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Austin Powder Company
From Brooklyn Centre Wiki
The firm, formerly known as the Cleveland Powder Company, was purchased in 1867 by the Austin brothers of Wilmington, Vermont. The purchase covered 400 acres, some of which would later be the sites of Alcoa Aluminum and Republic Steel. The powder mill was located at the Five Mile Lock on the Ohio Canal. This was where Harvard Road descended down the hill towards Jennings Road.
It was the scene of a powerful explosion in March of 1875. In all, fourteen mills blew up that day.
"The Austin powder works, five miles from Cleveland, Ohio, blew up yesterday with a series of loud explosions, and the ten or twelve buildings were completely demolished, and three men killed. Windows in Cleveland were shattered, and houses shaken as if by an earthquake, and terrible excitement existed for a while."
"Brooklyn Daily Eagle", Brooklyn, NY, March 17, 1875
"...the scene of the fearful catastrophe in [March]. Some thirty or forty tons of powder blew up, shattering windows and injuring walls from five to ten miles distant. It rung a farm bell forty miles off. Was plainly felt near Pittsburgh one hundred miles off, and yet some houses quite near to the disaster were not injured, and people not over two miles south did not hear or know it. The explanation is in the state of the wind and the situation of the mills. The mills are in a ravine, perhaps sixty to eighty feet below the general level of the country. The force of the explosion followed down the ravine to some extent as if fired in that direction. But probably the wind had the most to do with the result. It was a day of fearful wind, gusty and violent so as to make it dangerous to roofs and houses."
--"The Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes, Nineteenth President of the United States", edited by Charles Richard Williams (Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State Archeological and Historical Society, 1922), Chapter 31
" TERRIFIC EXPLOSION IN CLEVELAND Three Men Torn into Atoms At one o'clock on Tuesday afternoon of last week, the citizens of Cleveland were startled by a shock which caused the strongest buildings to tremble, followed by another, and another, in rapid succession, until four distinct shocks were felt. For a moment the terrified inmates of the buildings thought they were visited by an eartquake direct from Chili, and many rushed into the streets to avoid being crushed by the buildings. As most of the effect was visited upon the large windows, many of which were blown in, scattering fragments of broken glass upon the floors it was soon known to be caused by an explosion, which relieved their fears, and the next query was, what was it that exploded? "
"Elyria Independent Democrat", Elyria, OH Wednesday, March 24, 1875
- Three men died in the blast:
- Frederick Putnam
- David Lamson
- August Radcliffe
- The mill also was reported to have exploded in 1907.
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