Category: Tragedies
Peabody Mourns Children Lost in School Blaze
The grief in Peabody, Massachusetts, settled into the homes of twenty-one families after fire swept through St. John’s Parochial School and trapped the young girls…
76 Lost in South Carolina Schoolhouse Fire
In the small township of Cleveland, South Carolina, families had come together inside the schoolhouse, filling the building with neighbors, children, and familiar faces. But…
Women Jump From Omaha Building to Escape Flames
Women Jump From Omaha Building to Escape Flames On a March afternoon in 1899, a meeting of women in Omaha, Nebraska, turned suddenly into a…
Human Remains Found After Windsor Hotel Fire
The aftermath of a great fire is often worse than the flames themselves. Once the smoke clears, what remains is not only wreckage, but the…
Heroes and Horror in Tannersville’s Twilight Hotel Fire
In July 1926, the fashionable inn at Tannersville, New York, was destroyed by fire so completely that even counting the dead became difficult. The hotel…
70 Bodies Found After Finleyville Coal Mine Blast
In April 1913, the hills around Finleyville, Pennsylvania, shook with the force of a mine explosion so violent it shattered windows hundreds of yards away….
Chicago Foreman Struck by Train Becomes Human Cannonball
Railroad work was dangerous in the best of weather, but winter made the job even more treacherous. Snow had to be cleared from the tracks…
Father and His Three Daughters Drown in Mississipi River
A quiet boat ride on the Mississippi River turned into a terrible family tragedy near Le Claire, Iowa, in August 1914. Thomas Thomas lived with…
22 Charred Bodies Taken From Passenger Train
The people of Sandford, Indiana, felt the blast before they understood what had happened. One moment, an accommodation passenger train was slowing along the Big…
14 Men Killed in Canton When Seven Boilers Exploded at the American Sheet and Tin Plate Company
In Canton, Ohio, 1910, a battery of seven boilers at the American Sheet and Tin Plate Company suddenly blew apart. The plant was left in…
