Clay City, IN Boiler Explosion, May 1907

A doubly fatal boiler explosion took place at the electric light plant, Clay City, between the hours of 8 and 9 o'clock, Tuesday morning, May 21, 1907, of which Ralph Travis, the seventeen-year-old son of Jacob H. Travis, who was the fireman on duty, and John Swinger were the victims. Young Travis was sitting in the front door of the engine room and Swinger on the outside shoveling a load of cinders into his wagon-bed when the explosion took place. The boiler was riven into pieces and hurled about and the building practically demolished, killing Travis instantly, whose badly mangled body was hidden beneath the wreckage. Swinger recovered consciousness and spoke a few words, when he was carried to his home, where he expired an hour later. One of the horses was killed, the other uninjured.

A history of Clay County, Indiana : closing of the first century's history of the county, and showing the growth of its people, institutions, industries and wealth, New York: Lewis Pub. Co., 1909, page 383
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