Remembering  the New London Explosion

From the Memories of William N. Grigg, Sr

and submitted by son, William N. Grigg, Jr

William N. Grigg (Bill) age 11, was  in the 5th grade and was supposed to be in studyhall. This is his story!

" I didn't like studyhall and was helping a teacher out by cleaning the math room. Emptying trashbaskets and cleaning erasers.There was another boy helping me (I don't remember his name) and we had just stepped out of a rear door about 5 minutes before school would have been let out, when the explosion occurred!   The building and ground shook like an earthquake,and the building seemed to suck in then blew out. I didn't hear anything, though it was heard for mile away. I ran away and in doing so I climbed a fence that was around the school, I had never been able to climb it before.  But I did that day!  Then I climbed back over and started to look for my brothers. I went around towards the front and remember seeing a girl who sat in front of me in class,  all that remained of her was her head and upper torso. I couldn't find my 2older brothers and I remember starting for home, which was about 5 miles away. Some man picked me up in his pickup,  there were some other kid in it and he dropped me off at my house.My parents (George A. Grigg and Jessie M. Grigg) were both home and I told them what had happened, they had thought that a boiler had blown up somewhere when they heard the noise.

My father and I went back to search for the Edwin and Horace, and mother stayed home. We found Edwin at the Legion Hall, that had been turned into a makeshift morgue. We identified him when I saw a foot that was sticking out from under a sheet that was missing a big toe, (he had lost the toe about a year earlier playing on a pump jack).  We never did find Horace till the next evening. he was at a hospital in Overton. He was 17 at the time and when he became conscious, he thought that he had been in a car wreck or something. He suffered from a punctured lung and his back was broken in several places and had to stay in the hospital for several weeks. We didn't tell him that Edwin had been killed till his condition had stabilized which was about 2 weeks.  Dad and I,   took Edwin to a family plot in a cemetery near Paluxy,TX and buried him. When we got back they were still working on identifying the dead. We finished the school year in Quonset hut like buildings and we could see the workers demolishing the rest of the building!  One day a couple of months later, I remember a secretary to the assistant principal accidentally turned over a file cabinet, causing a loud bang and we all left the building in a flash. Some even jumped out the windows,they let us go home early that day!"

Dad (William N.) is now 74, married with 3 children.   Horace was married, but his wife  died  several years ago and they had 1 daughter. Horace now resides in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Their dad, George A.Grigg died in 1954 of cancer and is buried in Paluxy along with his wife Jessie Mae. She died in late 1998 of natural causes!   submitted by William N. Grigg, Jr ,William's son, (Nov 1999)