Henderson Daily News (Henderson, Tex.), Vol. 6, No. 312, Ed. 1 Friday, March 19, 1937 Page: 5 of 16
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FRIDAY AFTERNOON, MAR. 19, 1987
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Tragedy Stalks in
'■ -
Tragedy
disaster
Sidelights
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LONDON IN HEART
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Oak Flat
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LATE TO CLASSIFY
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DEPARTMENT
JUCATION WILL
OK Oft BUILDING
assist Texas officers at the scene
of the tragedy.
Dozens of huge vans from motor
freight lines began rumbling into
Estimated cost to the United
States government for
I
d Wire
Uy
Fire Chief John Moore and
Policemen Howard Johnson and
Bill Gillian arrived early this
ment of the school wall
ran off the brim of his
clothes were sodden.
God, Only, Knows N
President
Itinued from Page 1'
si
ate investigating oomxrlttee.
s earWOs
TAKE OFF ON TO
HOWLAND ISLAND
ADVENT
Most Gruesome Scene
for Sheer Horror
I , v
KNOX DENIES
CONNECTION IN
MURDER CASE
the grief-stricken oil field late
Inside a schock-shredded Eng-
lish book was a theme that Will
never be turned in "to teacher.”
By strange irony the subject of
the theme was "It Will Be Death
For Bonnie and Clyde.”
■f
Mrs. Gary was conducting a
study hall. There were about 95
pupils in the hail.
"The explosion sounded like a
bomb and immediately the front
wall began falling in and all of
the plaster started falling from
the ceiling. Children were shriek-
ing and screaming. I hollered and
told them to get under their
desks, but I saw many of them
jumping out of the window.”
Mrs. Gary escaped injury when
she crouched under her desk.
Miss Westbrook had walked out
of the main building to a nearby
lunchstand. She was looking at
the main building When the blast
came.
’47J reservoir
an J alight de
She
con-1
ce
t to B. Mott, R. N. Ro-
■ Nacogdoches, Tex.
I '
' ''
Investigation B<
Into Cause of
I, ”
r 'jDi
rL* WF'/i
gfeF-.-j
if wrecked by an earthquake.
The disaster overtook the
smaller children as they started
■to file from their classrooms. Its
catapulted upward the bodies of
scores trapped within, what was
the building but now was a
shattered mass of masonry and
steel with but one wall stand-
in£- " '' ' ■
Ihfli
1
■ ■
T '
pupil in the school, was one of 300
students in the east wing of the
building who escaped. Ira Joe, a
member of the school band, which
included 45 members, sat dazed in
an automobile parked behind ,tne
school building for hours after the
explosion. • - ' \ I
w»/‘The band is gone,” he said.
More than half of the members
were killed. ’ I tried to help in the ^£**>27^ group of happy moth-
rescue work for a while and I ~ iU* *
found three of the fellowh dead.
It doesn't seem, real. Wo had
worked so hard together to make
a good band.”
Parked on the south side of the
building awaiting its owner is a
new Chevrolet sedan. A huge con-
crete slab weighing several thous-
and pounds Was hurled through its
top is if thrown from the hand of
a giant.
Ki
? fl
Thursday night. Freight line own-
ers were generously advancing
them for missions of mercy. They
were laden with coffins . . .
•"I was in the lab Wednesday
night and smelled gas,” husky
black-haired Carroll F. Evans,
general science instructor, said.
“I didn't think much about it. In
fact, I struck a match and lit my
pipe." Evans was on the campus
When the explosion came.
On the porch of a white cottage
about a quarter of a mile away
a man was Bitting in hfif favorite
rocking chair. The shock from the
blast was so severe that his chair
ku fRp'pec! wr«r and *e «-«zr
thrown into a somersault.
ahd explosion,
March 1908,
Lor now. Soon Miss
I remove the clamps
the tissues in pbsition
g and view a classic
more to her liking.
gether like two crushed vines-they
rocked piteously to and fro. Tears
rolled on the work-stained khakis
of the aged father. He refrained
back at his ‘ choking daughter,
“How can we tell mother?”
: Please return Hypo Kit
glaspts that were taken
GiFy Purse at Texaco
Hon, South Main
.----------------------♦-------------------------------------------------,-----------------------------------------------------------------------;---------,----------------------;-----------------------;--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
London Tragedy Compared
With Other World Disasters
Probably More Children Killed Thursday in
Blast Than Any Other Catastrophe
Since Biblical Flood
She sat dumbly in the waiting
room of the Henderson hospital.
It was late. She stared hjankly
into space. On a finger of her
left hand was a plain gold wed-
One man told that on his first
observation of the ruins he saw a
dead little girl dangling from the
limb of a nearby tree.
One girl was blown unhurt on
the top of the roof and was res-
cued from there.
A brown coat with mittens stuf-
fed in one pocket was a subject
for a James Whitcomb Riley poem
as it lay tattered in the debris.
"Read Luxemberg pages ...”
Tomorrow's assignment remain-
ed on a blackboard in the history
room on the south wing. Two walls
had been blown to powder but the
blackboard and the teacher's brown
coat remained intact.
“Read Luxemberg pages ...”
“How can we tell mother? How
can we tell mother?” A slender
girl clung to her gray-haired fathT
er pn 1 ‘ '
The dramatic story of two girls
ing experience, and who took
carries you breathlessly throug
SBURY, Vt. ?UP)—Fran-
it attributes his success to
htshlrt and an “ill wind.”
"ill wtncV’ ripped off his
irt early one stormy morn-
he publicity given the Incl- ,
iverwhelmingly re-elected \ , i4f
road commissioner. West ■ Y
JI >
x. 4
Miraculous Escape
Parents and teachers who welt
in the auditorium were far back
in the building and thus escaped
serious Injuries when the front
wall caved in. They rushed out
and were the first to be con-
fronted by the dead and dying in
the wreckage of the main build-
ing.
This was the picture of the
.worst tragedy ever to befall 1 a
school community in history as
given me by witnesses, some of
them mothers whose children
were counted among the mangled
victims.
Mrs. W. H. Phillips had gone
I DC
/lx lZ
cursed the luck of >he weatl
said it made the e-WesW
ptM" “ » footing ii
and threatened to mire ths
trucks that continually
away the debris-. But tl
worked all the harder for t
difficulty, and there were
Of volunteers. When a mai
ped out for coffqe and * i
another too!: his< place.
BY J. LAWRENCE DEAN
Editor of the Henderson News
(Copyright 1937 bf ,U. P.)
HENDERSON, Tex.' March 1?
If It were not for the
traction, Jupiter would,
of its size, kidnap tl
planets and add them to
of nine moons which air
cis about it
Fred Still, a farmer, had passed
the school and had driven about
a quarter of a mile at the time
of the detonation. "I looked back
and saw a hugs cloud of dust.
Children were strewn over the
yard. I rushed to Overton to
spread the news of the tragedy.”
______________"SHK
■down to the clay. I met
a possibility of find!
bodies any place until
the clay dirt of the foun
Check Sftows ESS
about that place. We'll
er while.”
made the ret
Destiny played its part . . .
Robert Norris, 15, survives be-
cause he played hookey for the
first time this year. With a play-
mate, Marvin Harris, Young Nor-
ris slipped off to Arp Thursday
morning Instead of going to school.
There they saw a movie. When
Noris came upon his mother, frant-
ic in search of him, instead of a
\ scolding for playing hookey he got
the biggest hug of his life. Edward
Spweli. the boy who sat just in
front of Norris, was killed.
In one demolished room a plac-
- ard - bearing this., maxim . stilq..
dangled:
• jjiFalWrj .comfia to those who,
pve up too soon." - • • “ --
Two more teachers who escaped
miraculously were Miss Delia
ed niother-in-l^w.
Knox said there was no reason
why he should kill his grand-
mother. He admitted a need for
monsy, but declared that he knew
his grandmother did not keep
large sunp> of cash in her house.
It Is bad luck to go back to a
------------------------- dressing room for a forgotten ar>
a Henderson street comer at, tide <mce one has left the theater,
ght and sobbed. They had according to a superstition of ehowf
tRMod 014U ih Wrapped |*sop!c>
NEW LONDON, Tex., Mar. 19 (UP)—W. M. Rawles of
Tyler, oil company engineer, said today he “went through the
San Francisco earthquake and fire but T saw nothing there
to compare with this school explosion for sheer horror,”
He said he was driving past the<s>
New London school yesterday aft-
emoon at the moment it blew up,
smashing more than 425 children
and teachers to death.
I saw men faint at the sight of
those mangled, helpless children
screaming for aid,” he said. “It
is too appalling to try to talk
about it much. I did what I could
to help, until the rescue work was
organized, then I got out of
there.”
1 George A. Hardy, 63, of Arp,
dropped dead of heart disease in-
duced by shock, after assisting-in
the rescue work an hour.
Ira Joe Moore, 15, tenth grade
for her bundles there came a
was merely an oil tank explosion,
a common occurrence in the com-
munity. As she joked with thr
clerk the siren of an ambulance
sounded. It was then that she
had the strange foreboding ot
danger that only a mother can
experience. — —* -----
She rushed .to the street and
ran after the ambulance. Her
fears were confirmed when she
— --------- reached the top of the hill and
fore; A “MmrC
the wreckage, carry
body of a child. ___r
at the face- of the lifeless body.
■ w Finds Son D»ad_
A probe into details of the explosion which blotte
more than 500 pupils at London Stehool Thursday at
p. m. will probably begin this afternoon, Senator Joe L
of Henderson, chairman of the Senate investigating coh
.....
----
Rain J
(Continued From Pag
" ........
scene. Quickly he puts :
under the rock while the <
workers hold it clear, 'f
the doctor shakes his b
__Stands back. Then a sent
third district and led the recent < “Stretcher here. Stret
* a crane.” A4|
That means another b
other name to the death
ready the longest U a K
aster- '
That’s the way they i
bodlee today. Mothers,
eyed, stood in the cold r
ing their mining* sdn or <
listed among the living bi
live. But they knew tl
little chqpce. Among t
workers were men who
any moment roll aside a i
look upon the crushed
their own child.'
“How many more in tl
The tired "boss” of a
of td „ _____ ___________
the big study halF". '•*** '•'l- ’>am.
Suddenly, bricks ’ sa'iitfo
into the air. Then as the'debris
seemed to hang momentarily
above what had been a solid trim
structure of brick- and steel a
where' wtfs her little boy she had
kissed and sent off to school that
morning? The father had combed
through throe morgues already but
her little boy was still unlocated.
They came upon his body among
a twisted mass of steel. He was a
slight boy weighlug About* SO
pounds and about ten years old.
Stabbed through the center of his
stomach was a two-inch "angle-
iron.” The iron had sliced his belt
buckle in halves as neatly as if
it had been cut by a welding torch.
It was a No. 2 shoe and was
found pinned under a girder. That
morning some little girl had
scampered into the classroom in
that shoe. The lace was still tied.
Workers examined it. The lower
part was squeezed tight indicating
that it was tom cleanly off her
foot during the blast.
BIG SPRING, Texas, March
19 (UP).—Hiram W. A. Knox,
held here on a forgery charge,
denied today that ho had any
connection with the hammer
slaying of his wealthy grand-
mother, Mrs. Mary 'R.nox, tfi, at’
Dallas a weeks >ago.
“I’m not guilty and wish I
knew who did it,” Knox told
reporters.
Dallas police questioned him
concerning the murder before
he > was brought here. Knox’.r .
mother, Mrs. Lillian Knox,
Is held in the Dallas jail .on an-!
other fofgery indictment.
also has been questioned
«... —Photo Tyler Courier—Times .
Hundreds of children were held in East Texas morgues
Thursday afternoon and today rows of dead children were
to be seen in a half dozen East Texas towns similar.to those
above. The children had been rushed by ambulance from
the scene of the London school tragedy. The scene at the /
left was made at the A. Crim Funeral Home in Henderson.
The center picture was taken at an emergency station in
Henderson, and the picture at the right was made at Over*
ton. Many of these children were identified and claimed by
their parents who passed in unending streams by the lines
of the dead during the night and this morning. With order
being restored out of the chaos of Thursday hope has been
expressed that all children may be identified by late today.
HONOLULA, T. H„ March 19
(UP).—Amelia Earhart Putnam,
delayed overnight by a storm in
her path, prepared today to take
off over an unexplored air route ______ „
for Howland Island, the second volunteers leaned’
goal on her flight around the
world. - z “TTi .
Mechanics said her plana had
to be "practically rebuilt,” after ____
ths 2,400-milc flight from Oak-^ "Ctod only knows,”
land, Calif., which the 38-year-| "We won’t know ui
old queen of the air made in 15
hours and 47 minutes, to begin
her greatest expedition/"*
When the 8rl9 was. decommis-
tower was fe-
at the en-
4 baas.
Wake 'of Explosion
to the parent-teacher* meeting
with her son, James, ’ 5, . too ,
young to attend school. Just be-
fore 3 o’clock she left the build-
ing to shop in a grocery store
near the school, leaving Jamei^to
wait for his brother and sister
who still were in their class-
rooms.
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Vaughn
are tho proud parents of a baby
girl.
On account of bad weather
there was no singing at Oak
Flat Sunday afternoon.
Mr. and Mrs. Marion Moore
and family of McKnight spent
Sunday with Mrs. Ada Russell.
Miss Katherine Riddle and
Gussie Mae Ham of Laneville,
and Miss Mozelie Woods, spent
Thursday night with Naomi
Lyles.
disaster, - Alsdorf, ' Ger-' Westbrook an«LMra_HomerGaryG Antonio early Thursday night,
ctober 22, 1930, ,262. wife of the Overton deputy. ----- '
" ’ * R. L. Tilley, 14, owes his life
to a headache at noon Thursday.
Tilley is a pupil in the eighth-
grade at London. By noon yester-
day his head was paining so that
he got an excuse and went home.
His mother, Iprs. K. L. Tilley and,
brother, Billy, "8, were at the P.-T.
A. meeting in the gym at the time
of the explosion.
After having visualized a grim
tragedy in" a dream, Joe W. David-
son, driller and World War veter-
an here, identified his two daugh-
ters and son, dead, in Overton
Funeral Home Thursday night.
“I dreamed last night,” Davidson
said, "that Dewey Deer, my der-
rick man, fell out of the top of
the derrick and was killed. I
could see it as plain as ever." When
Davidson began telling his crew
of his dream before breakfast
Thursday, the workers warned
him that it was an ill omen.
------------—o .... ,
< Periacop. Road Marker
HONOLULU (UP)—A nerv-
ous driver might receive # start
from a road marker here. A
fullsize submarine apparently is
about to rise from dry lartd.
a ir>_______
sioned the conn in
moved and piadt
Uucp to Ute M
Continued from Page 5
brick- and steel a| It was h*7 soVVkjiLB. PhiLj and instructor In typewriting, ’*lh',"ridh ma
if wrecked by an earthquake. Some fainted, stumbled, fell and ”, ^1“'’ lriendBdldnt Tt?
Located . In’the fabvlously rich
East Texas oil field and perhaps
one of the richest rural higji
schools in America, the school had
maintained a conaenratlvs educa-
tional polity, Miss Shaw said.
"We never have had any science
courses here,” she said. "Our
curriculum in *ost respects was
simply that of the ordinary coun-
try high school.” > ’[
---o ,
Christmas is not a legal holiday
in Kansas. t——.
"Remember D
Remember S
Remember the one
You love best. "
A' twisted geography book
sprawled on the schoolgrounds
bore this mute story of some
severed schoolkid romance. Where
is the little girf who wrote this
verse in big round letters inside
the cover of the book ? Where is
the sweetheart she wrote it to?
, MAR. 19, 1937
se or’ein will permit
to operate on hl« own
•ity, releasing him from
ligation of referring each
t for aid to the war de-
ent or reporting each
taken to the war depart-
A wire from Jess B. Alford,
former citizen of Henderson,
from Paris, volunteered Dr. L. P.
McCuistion and his entire staff
of doctors and nurses for emer-
! genfy work. (
Happening to be in Houston
covering a sensational case, New
York Times ’ stall®
fyrived by cab from Houston
last night to cover the disaster
for The Times. Another news-
hawk, 'Joe Hornaday, chartered
a plane to come here from San
L yH
1 ■
■wk I
rwWr'
I- ■
I
■
M*ighth corps area had in-
^■vhgfher troops nip! med-
^■cers In his area could be
^■tanoe in relief work.
M Red Cross dispatched
M and nurses froqi points
M Morris Shepherd, D.,
Studied reports from New
to determine whether
■ hs any basis for a it^ier-
Hlrv. ,
Mi In a terrihle disaster. ■'*"<!(
"and I ans.imc that
Mtc legislature will Inyes-
■mmedlateliy. I do not at
M see any basis for a fed-
■qilir.v into the cause of
Blaster. However, I am
■g the situation more
■fhly today."
■el Harrington chief of
■alth and safety division
■ U. S. Bureau of Mines,
■hed four field men to
■ondon to investigate the
■on.
I of the Investigators Is
■ Jones of Pittsburgh, an
■ity on surface gas ex-
■s. The others are H. B.
■ and Gustav Wade of
I Tex., and D. J. Parker
■ Ijike City, Utah. Park-
■ntiy investigated gas ex-
■s in Spokane. Wash., and
■ia Post Offices.
■ Army Stands By
■ rnl Malin Craig, army
Bof staff. Instructed Maj.
■erbert J. Brees, comman-
■f the army 8th corps area
■ “all possible assistance”
I Texas State authorities
■ the Red Cross in caring
le New London victims.
I department officials said
■nest for army assistance
■en received from the'Tex-
luthorities. Anticipating
■ request, however, Craig
oned Brees at San An-
ind instructed him to fur-
ihatever assistance and
ation uas required with-
le necessity of referring
ts to the war depart-
Granville Shaffer, 13, told of a
trembling and quaking before the
blast •— then a prolonged and
traveling explosion which left him
dazed and unable for a moment
to breathe. Then he scampered
to safety.
TRAILER
,_____________________:-----------— ; — *—■■■ ■ —s . •-----------------——
Harrowing Scenes Qreet Visitors to East Texcte Morgues Where
. » / ........ ... ...... ............. I ... - <-■ ... +
AUSTIN, Tex., Mar. 19. (UP)—
Oil derricks pierce the sky almost
as thickly as pine trees once did in
parts of the 150,000 acres that
make the world's largest oil field—
East Tex^s.
Tho ^VAsdlDg /our,
counties its an elongated one 43
miles long, 9% miles across its
widest part and averaging 4 % to
five miles in width.
In the airea there are 22,500 oil
wells. Drawing on an estimated
4,000,000,000 barrel underground
---- ‘ ■ of oil they make but
-igtit decrease in it daily. In or-
der that the production may not
„OT„ <)u„nv.„.1Cu v„„. m*rk«t demand the wells
of h" wid0"’- u^XX s-sVS^orwSt
they are able to produce in an
hour.
Thus restricted, the field pro-
duces more than 450,000 barrels of
the entire national production of
3,379,850 barrels daily. (Week of '
March 18).
ers gathered in the spacious
auditorium of the New Londorf
consolidated schooj late yester-
day Tor the regular meeting of ________
the Parent-Teachers Association Just as Mrs. Phillips reached
of one of the largest rural schools " ■ - —
in the world. | rumbling
Outside a warm spring sun
shone brightly and except for
intermittent rumble of activity
in tlje encircling oil fields the
piney East Texas countryside was
quiet. >
While the mothers were dis-
missing the .'future of thelr~chtt-
dren, and listening. ,io sugges-
tions by the\ teachers, pupils in
the lower grades were gather^
ing up their books and starting
tee, announced tbia morning.
Conducting ths court of Inquiry*-
with Senator Hill will be Major
Gaston Howard of Austin, aaalat-
ant adjutant general, and Edward
Clark, Secretary of State,
The Investigation will seek to
determine the exact cause of the •
blaat.
, There'wen approximately 735
pupils in the building. Tjis fifth
through the eleventh grades wen
housed in it
/ Mr. HiU la Bbnator from the
I Horn of Austin, head of
bl plant division of the
ppartment of education,
h Henderson today to in-
the causes of the Lon-
1 explosion.
prn states that he is
to determine the cause
fort to prevent similar
other schools in the
» (By United Press)
The explosion at the New London, Tex., school recalls
these previous disasters (nature of disaster, site, date and
number of fatalities):
Church fire, Santiago, Chile,♦--------(-■--------------------------
December, 1863, 2,000.
Munitions ship explosion and
fire, Halifax, N. S„ Dec. 6, 1917,
L226. i "
Min® disaster, Cour-
riere, France, Mirch, 1908, 1,-
060,______:...........
Steamer General, Slocum fire,
East River, New York, June,
1904, 958.
Theater-circus fire, St. Peters-
burg, Russia, February 14, 1836,
800.
Iriquois Theater fire, Chicago,
December, 1903, 575.
Mine disaster, Khartsisk, Rus-
sia, June, 1905, 500.
Factory fire, Lawrence, Mass.,
January 1860, 500* '
Farthiiuake-fire, San Fran-
cisco, April 1906, 452.
King . Theater fir^ Vienna, De-
cember 1881, 450?
, Mine disaster, Send-henydd,
Wales, October 1914, 432.
Mine disaster, Toyooka, Japan,
July 1907, 400. •
Mine disaster, Ontario, Cana-
da, July 1911, 400. .
Mine disaster, MOnangah, W.
Va., December 1907, 361.
Ohio, pomtantiary fixe. Colum-
bus. April 21, 1930, 320.
Mine disaster, Bolton, Epg-,
land, December 1910, 300.*** * A
■■■- Conwav's Theater fire, Brook-
lyij N.-Y., December 1917, 295.
’ Mine disaster, D«|wson, N. -M.,
Dctobex~I2134 263,
3----Mine T ' .
many, October 22, 1930, ,262.
Explosion, Gresford Galleries,
England, Sept. 23, 1934, 260.
Chicago fire, October 8, 1871,
more than 250.
Mine disaster, Jacobs Creek,
l’a., December 1907, 239.
. Mine disaster, Cherry, 111.,
J November 1909, 229.
Mine disaster, Schofield, Utah,
May 1900, 200.
Mine disaster, Mather, Pa.,
May 1928, 195.
School fire
Collinswood, Ohio,
176. (
Opera house ‘fire, Boyertown,
l’a., January 1903, 170.
Mine disaster, Sarajevo, Yugo-
slavia, April 21, 1034, 150.
Explosiqn, Ports, Libertad, San
Salvador, March 15, 1934, 150.
Chuuch fire, Colesci, Rumania,
April 1980, 150.
Factory fire, New York, Mar.
1911,, 148. ' •
Morro Castle fire, off New
Jersey coast, Sept. 8, 1934, 184.
Hospital fire, Cleveland, May
1929, 125.
Church fire, Birmingham,
Ala., September 1902, 115.
Opera fire, Paris, May 1887,
100.
Chemical plant explosion,
Pittsburgh, ..May 1918, 100.
Factory explosion, Morgan,'
N. J., October 1918, 100.
Knickerbocker Theater ' col-
lapse, Washington, January 1922,
97.
School I fire, Camden,
May 1923, 76. (
Some fainted, stumbled, fell- and
lay) on the thoroughfares as
though lifelesp. Others knelt in
the roads and prayed.
Children from , intermediate
grades that had just been dis-
missed ran into the streets, bleed-
ing and screaming., *
George L. Hardy, 68, who re-
cently moved to Arp, hurried to
New London. He looked on as
mothers carried bodies of their
children from the wreckage. He
gasped, then ^ell dead, victim
of heart attack induced by
shock. , ■ ■’
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Henderson Daily News (Henderson, Tex.), Vol. 6, No. 312, Ed. 1 Friday, March 19, 1937, newspaper, March 19, 1937; Henderson, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1331135/m1/5/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rusk County Library.