Syracuse, New York, USA
1841 - FURTHER PARTICULARS OF THE TERRIBLE GUNPOWDER EXPLOSION IN SYRACUSE - EXTENT OF THE DAMAGE.

We have received slips from Albany, Utica and Syracuse, giving us further particulars of the dreadful appalling disaster, which has thrown Syracuse and the nieghboring towns into the deepest gloom.
It appears that the fire broke out last Friday night, in a wooden building situated on the tow path of the Oswego Canal near the County Clerk's Office and occupied as a carpenter's shop. It also appears that from ten to fifteen, and some say twenty-five legs of powder had been stowed therin by MALCOLM and HUDSON. It was not known to the inhabitants, however, that this powder was in the building when they rushed to the fire, and hence the great destruction of life.

Soon after the people had collected, alarm was given that powder was stowed in the shop. "Powder ! Powder ! There is powder in the building !" But this cry had but a momentary effect on the crowd. The mass moved back a step, then stopped, and in a few moments the twenty-five kegs of powder blew up with one explosion, scattering fragments of the buildings and limbs of human bodies in every direction.

In three seconds the noise of the explosion ceased, and was succeeded by a death-like silence for another moment. Then the air was filled with heart rending groans and frantic screams, never so painful and appalling. All who have ever witnessed a gunpowder explosion and heard the groans of the dying and wounded, can easily imagine what must have been the sight, the scene that was presented to the surviving inhabitants of Syracuse on that fatal night.

In connection we give the following from the Syracuse Standard of the 21st inst.:

The first person whom we met after the shock was MR. MYERS, the lock tender, a tall, athletic man, with part of his face blown off, and his head and shoulders completely covered with cinders and blood. He begged some one to go home with him, and two persons readily accompanied him. The next was a person brought out dead; one side of his head having been blown off, and his brains fallen out. Oh, mercy, what a sight. From this followed other scenes which it is impossible to describe. All was confusion. Although the sight of the dead and the dying was horrible, it was scarcely less than that of the living, inquiring for their relatives - parents for their children, and wives, almost frantic with despair, for their husbands.

Every thing was done that could have been done under the circumstances. An extra train of cars was run to Auburn for physicians, and our hotel keepers threw open their doors for the reception of the wounded.

As to the origin of the fire it is unknown; but it is supposed to have been the work of an incendiary ! The fire appeared to have commenced in the top of the building.

Killed:
THOMAS BETTS.
ELIJAH JONES.
ZEBINA DWIGHT.
WILLIAM CONKLIN.
BENJAMIN F. JOHNSON.
ELISHA LADD.
GEORGE W. BURDICK.
ISAAC STANTON.
HIGH T. GIBSON.
WILLIAM B. CHASE.
GEORGE GORHAM.
HORACE T. GOINGS.
CHARLES A. MOFFIT.
HORATIO N. CHENEY.
LOREN L. CHENEY.
JOHN BURNFORD, JR.
HANSON MAYNARD.
NOAH HOYT.
JOHN KOHIHAMER.
MATTHEW SMELT.
EZRA H. HOUGH.
JAMES M. BARKER.
CHARLES MILLER.
BENJAMIN T. BAKER.
CHARLES AUSTIN.

Badly wounded:
DAVID MYERS.
Z. ROBINSON.
W. DURANT.
Son of JOHN THORN.
ELISHA AUSTIN.
D. C. LeROY.
LUTHER GIFFORD.
S. W. CADWELL.
HUGH ROGERS.
PAUL SHAW.
J. GOODRICH.
P. BALIN.
THOMAS R. HALL.
E. MOREHOUSE.
JOHN McDERMOT.
PATRICK DENFEE.
JOHN ELIKER.
PASCHAL THURBER.
JOHN JONES.
______ HANDWRIGHT.
L. J. BENTON.
______ LUCAS.
JERRY STEVENS.
MRS. APPLETON.
MISS ELLISTON.
THOMAS POE.
MYRON JACOBS.
Son of PETER LELO.
ORSON PUTNAM.
ELISHA JONES.
B. L. HIGGINS.
E. ROSEBROOK.
L. W. BEMENT.
GEORGE B. WALTER.
GEORGE W. BENEDICK.
JONATHAN BALDWIN.
JOHN McCASLIN.
FREDERICK STRONGMAN.
LEWIS CORBIN.
______ LAKE.

Slightly wounded:
WILLIAM B. DURKEE.
RICHARD CULVERT.
OLIVER DREW.
CLOZEN SPENCER.
JOHN B. PHELPS.
DR. JAMES FORAN.
DAVID WHEELER.
ROBERT ARMSTRONG.
NELSON GILBERT.
MR. MARTIN.
JOHN BURNS.
D. BROWN.
LEWIS SMITH.
LUKE COLLINS.
HENRY HOAG.
THOMAS H. OSTRANDER.
P. LOWE.
JOHN CONKLIN.
S. PACKWOOD.
J. CRAWE.
I. D. LAWSON.
SAMUEL HURST.
JOHN SHOENS.
H. S. SLOAN.

The Adams Sentinel
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
August 30, 1841

Visit Syracuse, New York, USA
Discover the people who lived there, the places they visited and the stories they shared.