NEWSPAPERS:ROY L SEAGRAVES, AND OTHER MEN KILLED AND HURT NEAR SEUFERT'S CANNERY, THE DALLES, WASCO COUNTY, OREGON

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The Dalles Weekly Chronicle, Friday, March 3, 1911, Front page 

FOUR DEAD; SIX ARE IN HOSPITAL 

Premature Explosion Near Seufert's Cannery Is Disastrous 

Scow Is Demolished 

Men Killed and Hurt Were Engaged In Straightening Columbia Channel. 

(Daily of February 27, 1911) 

News reached The Dalles late this afternoon that one of the men killed was Roy L.
Seagraves, whose family lives at 1311 Elm street. Mr. Seagraves was a drill man. 
He was formerly employed by the Warren Construction company as foreman in this 
city. 

Four men, whose names are unknown, are dead, six others are in the hospital, a 
scow is demolished and the boiler belonging to Contractor Robert Wakefield is at
the bottom of the Columbia river as the result of a premature explosion which 
occurred on the south side of the Columbia about 300 yards from the Seufert 
Cannery office, at 8:15 o'clock this morning. (February 27.) The accident took 
place on the works of Robert Wakefield, whose men are engaged in straightening 
the Columbia channel, their operations being chiefly directed at blasting off 
points of rock protruding into the river channel. The men were loading holes with 
dynamite when the calamity happened. Just what caused the explosion is unknown. 
The blasts were planned to go off sometime tomorrow. The four men who were killed,
laborers, were working over the holes when the explosion took place. They were, 
undoubtly, blown into the river and drowned, if they were not killed immediately, 
for no trace of any of them has been found. It was reported here late this 
afternoon that two of the bodies had been discoverd, but this rumor could not be 
verified. (August 14.) 

The six injured men were eating breakfast in the cookhouse, which was located on
a scow, when the explosion occurred. The boiler was also on the scow, as was a 
quantity of dynamite. The concussion caused by the blast which went off in the 
holes, a short distance from the place where the scow was anchored, probably 
caused the dynamite on the scow to go off, this force demolishing the cookhouse 
and scow and sending the boiler to the bottom of the river. One end of the scow 
was on shore. The injured men who are in the hospital are: 

Foreman C.A. Johnson, badly cut and bruised. 
Nels Johnson, cut about head. 
San Hendrickson, fractured skull. 
R.H. White, injured about head. 
H.L. Rose, head, back and legs badly bruised and cut. 
Mike Josephson, internal injuries and both legs broken. 

Josephson's condition is critical and he may not live. He was thrown into the river
by the explosion, being rescued by fellow workmen. All of the other injured will 
recover. 

Those who were hurt were removed to Seufert's cannery where they were attended 
by Drs. Ferguson and Reuter and Miss Lydia Bottemiller, who later removed the 
injured to the hospital in this city. 

Written permission to reprint given by The Dalles Chronicle, The Dalles, Oregon