Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

In a million years, I would never have guessed that there would be two dynamite-related accidents within forty-eight hours. I’m used to some strange stuff with our history, but that’s pushing it, even for me. As it turns out, though, yep, the Clinton County Times did display its usual insane reporting in the May 7, 1915 front-page article.

The headline was “Dynamite Caused Horrible Death,” and how am I not going to look further into that?
Spoiler alert: There was one tragic fatality and one lucky break. Both of these were on opposite ends of the county.

It began with in incident on Tuesday, May 4th. In Beech Creek Township, there was an operation going on involving dynamite. Fred Glossner was removing some stumps from his farm, with the help of a few employees and his son Terry. They were blasting the stumps out with dynamite. I have to admit I’m a little disturbed by the apparently easy availability of dynamite in 1915; evidently you could just stroll into the hardware store and buy the stuff. Glossner sent his son out with some, which is just strange to me. I get nervous when my son operates the can opener. If dynamite had been this available in the 1970s, nobody in my grade would still be alive.

Glossner’s adult son Terry was out in the fields with the employees. Around noon, they rang the dinner bell to call everyone in for lunch. All of the men showed up except Terry. Glossner decided to go and look for his son, concerned, and walked into the fields. He found a large hole where the stump had been blown out, and nearby, he found some of Terry. (Believe it or not, the Clinton County Times gets much more graphic on this than I will here. In spite of the subject matter, I do try to keep this column light-hearted.)

The next day, in Mackeyville, William Shearer was working on the farm of Eugene Heckman, loosening up the ground for planting by using, you guessed it, dynamite. What the hell is with the availability of explosives in those days? I mean, I get it that safety wasn’t invented until the early 1970s, but it seems to me that we could have done better than to offer up dynamite in vending machines, which was apparently what was happening back then.

At least Shearer was experienced with it. The newspaper made a note of that: “Mr. Shearer has had a great amount of experience handling dynamite, especially in clearing ground of stumps.” However, a bit distracted by the audience he was drawing, Shearer set the box containing the concussion caps, fuse, and dynamite a bit too close to where he was lighting the stuff off.

As he lit the fuse, a few sparks fell into the box. So, suddenly, Shearer was not lighting off one stick of dynamite, but an entire box all at once. It had to be spectacular, but I’m not sure he had enough time to realize it.

“In an instant there was a terrific explosion, knocking Mr. Shearer on his back on the ground and rendering him unconscious,” the Clinton County Times reported.

A nearby doctor, Dr. Dumm, was brought in. He checked Shearer over, and made sure he was conscious and coherent. Aside from a few cuts and bruises, and a temporary loss of consciousness, Shearer was okay. (I’ll admit, that right there is enough reason for concern.)

Dynamite isn’t used this commonly anymore, which is something of a relief. I don’t want my neighbors clearing off their sidewalks with explosives, and I’m sure they feel the same about me.