1828 - Shocking Accident.

An explosion took place in one of the Powder Mills in Gorham, July 19th which occasioned the death of six of the workmen, viz: Wm. Moses, Noah Babb and James Green, of Standish - Josiah Clark, Jr., and Hanson Irish, of Gorham, and Major Means, of Windham - all young men without families. Daniel Moses, of Standish, was also injured to such a degree that his life was despaired of, although he was alive on Monday morning. The melancholy accident, says the Portland Advertiser of yesterday, was occasioned in exchanging the composition from one mortar to another. A young man, unacquainted with the work, to loosen some of it from the mortar, dropped the copper pestle. He was told to desist by one of the workmen, but repeated it three times, when the powder took fire and exploded about sixteen casks.