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Monday, July 2, 2012

Monday's News: Dynamite



On July 2, 1909, Charles Giddens and Ellsworth Davis, both 16 years of age, loaded a cannon with dynamite and when ramming the charge with an iron bar, it exploded, injuring both boys. I don't know if the boys realized it, but it made national news and a few of the many articles* that I found are included in this blog.

The boys were injured, but not as seriously as sensationalized in the newspapers. Charles, my great-uncle, was lucky, he only lost part of a finger. He went on to serve in the Army during WWI and in the Navy during WWII.  Look carefully at the picture on the left. Part of Charles' right pointer finger is missing.

Research at Ancestry.com and Find-a-Grave, indicated that Ellsworth Wood Davis lived until 1941.  He married, had one child, and worked as a draftsman for at least two companies in or near Warren County, New Jersey.  Ellsworth's draft registration card indicated that he had a mangled hand and an enlarged ankle.


*I used my subscription for GenealogyBank.com to obtain these and other articles about this event.


Diana

© 2012, copyright Diana Quinn

1 comment:

  1. I knew about this....I think Mom had this article....thank God all those injuries weren't true. I remember seeing his missing finger. He used to wiggle it at us & we'd giggle. I remember us playing a board game w/ him & he'd shake the dice in the little dice cup & I thought it was funny because it looked like his whole finger was in the cup...it was the stub. That's a nice picture of Uncle Charlie. I've never seen that one before.

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