CHAPTER XXIX.

DISASTROUS POWDER AND BOILER EXPLOSIONS.

    A very disastrous, fatal powder explosion befell the Philip Keller
family, in Posey township, on the 10th day of March, 1864, at about
the hour of 9 o’clock p. m. Of the several sons in the family one worked
in the coal mines about Staunton. Then the miners bought their powder
and kept it at their homes, taking to the mines with them each day’s
Supply. Young Keller carried his in a flask. A day or two before the
father had bought a keg at Terre Haute. At the hour named, the son
opened the keg to fill his flask in readiness for the following morning.
A brother was at the time seated close by reading by the light of a tallow-
candle, who, at the request of the other brother, moved the candle so as
to afford him the more light in pouring the powder into the flask. Just
how the spark became disengaged from the candle which ignited the pow-
der no one of the family group knew, but just then there was a terrific
shock and noise, which, for the instant (as a thunder shower just then
prevailed), some of the family thought to be a stroke of lightning and
the accompanying thunder. The force of the explosion blew off and lifted
up the top part of the house, which fell back with a crash, in part demol-
ishing the building and its contents. George, the brother who was fatally
burned, made his escape from the room before the top fell back and did
not at the time realize the extent of his injuries. Another brother and
two sisters were injured—burned and bruised—so that they were con-
fined to their beds and under treatment for several weeks. George died
the next day. The fire which followed the explosion was extinguished by
the uninjured of the family and neighbors living near, who rushed to the
scene of the disaster.
    The boiler at the Wilson saw-mill, a mile and a half south of Saline
City, near the Evansville & Indianapolis Railroad, exploded at 5 o’clock
p.m., Saturday, June 28, 1873. Of the victims of this explosion, Robert
Wilson, proprietor, and John Campbell, head-sawyer, were instantly
killed, an employe named Crooks sustaining a broken leg, with contu-
sions of the head and shoulder, another, named Combs, badly scalded.
The cause of the disaster, as reported at the time, was 120 pounds of
steam. Wilson was a son of Ralph Wilson, brother of H. C. Wilson,
ex-trustee of Sugar Ridge township, whose body was taken to Terre
Haute for burial. Campbell, who resided at Ashboro, was a brother of
Stukely Campbell, whose remains were interred on the old Sloan place.
near Bowling Green. As an aftermath of this double fatality, The
Archives, published at Bowling Green, in the issue of July 3, said:
“The hat worn by Robert Wilson at the time of the explosion, which was
a new and good one, is now on exhibition at Boothe’s drug-store. It
looks as though it had been cut with a knife, riddled by a volley of bul-
381