The New London School Disaster
March 18, 1937
The Day The Clock Stood Still
I have always been interested
in true stories. Tell me the facts to a historical event
and I'm yours for the duration. There is one disaster
that not only intrigues me, but tugs at my heart each
time I think about it. The New London School Disaster which
occurred at 3:17pm on March 18, 1937 in New London, Texas,
still looms as the worst school disaster in American history.
When I was in television, I wore many
hats. One such hat was as a video photographer. In 1973, I
was privileged to be one of the photographers for a 30 minute
documentary that was being produced by Michael Brown for KLTV,
Channel 7 about the New London explosion. It was entitled,
"New London: The Day The Clock Stood Still". We researched
and photographed for days. We interviewed survivors of the
incident and talked with several eyewitnesses.
Men, women and children died in that
blast which originated in the basement of the school. Natural
gas filled the basement undetected from a pipe believed to
be exposed from a first floor auditorium. Through interviews
with some of the survivors, we found that as children entered
the auditorium, they would kick the pipe eventually causing
it to crack and leak into the basement below. Another theory is that since the New London School tapped into and used waste gas from nearby oil wells for heating, pressure was not regulated properly which caused the pipes in the basement to leak. The explosion
was later ignited by a spark from a person using an electric
sander in shop class. Almost all of the school was leveled
within an instant. A school teeming with children, teachers
and parents, quickly turned into a vast pile of bricks, cement
and broken wooden beams. The blast was so great that it destroyed the entire campus including the garden sheds, and hurled
a one ton slab of concrete across the parking lot and demolished
an automobile.
 Immediately
after the explosion, everyone in the community rushed to the
scene to try and help. School buses took the surviving children to their neighborhoods only to greet
tearful mothers waiting, hoping to see if their child would step off the bus. Many
didn't.
Volunteers and workmen from the east
Texas oil fields started digging through the rubble trying
to find survivors. These men were also fathers and sadly,
many found what they were looking for, the broken bodies of
their children.
A temporary morgue was set up near the school as well as nearby Overton and Henderson. Many burials were
made in the local Pleasant Hill cemetery that to this day, still symbolize
the great loss that families endured. Many of the grave sites
display porcelain pictures of the victims. Marbles that were
once played with were pushed into the cement border outlining
the graves. Epitaphs on the grave markers were etched with
phrases trying to comfort as best they can.
It's estimated that 293 people died
that day.
A monument listing each name, each soul that perished was
erected in 1939. Additional monuments have been set listing
additional names. They stand in front of a new school finished
in 1938, built with such care that it has been hailed as the
safest school in America. The labor and craftsmanship built
into the new school, is a testament to the commitment that
a disaster like this must not happen again. It was later enacted
into law that natural gas would have an odorant added for
immediate detection. All due to the New London School Explosion.
As March rolls around each year, I am
again reminded of the horror, the suffering and the magnificent
courage that was displayed.
It was the day a generation died. A day that whole families
were changed forever. A day the clock stood still. For many
years, survivors couldn't talk about it, the pain was too
horrific. But now stories are being told and memories relived
for the purpose of healing. This website was created in memory
of those who died on that fateful day...and for those who
survived.
- Robert E. Hilliard
Please note: In April of 2012, Robert Hilliard was given the webmaster duties for the New London School Disaster website located at www.newlondonschool.org. At that time, it was decided that all data from Robert's New London School Disaster site would be moved and combined with data on the NLSD website. For all information concerning the New London School Disaster, please visit www.newlondonschool.org.
|
