The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-10-24
DYNAMITE WRECKED
TENNESSEE TOWN
Half of JeIIico Wiped Out as il
Swept by a Cyclone.
BODIES BURIED IN THE RUINS
Exploding Car Kills Twelve and In.
lures More Than 200-Damasc
to Property Estimated ut aliI.
lion Dollars.

Knoxville, Tenn.-The town OF Jel-
lico, which lies partly in Tenressee
and partly in Kentucky, was all but
wiped off the map at 8 o'clock a. m
by the explosion of a carload of dyna-
mite.
At least twelve persons are dead
fifty are seriously injured and moro
than $50 are slightly injured.
The property loss will exceed ST.
100000, nearly 1000 people are
homeless and practically every busi-
ness house and factory in the town
was demolished.
A great hole, fifty feet deep and
100 feet across, marks the spot where
the railroad car which contained the
42O cases of dynamite stood.
Buildings a mile away from the ex-
plosion were shaken and some were
demolished.
The dead may reach twenty-five.
The telegraph offices were de-
stroyed, and but for the fact that the
long distance telephone Office was far
from the explosion, the town would
have been completely shut off from
the outside world
The news was telephoned to this
city within ten minutes after the eX-
plosion, which was heard for forty
miles, and a special train with q
score of physicians and newspaper
men made a quick run to the scene.
Relief was also sent from nearby
towns.
The work of rescuing victims bur-
led under fallen buildings was begun
at once. Flying debris. pieces of
timber and iron, seem to have been
most disastrous to life and limb, a
number of those killed being distant
from the scene of the explosion.
The car of dynamite was standing
on a Louisville and Nashville Rail-
way siding, having just arrived, con-
signed to John L. O'Connor, rail-
road contractor, at Clearfeld, KY.
Cars were being switched, and car
loaded with pig iron was backed into
the dynamite car, causing the ex-
plosion.
While this is the story generally
believed, the official report sent out
by the Southern Railway officials says
that several men were shooting at a
target fastened to the dynamite car,
and that the bullets set off the dyna-
mite.
The list of known dead comprises
George Atkins, thirty years old, line
man for the East Tennessee Tele-
phone Company; John Cook, fifty
years old, car inspector for the South
ern Railway. Walter Rodgers, twen-
ty-eight years old, clerk for the
United Cold Storage Warehouse, cut
to pieces and almost unrecognizable,
and John Gordon, colored, thirty
years old.
Five other dead bodies have been
found, but they are so badly dis
figured that they cannot be identified.
The Armour Packing Company's
warehouse, the Jung Brewing Com
pany's warehouse, the Pinnacle Brew
ing Company's warehouse, the Ken
lucky Consumers Oil ,Company's
tanks and warehouse, the Standard
Oil Company's warehouse and the H.
T. Hackney Company's grocery ware
house were completely demolished.
twenty-five other business houses on
the Kentucky side were so badly dam
aged that they will have to be re-
built.
On the Tennessee side, which in
cludes the larger part Of the town,
the damage was more extended.
Business houses were badly dis
figured and the stocks Of goods
ruined, while residences suffered Sc
verely, windows and doors being
blown out in houses a mile away.