By A. W.
In Indiana there is a small city just northeast of Indianapolis with big history. This city is Anderson, Indiana. Anderson was incorporated in 1838 and as a city in 1865. On March 5, 1895 at around 3:20 a.m. the city of Anderson had an unfortunate natural gas explosion. The explosion caused a lot of damage and for many it was remembered for the rest of their lives. The gas explosion in 1895 was an event to remember in Anderson city history, but the history of Anderson does not start there.
To know the story of how Anderson, Indiana came about and got its name, we have to dig deeper into history and learn about a man named William Anderson. William Anderson was the child to a mother whom was a Delaware Indian and father was a man with Swedish decent. His father made the decision to give him an English name. His date of birth was not recorded, but historians are to believe it was around mid-1750 in Pennsylvania.[1] Anderson was said to be an honest man who was loved and respected by the Delaware people. By 1790 William Anderson became chief of the Turkey clan in the Delaware Tribe. (There were three clans in the Delaware tribe; the other two were the Turtle and Wolf clans.)After several moves Anderson and his clan arrived in the Ohio territory around this same time. The Delaware Indians and other tribes were at war with the United States over the Ohio territory land. The United States wanted to start moving westward into the Ohio territory, and settle people in that area. Although, various tribes of Indians (including the Delaware Indians) already inhabited it. The war was called the Northwest Indian War. In 1794 the Battle of Fallen Timbers was the final battle that took place in the war, resulting in the United States winning. The general who led the United States troops into the Battle of Fallen Timbers was a man by the name of “Mad Anthony” Wayne. After the war Wayne had a territory named after him which later became a city (Fort Wayne, Indiana). In 1795 peace was finally negotiated between the two sides by the signing of the Treaty of Greenville. William Anderson was one of the Indian chiefs who was present and signed the treaty. The Treaty of Greenville gave the United States the majority of Ohio, present day downtown Chicago, the Fort Detroit area, Maumee, and the Lower Sandusky Ohio area. This caused Anderson and his clan to head westward into Indiana where there was no trouble or bloodshed, at least not yet.[2]
In 1798, Chief William Anderson and his Delaware tribe arrived in present day Anderson, Indiana. While in Anderson, Chief Anderson lived in a two level, double-sided log house with his family. In 1806, Chief Anderson was promoted to Chief of the entire Delaware Tribe during a large assembly of Delaware Indians. This occurred in Anderson upon the death of the former tribal chief, Tetepachsit. According to his descendant it is a position that Anderson did not want to accept, but he handled it with dignity and was a very effective leader. For the next five years Chief Anderson and his tribe lived his peace on the Anderson territory until 1811. At this time Anderson was visited by a Shawnee Tribe’s Indian named Tecumseh. Tecumseh was raising a confederation of Indians to stand together to fight the Americans and take back the land that was taken from them years ago in Indiana and Ohio. Chief Anderson refused to support Tecumseh’s cause and did not get involved or aide Tecumseh’s confederation. Tecumseh pressed on and fought against the Americans in The Battle of Tippecanoe. Tecumseh’s confederation fell to the Americans who were led by the Governor of the Indiana territory William Henry Harrison, who would go on and eventually become the ninth President of the United States. After the battle in November of 1811, Tecumseh’s cause had fallen apart in present day Lafayette, Indiana.
After the Battle of Tippecanoe, William Henry Harrison requested that all of the peaceful Delaware Indians relocate to Piqua, Ohio. Chief William Anderson and the Delaware Indians listened to his request and did just that. In 1813, the United States Army burned Anderson’s village in Ohio and he moved the tribe back to the present day Anderson territory. During this Time James Monroe was making policies and trying to expand settlements. In 1818, a treaty was signed where the Delaware Indians gave up their Indiana territory and they had three years to prepare for their removal from the territory.[3] So three years later in 1821, Chief Anderson (who was about 66 years old) and over 1,300 Delaware Indians left the banks of the White River to head west and never returned to Indiana territory. In the later part of 1831 Chief William Anderson died in Bonner Springs, Kansas at about 76 years old. His cause of death is said to believe to be small pox. President William Henry Harrison was quoted saying, "A long and intimate knowledge of the Delaware in peace and war, as enemies and friends, has left upon my mind them the most favorable impression of their character, for bravery, generosity and fidelity to their engagements." Chief William Anderson’s legacy now lives on through the City in which bears his name.
One year before Anderson was incorporated as a town the Indiana Mammoth Internal Act was passed. It was a law passed by the Indiana General Assembly and added $10 million dollars to help with developing infrastructure in Indiana. This increased population and the Central Canal was planned to be created and the plan was to run it through Anderson. Unfortunately the canal was suspended due to the Panic of 1837, which was a financial crisis throughout the United States and started a recession lasting into the 1840’s.[4] These crises lead to many people leaving the town of Anderson, and not returning until 1849. The town had to wait another 16 years before they were finally established as a city in 1865 with a population of about 1,300 people. Things started to be looking up for the city of Anderson and it was growing with many businesses moving into the area. There were at least twenty new businesses being established over the years. The way of life in Anderson up to this point was a struggle with not many job opportunities, and now people seemed to have reasons for making the move to this new growing city.
On March 31, 1887 natural gas was found in Anderson. During this time the Indiana Gas Boom had begun. This attracted many people to Indiana and Anderson got a lot of publicity in the newspapers. The finding of natural gas in the city lead to many other new businesses moving into the city that were not able to be there before the gas was found; such as glass making businesses.[5] Anderson was growing quite rapidly and other places outside of the area started taking notice. Anderson started being referred to as the “Queen City of the Gas Belt”. The only problem that they had was one they didn’t even know existed. That is the dangers of natural gas, which brings us back to that early morning on March 5, 1895.
On the morning of March 5, 1895 the city of Anderson was shook and rattled in the early mornings and civilians said it felt like an earthquake. Damage was forced onto buildings, doors, and windows for miles around. The street was absolute chaos, parts of it torn up from an explosion and it was filled with debris from the blown up buildings. Bricks were blown all over the place, planks of wood obliterated all over downtown, and shattered glass covered the city. Huge pieces of stone from buildings were blasted across the streets and some of them onto the newly built courthouse property. Telephone and light wires were tangled up in the streets due to the destruction caused by the explosion. “The Telephone Service Crippled” was a storyline in the Westville Indicator. The section stated that the telephone service company was completely destroyed due to all of the wiring problems and that it would take a long time for them to make all of the necessary repairs to get it back up and running.[6]
The cause of the massive explosion of March 5, 1895 was never completely determined. It was never determined because of the extensive damage and destruction due to the blast of the explosion, as well as the fire that followed. According to a neighboring woman, a fire had started in the middle of the night. (Also back then not very many precautions were taken involving natural gas leaks.) So, what is believed to have happened is a gas leak had occurred through a defective pipe in the Tenhure building block and had built up a sufficient amount of natural gas. When the fire started it mixed with the natural gas and caused the major explosion to occur.
The explosion occurred in downtown Anderson in the central part of the city. The Terhune Business block was located on the courthouse square. The Terhune Business block that was blown up had multiple businesses located inside of it that were completely demolished. The Terhune Block was owned by a man named John H. Terhune. Mr. Terhune was a prominent legislator from the city. Mr. Terhune was also mayor of the city on two separate occasions, (1890-1893) and also (1906-1909). On March 5, 1895 Mr. Terhune was out of town when the explosion occurred. When Clothing store, Parather’s Shoe store, Hadley’s Drug store, and a large number of business offices on the upper floor were all a part of the Terhune block and were all destroyed in the carnage. It was believed that two lives had been lost in the catastrophe, but several days later it was revealed that no one was fatally injured but many suffered severe injuries.[7] The loss on the building and contents in total was about $400,000. According to multiple sources, there is not a building around that would not need repairs.
The initial explosion was severe, and what made it even worse was a wall of fire and smoke raised following it. A man named George Sherwood was visiting town from Jackson, Michigan and was staying in the city on this particular night. He was a guest at the Doxey house, which was only a block south of where the explosion occurred. Sherwood said he was awakened by the blast and went to the window to see what was going on. He opened up the window and what he saw was a cloud of smoke that he said had seemed to be a mountain high. The whole back half of the building had been obliterated and the last standing wall of the Terhune block came crashing down about ten minutes after the explosion. Around town many other people were awaken from their sleep with the same types of experiences. Many people who lived in the city have experienced explosions due to gas leaks, but everyone was saying that this was the worst one that they had ever seen or heard. Hundreds of people walked in disbelief to witness this horrible catastrophe. The anxiety spread throughout town about this explosion and people were questioning when and where this would occur again. People around the city were very concerned because almost every business and building in the city were using and relying on natural gas to keep them running. The natural gas around the city was located everywhere; people could drill into the ground all around and find natural gas. It seemed as if the city had an unending supply of natural gas to fuel the city. This high of dependence on a product that many now saw as a huge potential liability caused much panic and anxiety throughout the city.
A patrolman was walking the street that night on the south side of the public square when the explosion occurred and lifted him off of his feet. The patrol man then ran to the nearest fire alarm box to alert the fire department on what was happening. The call registered into the fire department at approximately 3:22 a.m. The entire fire department was called out. The firemen responded quickly to the alarm and got to the scene as quickly as they could. The heavy winds were carrying burning embers from the fire across town and started burning more buildings and began spreading around the area. The fire department was dealt with an enormously tough task of putting this growing fire out. At 10:30 the next morning the entire fire was finely put out. It took the fire department about seven hours to contain and put out this devastating incident. The fire department received a lot of credit for their quick response and for doing a good job of minimizing the damage once they arrived at the scene. The department managed to save the newly built courthouse from being engulfed in flames and destroyed, but the damage had already been done the majority of the downtown central square.[8]
During the aftermath and over the next couple of days many spiritualists were telling the public that this was no random accident but instead could have been prevented or had limited damage if the town had taken precaution to a spirit reading the city had received a week earlier. A week before the explosion a spiritualist by the name of Mrs. Wilson Porter Kayner was in town from Chicago. While she was in town she gave a spirit reading. Her spirit reading said that within a short period of time the business center of the city would be visited by a big fire. It was said that the big fire would have heavy flames and there would be shoes flying about in the fire. Around this time in history spirituality and spirit readings had an impact on many people across the United States and there were groups of people who believed strongly in this sort of thing.[9]
The March 5, 1895 explosion went down as the most destructive natural gas explosion in the Indiana Gas Belt at this time. Up until this point not many explosions occurred to this extent and caused as much damage as the Tenhure Block natural gas explosion. The city was shaken and many people were worried about their city. Fortunately Anderson got back on track and John H. Terhune guaranteed that he would put up a new building block and it would be even better than the one that was destroyed. A huge accomplishment for the city was just two years removed from the 1895 natural gas explosion. The city of Anderson had the Interurban Railroad made. The interurban railroad was an electric railroad system that transported people from city to city. It made it very quick and easy for people in Anderson to now travel around.[10] Although in 1912 disaster hit the town. The natural gas had run out due to everyone overusing the gas resources.
For as long as the natural gas existed in Anderson and the Indiana Gas Boom, before it dried up, the night of March 5, 1895 is still remembered as the night that the biggest natural gas explosion occurred in the region. It changed the way that people thought and acted around natural gas and lead to more precaution being taken when dealing with it. For many that gas explosion was an event that would be remembered throughout the years in history, and it has.
[1] Cambridge City National Road Traveler, February 9, 1967.
[2] Terre Haute Saturday Spectator, August 5, 1967.
[3] Delphi Carroll County Comet, December 1, 1982.
[4] Fort Wayne Sentinel, June 23, 1900.
[5] Anderson Public Library, Madison County Historical Society.
[6] Logansport Daily Pharos, March 6, 1895.
[7] Indianapolis Sun, March 5, 1895.
[8] “A Night to Remember,” The Herald Bulletin. Stephen Jackson. (March 2,2013)
[9] Indianapolis Sun, March 5, 1895.
[10] New Castle Daily Press, June 28, 1899.
