(Artist's Rendition)
Well not exactly my history, but the history of the town I grew up in. Fontanet, home of the "Fontanet Bean Dinner" a once famous event starting after the Civil War as a way to bring people together and help heal the nation, and give them free beans and gas. People used to come from all over the country too, though now it's struggling to happen each year due to lack of support.
But something else happened at 9:05 in the morning on Oct. 15, an explosion at the Powder Plant rocked the town and countryside.
DUPONT POWDER MILL EXPLOSION:
The residents of Fontanet, when they awoke on that morning soon discovered that their lives were about to be changed forever in only a few minutes.
Fontanet in those days was a mining town and also was home to the Laflin & Rand powder mill where blasting powder was made for area mines. The Mill was owned by Dupont Powder Company.
"This was the biggest man-caused tragedy in the history of Vigo County," Joe Koch, author of "Nevins Township: A Historical-Pictorial History of Her Towns, People and Happenings," said.
The first explosion occurred around 9:15 a.m. when a glazing unit overheated leading to a chain reaction of more explosions.
Within the next few minutes, two coining mills, a powder magazine and the cap mill also exploded, and an hour-and-a-half later the magazine section of the mill, which contained many thousand kegs of powder, exploded. The magazine section was located in a hollow several hundred yards from the mills, but the heat from the initial explosions set them off.
The energy from the explosions was massive, as the resulting concussions of the blasts were felt nearly 200 miles away.
The town itself was mostly destroyed. The Fontanet township school was leveled with 190 students inside. Principal J.R.Shoptaugh and teacher Susie Bishop were seriously wounded, but the children escaped with minor injuries
Newspaper articles about the disaster say no homes in the small town were left standing, but Koch has been told a different story.
While Koch's great-grandparent's house was spared, others were not so lucky.
Farm houses and school buildings two miles away in Coal Bluff were torn to pieces and the inhabitants badly injured. Also, the blasts were so great that a freight train on the Big Four Railroad, approximately four miles away, had every coach window broken and numerous passengers were injured from the flying glass. The train was also destroyed as wreckage on the train caught fire.
In all, approximately 50 people, mainly mill workers, were killed and at least 600 others were injured by the residual effect of the blasts.
Mill Supervisor Arthur R. Monahan was killed almost immediately by the initial explosion and his wife, two sisters-in-law and a niece were also killed at their cottage on the mill property.
Indiana Governor James Frank Hanly ordered the Terre Haute company of the Indiana National Guard to the area to help survivors in the area who were left without homes, and physicians and nurses from both Brazil and Terre Haute were also sent to assist.
Hanly himself came to the area later that evening, bringing several hundred tents and cots for the affected residents.
"It was a terrible tragedy for not just the residents of Fontanet, but also for those in the outlying areas who also felt the effects," Koch said.
Scene
of
Desolation
Darkness settled early over the scenes of wreckage and suffering at Fontanet last night and filling the hollows and covering the hills with an impenetrable gloom as deep and dark as that which filled the minds of the stricken people. Early in the evening lanterns were at a premium and their glimmer could be seen singly and in two and threes, as the bearers wandered about over the wide district of the razed town. Here and there through, the darkness an oil lamp shone and dimly, lighted some home where begrimed persons moved. slowly back and forth ministering, to the suffering of some Injured man of woman. The fronts of wreaked stores rooms exposed the Interiors and the proprietors doled out their scant stores of canned stuffs to hungry sightseers.
At the foot of the hill, just north of the railroad, was the morgue where the bodies of eleven dead lay, out of their suffering. It was a ghastly sight The bodies were almost unrecognizable, some blanched and bloodless, others blackened as if made up for some great carnival, still others so disfigured that kindly friends had sewed the charred pieces in canvas sacks, while nearby was a great mass of human remains gathered from the wreck, not recognizable as human remains and being the last earthly remains perhaps of several people. Packed in a small room the bodies lay so close together that only a path was between them. .
Lying in the next room moved by delirium was Harrison Lambert, trustee of Nevins township at the point of death from typhoid pneumonia, his watchful wife expecting to breathe his last at any time The walls of his home sagged and leaned out as though ready to tumble in on the sick man at any time. Groups of curious people stopped in front of the house and like specters in the dark pointed at the little office that held the dead.
People stood about and talked, their faces begrimed and black from the dust and dirt; of the day's labors and of their crumbling homes, At midnight women with babes wrapped close to their bosoms in warm shawls tramped silently home from vigils by the side of suffering friends or sought a place to spend the rest of the night About, the wrecked saloons groups of former habitues sat with dry lips and distressed and horrors of the day.
To add to the gloom of the night of horrors a drizzling rain set in early in the evening. Off to the south the sky was red with the glare of the conflagration that consumed the last of the wrecked mill and perhaps bodies of some of its workers. The fumes of sulphur and other chemicals still filled the air and penetrated lungs of the stragglers who wandered through the village.
It was with a weird feeling that one passed through the deserted streets looking into the homes through gaping holes In the wall or broken windows innocent of glass upon the sleepers and moving restlessly as if the dreadful scenes of the day were still before their eyes in their dreams.
Monahan
Feared
Explosion,
Only a few days ago, A. B. Monahan, superintendent of the powder works was talking to this writer about danger at the plant. He remarked that the unusually long spell of dry weather was making it dangerous, and that he feared an explosion might occur at any time. "There is always danger about a powder. plant," he said," and we use every precaution. In dry weather we are always more apprehensive than at other times, on account of the Increased danger of fire, or danger of explosion from friction."
RELATIVES
TAKE
MONAHAN'S
BODY TO
FORMER HOME.
The body of A. B. Monahan was taken at 2:30 o'clock today to Bellefontaine, O., by his brother and his nephew. The two half-sisters of Mr. Monahan, who were rumored killed yesterday, escaped unhurt. The younger a girl of 16, tried to run from the house, when the first explosion occurred. She stated that for some reason her shoes stuck to the floor and she had to pull her feet out of them before she could got away. She escaped just before the house collapsed.
KNOWN
DEAD
Late
that afternoon the number of
known dead from the explosion of the powder mills is 37, all identified
but two bodies, the fragments of which were put in a sack at the morgue:
A.B. Monahan, general superintendent, Fontanet, aged 41
Mrs. A. B. Monahan, Fontanet
Mrs. Ethel Taylor, niece of Mrs. Monahan.
John Bobo.
George Bobo
William Sherrill, employed in press room.
Henry Harrington, electrician at mill
Sam Corktrill could be Corktail-
Sylvester Dial, aged 48
Ad Webster
Sammy Nevins
Harry Yates
Three identified Dead
Will Dalton, age 17, died at hospital
Sam Cockett
Sylvester Don Dial aged 17
James Biggs, age 50 employed in the mill yards
W.E.C. Cress, Rosedale, aged 21 died at St. Anthony's
Harry Chandler, Fontanet, died at St. Anthony's
T.J. Kellum, Wilmington, Del. burned in office near mill, with Superintendent Monahan
Samuel Morris
Henry Cunningham, aged 38, employed in mill
P. J. Carroll,
George Hodge.
Frank Dial
Frank Ingalls.
Willie Hodge aged 5
Sam Ingalls
Fred Cress, died at St. Anthony's.
August Girard.
Frank Cookerell
Fred Nevins,
Mrs. Ousley.
___Ousley, child of Mrs. Ousley.
Official List of Injured
The following official list of injured was made by Dr. W.F. Willien, chief surgeon for the Dupont Power company at this place, and forwarded to headquarters at Wilmington, Del. last night.
Fred May, Fontanet, aged 23, serious injuries
Andrew Peterson, Fontanet, aged 50, at the time of the accident injuries not serious
L.J. Harris, Terre Haute, aged 42, injuries not serious
William Shearros, Fontanet, aged 30, injuries are very serious
Miss Anna Hines, Fontanet, aged 19, injuries not serious
Mrs. Elizabeth Brannon, Fontanet, injuries not serious
Mrs. Rachel Montgomery, Fontnet, dislocation of left hip and contusions, injuried serious
Mrs. Mary A. Parr, Fontanet, aged 39, injuries not serious
Miss Grace Brannan, Fontanet, aged 17, one eye punctured and sight may be lost other injuries
Miss Elizabeth Bobo, Fontanet, aged 71, injuries serious
John Bright, Fontanet, left leg amputated, injuries serious
Willie Hodges, Fontanet,aged 15, perforated wound in right eye, injuries serious
Harry Kelsaw, Fontanet, aged 41 injuries serious
Samuel Walker, Fontanet, aged 17, injuries not serious
John Harslaw, Fontanet, aged 22, injuries not serious
Albert Webster, Fontanet, aged 41, fractured leg injuries serious
G.M. B. Hedges, Fontanet, aged 53, injuries not serious
A.L. Overholtz, Terre Haunte agent Big Four railroad at Fontanet, injuries not serious
Frank Dial, Fontanet, aged 16, injuries not serious
Charles Wells, Fontanet, aged 28, compound fracture of left lower femur. Artery ligated to prevent bleeding to death, injuries very serious
William Harrold, Fontanet, aged 12, injuries not serious
Jesse Clark, Fontanet, aged 25, injuries not serious
William Walker, Fontanet, aged 37, injuries not serious
Dr. Moore, Fontanet, injuries not serious
Dr. E.C.Newlin, Fontanet, aged 50, injuries not serious
Mrs. F.C. Moore, Fontanet, aged 22, injuries not serious
Miss Nora Lang, Fontanet, aged 21, injuries not serious
Mrs. Charles Wells, Fontanet, aged 21, injuries not serious
Miss Susie Bishop, Riley, aged 23 teacher in Coal Bluff School. Concussion of the brain, and severe contusions? Condition very serious.
G.S. Walker, Fontanet, aged 50, injuries not serious
C.E. Riddle, Tere Haute, aged 22, condition not serious
Alba Edwards, Fontanet, aged 12, injuries not serious
John Nevins, Transient, aged about 40, injuries not serious
Carl Hamrick, Fontanet, aged 21, injuries not serious
James Thomas, Fontanet, injuries not serious
James Gibbs, Fontanet, aged 14, injuries not serious
Louis Mix, Fontanet, aged 24, Condition serious
William Dalton, Sr. father of William Dalton Jr. who was killed, Big Four Engineer, injuries not serious, and he went home yesterday
Charles Nash, assistant superindent at the mill, head cut and contusions on body. Not serious
John Grey, fatally injured, expected to die
Others Injured
The following list of injured was obtained from other sources:
Marion Kingsley, employed in mill, eyes burned
Anna Whitney, arem broken
Rose Lannigan, wrist broken
Child of George Roberts, severe contusions on body
W.P. McCoy, scalp wounds
Willard Carroll,scalp wounds
Prof. J.R. Shoptaugh, teacher at Fontanet school, contusions and serious bodily injuries
George Stewart, internal injuries
Mrs. Ada Wosteler, very serious internal injuries and will probably die.
Alexander Biddle, contusions and lacerations, not considered serious
Edward Cross, external injuries not serious
James Thompson, external injuries. Not serious
Mrs. Huldah Dalton, cut about legs with glass, not serious
Chauncery R. Dalton, cut by glass not serious
Harry Edwards, contusions on face and head. Not serious
Source The Terre Haute Tribune October 16, 1907
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