Kilgore, TX Sawmill Boiler Explosion, Mar 1892

A FRIGHTFUL EXPLOSION.

FOUR MEN KILLED AND SEVERAL OTHERS INJURED.

Bodies of the Victims Awfully Mangled – Fragments of Flesh, Clothes and Machinery Hurled Hundreds of Yards.

KILGORE, Tex., March 3 – At 7:30 this morning, six miles west of this place, the boiler of Terrell's sawmill exploded, instantly killing LEO BERRY, J. W. BURCHAM and JIM FLOWERS, white men.

Squire DILLINGHAM, an old and respected citizen, was fatally injured and several negroes were badly wounded.

The News correspondent visited the place of the accident, and the scene of death, ruin and desolation is better imagined than described. Nothing remains to mark the spot where the mill stood except the shattered ruins of the building. Rocks, timbers and pieces of machinery were hurled 400 yards from the mill, and parts of clothing and pieces of machinery can be seen hanging from and lodged in trees 300 to 400 feet away.

The mangled remains of the men so lately full of life and hope and the groans of the injured and dying were sufficient to make the stoutest of hearts weep.

It is the opinion of those present at the time that too much steam was the cause of the accident.

Fireman LEO BERRY, who was killed, was heard to remark a few moments before the accident that the inspirator was out of order and failed to work properly. BERRY leaves a wife and several small children.

Continued on page 2