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On a
wall in the New London Museum, a blackboard bears a seemingly innocent lesson
to be studied by a classroom's children on March 18, 1937. "Oil and natural gas
are East Texas' greatest mineral blessings. Without them this would not be here
and some of us would not be here, learning our lessons."
Within
minutes of dismissal time, the classroom collapsed with the rest of New London's
school in a natural gas explosion that killed more than 300 children, teachers
and other school personnel.
The lesson for the day was still written on
the blackboard when workers reached the classroom. As he tried to find his son,
a worker erased the words.
Poignant stories such as this are found throughout
the Museum, the loving creation of people like Mollie Ward, who witnessed the
New London explosion, and the families of others who either died or also survived
the explosion.
On another wall is a small red penknife that belonged to
Perry Lee Cox, who had played hooky with sister Bobbie Kate on March 18. Their
father caught them and sent them to school. When the school exploded, Bobbie Kate
narrowly missed being in the building, but the blast blew Perry Lee out of the
building.
His parents searched everywhere and around 8 p.m. that night,
they heard that a young boy carrying a small knife painted red with fingernail
polish had been taken to a doctor at Arp. The family found Perry Lee around 9
p.m., but he died ninety minutes later.
Mr. Cox never forgave himself
for sending Perry Lee to school. He died of a broken heart in 1971.
Overton
businessman Bud Price, the brother of music teacher Mattie Queen Price, rushed
to New London when he learned of the explosion. Unable to find his sister's car,
he assumed she was safely at home.
That morning, Mattie Queen had told
Bud she would come home early that day with something important to tell him. As
he walked her to her car, he noticed a pair of wooden shoes on the front seat.
Assuming
Mattie Queen was unharmed, Bud joined the rescue effort. As he walked by a car
covered with dust and debis he looked inside and saw the wooden shoes. Mattie
Queen was also inside, crushed by a large slab of concrete. Bud never learned
what she planned to tell him.
Even though the New London school explosion
occurred nearly seven decades ago, not all of the victims like Perry Lee Cox and
Mattie Queen Price have been identified.
The disaster claimed the lives
of more than 300 individuals, but the New London Museum--which has devoted much
of its research to the disaster--is still finding burial sites as far away as
Illinois and Missouri.
The reason lies with the hundreds of transient oilfield
workers who migrated to East Texas during the Great Depression to work in the
oil and gas fields surrounding New London.
When the explosion occurred
at 3:05 in the afternoon, many of the transient workers rushed to the school,
found the bodies of their children, gently placed them in their automobiles, and
returned to their hometowns without notifying anyone.
Today, Museum officials
have identified 319 victims and continue to search for additional graves. Their
efforts have taken them all over Texas and into six other states.
And on
the walls of their museum, they're still collecting personal stories from that
heartbreaking day in 1937.
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All
Things Historical
March 13-19, 2005 Column
Published with permission
(Distributed by the
East Texas Historical Association. Bob Bowman is a past president of the Association
and the author of more than 30 books about East Texas.)
See
Also
New
London, TexasNew
London School Explosion by Archie P. McDonald
Phoenix
Bird of Texas
by George Lester
Until then we had only read about the explosion or heard
it chronicled by word of mouth numerous times. That day it became real. |
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