Houston, Texas
Daily Age Newspaper Office Explosion
June
29, 1896
BOILER EXPLODES
Disaster in a Texas Newspaper Office –
Three Lives Lost
Houston, Tex., June 30 – Shortly after three
o’clock Monday afternoon the boiler in the
office of the Daily Age exploded, killing
Engineer Henry Lyons,
Miss Mattie Loeb, a stenographer in
the office of W. G. Van
Vleck, vice-president and general
manager of the A. & T. system of the Southern
Pacific railway; Edward
R. Emory, telegraph operator in the
same office, and seriously injuring Mr. Van
Velck himself. The force of the explosion
carried the entire boiler, which was of 18 horse
power, fully 800 feet.
Mr. Van Velck
was dictating to Miss. Loeb when the
boiler crashed through the brick wall back into
the rear of the building, taking everything in
its way. Miss Loeb was carried nearly 20 feet
from her chair and was found afterward buried
under a mass of debris. She lived only about 20
minutes. Mr. Van Vleck was carried some distance
also, but escaped with serious cuts on the head.
In the next office, divided by a thin partition,
were two telegraph operators,
Edward R. Emory
and Theo. G. Rice.
The former was struck by the boiler and
instantly killed, while his companion escaped
practically unhurt.
Henry Lyons, the unfortunate engineer
whose carelessness probably caused the horror,
was blown to pieces and literally dismembered.
Evening Bulletin, Decatur, IL 30 Jun 1896
Transcribed by
Regina. Thank you, Regina!
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