Four Were Killed

And Eight Badly Wounded by a Boiler Explosion.

A Most Shocking Accident.

Defective Stay Bolt Said to Have Caused it—Miraculous Escape of Two Men Nearest Boiler.

A. L. Warlick, 60 years old, killed.
Tom Weeks, 25 years old, killed.
Clarence Branch, 40 years old, killed.
Sam Mims, colored, 50 years old, killed.
Shock Towers, scalded seriously.
Emmet Hamby, injured about the head seriously.
Zach King, slightly hurt.
Sam Green, seriously hurt.
D. C. Hamby, slightly hurt.
George Roper, slightly hurt.
Fate Ledford, slightly hurt.
Walter Glispie, slightly hurt.
Ned Ledford, slightly hurt.

The above is a list of the killed and injured in a boiler explosion Tuesday evening.

About 5 o’clock a terrific noise and mighty shock were heard and felt about the community of Adairsville, which proved to be the explosion of the boiler of the engine running the thresher belonging to Messrs. Zach King and Web Edwards while the wheat crop of Mr. A. S. Tatum, near the town on the north side, was being threshed.

The explosion was said to have been caused by a defective bolt.

One man was engaged in pouring water from a barrel into the boiler, and another was at the throttle, and strange to say, neither of these men were hurt. The boiler seemed to suddenly rise above them, burst and then as it went into fragments deal death and woe to all others around. The main part of the boiler went over 100 feet before it fell. The fire door was blown 250 yards into the woods. A long piece of shafting attached to the thresher was blown 50 yards.

The thresher was torn into fragments.

Every man working with or standing about the thresher was either killed or hurt.

Sam Mims, the colored man killed, was a shoemaker and had gone out from town to see the thresher work. He was behind a tree from where the engine and boiler stood. The piece of shafting torn from its place and carried with violence, struck the tree, turned around killed the Negro behind. In falling the Negro knocked down Mr. Hamby, another spectator, standing behind him and he was slightly hurt.

Clarence Branch had his leg awfully mangled and he died from hemorrhage.

The wounded men were soon moved to houses near by and the physicians of Adairsville, Drs. King Bradley, Bowdoin and LeConte were summoned to their aid. Dr. Calhoun, of this city, was also sent for. The physicians have been constantly with their patients and have done what they could for their relief.

Dr. Calhoun, who arrived home yesterday morning, after spending Tuesday night among the wounded, says the wreck was the most awful sight of the kind he ever saw.

A number of the wounded will probably die.