where they are or n,
what they are doing. The injured are n,
being gathered into the hospital build as
ing appertaining to the works, and are NJ
receiving such surgical and other aid ic
rs they need. Owing to the rocky and in
little can be done in the way of search -
ing for the missing, or asccrtaining the
extent of damage done to property un-
til daylight.
The following is partial list of the ft
killed: Martin Dolan, James DOlan, ir
VIM. McGarvey, John Hartigan, VIM. b
Dennison, John DietZ, John IIurlike, t;
Patrick Dougherty. Wm. Green. J9hn x
DouGherty. Several others are missing. 81
The more seriously injured, SO far as W
learned. are: Daniel tIarkins, VIM. b
Logan, (wili probably died0 Annie and f
Marie Dolan, daughters Of James DO. :
Ian, who is among the killed; james
Ward, leg broken and huj internally; ]
Hugh Ferry, picked up un conscious, q
th;t1rles unkn0wn; John Mcdowell, c
III MphOwnll .
ear cut off and head very badly cut; .
her tw0-year-old daughter seriously in
iureG; LYDIA Anderson, arm broken
and badly bruised.
Among the slightly iniurcd are Eu-
gene Dupont, the head OF ,hG firm;
Francis c. Dupont and Chas. J. Dupont.
They and several clerks in the Office
were cut 10y fragments of broken glass,
but none seriously. The dead were all
;. EN- ployees Of the company and were IN
and about the mills that exploded.
Several workmen are missing and are
believed to have been blown to frag-
ments.
The wounded received their injuries
among the walls of their falling houses
and by broken glass and flying debris.
Had there not been general exodus
from their houses at the first shock,
the death list would have been much
IltdNlcI, lldlly "Ouiu now 'S''
crushed in the ruins of their dwellings,.
Undertakers have gone ont from
Wilmington to give their services in
preparing the dead for burial, while
Wilmington surgeons were prompt to
hurry to the spot and render aid.
Yesterdays Powder Explosion.
WILMINGTON, Del, October 8.-E!e
ven persons were killed and twenty in
jured in yesterday afternoons explo-
sions at the Dupont powder mills. The
men who were killed were all working
in and about the magazines and mills,
and except in the case OF three were
blown to pieces. so that only fragments
of their remains haye been found.
The body of Patrick Dougherty was
found this morning in the water of the
race along the creek shore where it had
been thrown by the explosion. The
body, Of Green was found just outside