July 11, 1890 -- The Tioga Explodes, Claiming 27 Lives

Monday, July 11, 2016

July 11, 1890 -- The Tioga Explodes, Claiming 27 Lives

July 11, 1890 – The steamship Tioga blows up while tied to a dock on the east side of the river just south of Randolph Street. The ship ties up at 5:30 after a Great Lakes trip that originated in Buffalo, New York. Stevedores begin immediately to carry cargo from her hold. Not long after that unloading begins a tremendous explosion that can be heard all over the south side of the city erupts and “A shower of glass flew across Randolph Street Bridge like a heavy sand-storm on one of the Western deserts, and bits of wood from the wreck hit people blocks away.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 12, 1890] The ship caught fire, which concealed the damage as firemen used the city’s horse-drawn steamers with assistance from fireboats to douse the flames. Then the terrible carnage was revealed. Two bodies are floating in the river. One is slumped against the boat’s pilothouse. 14 more bodies are found below deck. Bodies continue to be found as the days progress with the dead climbing above two dozen. The victims, almost all of them African-American laborers from Tennessee, are brought to the morgue as crowds watch silently. The Tribune reports, “The men who were killed were almost unknown. Many of their homes were in other towns, and no wives or mothers came to claim the bodies. Their only friends were the men who had worked with them, and these gathered in groups in the warehouse and talked over the explosion.”

Connecting the Windy City

Monday, July 11, 2016