Description: A surviving NATCHEZ DRUG COMPANY cash ledger. This large ledger measures 13” tall by 8 1/4” wide by 1 1/8” thick. There are about 10 pages missing in the very front. Most of the other pages are blank with the exception of 238, 239, 240, 242, 243, 245, 397. The book was reused in 1948 for notes of the city of Natchez deed, information, property, and trees, etc. Used as a bookmark is a 1950 city garage of Natchez Mississippi billhead. Also included. In 1951. This ledger had made its way to Texas and there are notes pertaining to Sherman, Texas included. In 1908 the Natchez Drug Company was no longer. The story is below. NATCHEZ DRUG COMPANY History: Lost in Flames: The Natchez Drug Company Explosion At about 2:00 in the afternoon on March 14, 1908, a huge explosion ripped through downtown Natchez, Mississippi, destroying the five-story Natchez Drug Company and spreading flames to nearby residences. Killed in the explosion were several employees of the company as well as bystanders. Debris covered the area and smoke from the fire could be seen from a great distance. For the next several days, the citizens of Natchez were placed under martial law while authorities worked to assess the damage and recover the bodies of the victims. The Natchez Drug Company, owned by John H. Chambliss, had recently installed a gas-fired stove in a fourth-floor laboratory. Among the workers who installed the gas piping for the stove was 21-year-old Sam Burns, a local plumber and a member of the Natchez Volunteer Fire Department. About noon on March 14, Burns was working at a house on North Pearl Street when he was abruptly called to the Natchez Drug Company to investigate a gas leak. Arriving at the building, Burns went to the laboratory to test for the location of the gas leak using the accepted method of the day, which was a lighted candle. After failing to discover the leak on the fourth floor, Burns went to the basement where, unfortunately, he found it. The force of the resulting explosion blew out the walls of the building and shot brick, wood and shards of glass in all directions. Trapped in the burning building were a number of company employees, including five young women: Luella Booth, Mary “Lizzie” Worthy, Carrie O. Murray, Inez Netterville and Ada White. All five were killed in the explosion. Notably, all but one were still in their teens (the exception being Carrie Murray, who was 22 years old). The youngest, Mary Worthy, was just twelve years old. Not much older (at 25) was Cleveland Laub, a licensed pharmacist in charge of the laboratory. On the night of March 15, the day after the explosion, Laub’s body was recovered from the debris. According to a contemporary newspaper account, his corpse was “enfolded in an excelsior mattress” in which he presumably tried to protect himself from the flames (Laub's grave in the Natchez City Cemetery is above). The same evening, volunteers discovered the “charred torso of a woman” later identified as Inez Netterville. Although not an employee of the Natchez Drug Company, a carpenter by the name of Uriah Hoskins (sometimes misidentified as Hotchkiss) was working on the third floor at the time of the explosion. When he saw he could not escape the flames, he jumped from a third-story window and broke his neck in the attempt. He was already dead by the time the fireman rushed to his assistance. Incredibly, several people were able to escape the flames and survived without injury, thanks to the work of the Hook and Ladder Companies, one of whom was Joseph Burns, the brother of Sam Burns. There were also bystanders who were also victims of the explosion. Eliza Ketteringham, for example, was burned in the fire and died the same day. John Carkeet, meanwhile, suffered what were described as injuries “of the gravest character.” Carkeet was standing in front of his own building on Union Street when flying timbers struck him in the legs below the knee, shattering both limbs. Two days later, he died at his home, no doubt suffering intensely from his injuries. His funeral, conducted by the rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, took place the next day at his home. Born in 1836, he was a Confederate veteran and served in the "Natchez Rifles," a company of the 4th Louisiana Battalion. His regiment was involved in the siege of Jackson and the battle of Chickamauga and then fought throughout the Atlanta Campaign, finally surrendering at Spanish Fort, Alabama. After the war, Carkeet regularly participated in reunions and memorial observances but was also well known in Natchez because of his profession: he was an undertaker. When he died on March 17, his body was prepared for burial by another Civil War veteran and undertaker named Allison Foster. Allison H. Foster (seen here driving a buggy) was a New Hampshire native and a Union veteran in the Civil War. A year after the war he moved to Natchez and married a woman he is said to have met while serving in Natchez during the Union occupation.* Like Carkeet, he regularly participated in memorial observances with former Confederates and delivered speeches as a representative of Union veterans. Believing that all rancor had been put aside after the war, Carkeet wrote in 1888 that in Natchez “Sectionalism…is buried in the dark gloom of the past, and its phantom is not permitted to cross or shadow, our pathway.” Indeed, he had been elected chancery clerk and was the proprietor of the Foster Funeral Home, an establishment which continued well into the 20th Century. Foster’s home was “Cottage Gardens,” built about 1840, and he was a close acquaintance of Henry Norman, a prominent local photographer whose studio was next door to the Natchez Drug Company. Norman photographed the disaster as it unfolded (see above), perhaps after rushing out of his studio to save his own life. Foster’s daughter, as it turned out, married Norman’s son Earl, who also became a prominent photographer and also lived at “Cottage Gardens.” Today, the collection of photographs produced by Henry and Earl Norman is an important window into the world of late 19th and early 20th Century Natchez. Please review photos carefully for condition and details. Feel free to ask any questions you may have before bidding. Vintage paper items are sold as is. Thank you so much!!
Price: 228.17 USD
Location: Greenville, Texas
End Time: 2024-09-02T00:43:10.000Z
Shipping Cost: N/A USD
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Theme: Grocery Stores
