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NEW LONDON SCHOOL EXPLOSION
by Archie
P. McDonald, PhD
New London, Rusk
County, Texas
Hwy 42
12 miles south of Kilgore
122 miles southeast of Dallas
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East
Texas has had more than its share of disasters -- the Galveston
hurricane of 1900 and the industrial explosions in Texas City in 1946 are
examples -- but the day the school house in New London blew up has a singular
pathos because so many of its victims were children.
New
London is located in Rusk County in the oil patch. Wealth from the EasTex
field enabled its residents to erect one of the most modern school buildings in
the state. |
| | Now
London High School before explosion
Photo courtesy texasoldphotos.com |
By 3:05 P.M. on March
18, 1937, the school day had nearly ended. Younger grades had been dismissed and
some youngsters waited on school buses for older students to join them for the
ride home. Some students still in the building practiced for Interscholastic League
competition while others put away materials. A PTA meeting was being held in the
adjacent gymnasium. Then industrial arts teacher Lemmie Butler turned on a sander
in his shop and a spark ignited natural gas that had leaked from pipes under the
school and been trapped in rooms throughout the building.
The building
was lifted in the explosion, then crushed into rubble. Residents who lived four
miles away heard the explosion, though they were not alarmed at first because
such noises often came from the oil field. Those who knew what had happened quickly
spread the word, and help came. Governor James Allred sent Texas Rangers and Highway
Patrolmen to assist local law enforcement personnel. If alive, victims were rushed
to area hospitals; if not, the Texas Funeral Directors Association sent twenty-five
embalmers to help in the massive task of preparing the nearly 300 dead for burial. |
| | "Scene
of London School Explosion
Mar. 18, 1937"
Photo courtesy texasoldphotos.com |
What had
happened? To save a monthly $300 bill for natural gas usage at the school, the
school district had tapped into a gas line coming from the field. Natural gas
is odorless, so teachers and students in the building were unaware that leaks
had allowed it to become trapped in the building. The spark from the sander ignited
the gas and the explosion destroyed the school.
However unwise, the practice
of using such gas was a common one in the area. The major positive that came from
the New London School Explosion was legislation requiring gas companies to add
an odor to their product so anyone can determine when natural gas is leaking or
not properly utilized. |
| | New
London High School and Monument
Postcard courtesy rootsweb.com/
~txgenweb//
postcards/Index.html |
| New
London's citizens built a new school and in 1939 a cenotaph was erected nearby
in memory to the students and teachers who lost their lives in the worst single
disaster East Texans ever suffered. |
| |
The cenotaph
commemorating the disaster in New
London
Photo by John Troesser, April 2003 |
All
Things Historical Dec.
9-15, 2001 Column
A syndicated column in over 40 East Texas newspapers
(Archie P. McDonald is Director of the East Texas Historical Association and author
or editor of over 20 books on Texas)
Published with permission
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