Newspaper Articles

The following newspaper articles have been contributed by a wonderful
resource person on the Cobb County Mailing List. <Linda Murray>

Rev. Donald Fraser of Decatur, Georgia, was found dead in a kneeling position
on a train while en route for home from Jacksonville, Florida, having started
in good health. Heart disease. He was the father of Rev. Mr. Fraser, tempory
pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Marietta.
Additional Comments:
From Deaths Reported in Cobb County, Georgia, Newspapers - Volume III

Following is the text of an article which appeared
in the Friday, August 28, 1953 edition of the
Atlanta Constitution regarding the fire that
destroyed Mr. & Mrs. H. T. Glaze's Grocery Store.
The article included a photograph of three firemen
sifting through the burned out rubble with the
following caption; "FIREMEN SALVAGE STOVE WOOD AND
MERCHANDIZE FROM MILL FIRE, Firemen L-R: O.F.
Lanfley, Willard C. Townsend, and J. A. Murphy Toss
Wood from Ashes."

Doraville Fire Destroys 3 Buildings

A $51,000 fire early Thursday afternoon destroyed a
grocery store, grist mill, and warehouse located at
the junction of Peeler and Winter Chapel Roads in
Doraville The buildings, belonging to Herman T.
Glaze, 42, Peeler Road, were burned to the ground.
The blaze was believed caused by a spark from a
stone striking the steel mill as Glaze and his son
Ray Glaze were grinding hay for feed. The spark flew
to a pile of finely ground hay and spread to another
pile of hay nearby, Glaze stated. Glaze and his son
tried to fight the fire with their well pump but the
blaze spread to an attached store and warehouse.
Fourteen fire trucks from the surrounding
communities responded but were hampered in fighting
the flames by a lack of water.

A 500-gallon fuel tank in the mill exploded but two
gasoline tanks in an attached shed remained
undamaged. The fire destroyed a quantity of
television sets, radios, washing machines, $300
worth of hay, the mill and its machinery and a
quantity of office supplies. Glaze and his son
managed to save about $350 worth of groceries from
the flames.

Submitted by: Jeffrey Lee Glaze (Grandson)
November 27, 2002

Newspaper article from the ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, March 1, 1929. James David Glaze.

Following is a verbatim transcription from the Friday Morning edition of the March 1, 1929 Atlanta Constitution.
Explosion Comes at Timekeeper's Office as Men Are Checking Off After a Day's Work.

ARE HURLED FOR 20 TO 50 FEET
Two of Victims Came to Atlanta Originally To Work on
Memorial; Sorrow Shrouds Town.

Seven men are dead and six are injured, three
seriously, as the result of the explosion of a
compressed air tank at the quarry of the Stone
Mountain Granite corporation, at 3:30 o'clock
Thursday afternoon.

The blast, which demolished the timekeeper's office,
came just as the workers were checking out for the
day. Debris from the smashed office and human bodies
were hurled through the air for 20, 30, and 50 feet,
according to eye-witnesses.

Of the seven dead, three are white men, including
the superintendent of the quarry, and four are
negroes.

List Of Dead
C. G. Davis, about 33 years of age, superintendent.
O. Z. Cowan, 24, driller.
J. D. Glaze, about 50, driller.
Cal Howard, colored, driller.
Cody Smith, colored, driller.
Charles Haynes, colored, ledge boss.
Will Maddox, colored, breaker.

Of the injured, John Swain and Morris Brown, white,
and Carl Sewell, colored, are the more seriously
hurt, although physicians Thursday night, expected
all three to recover. Others suffering comparatively
minor hurts included Eugene Shinn, white; John Manly
Clark and Jim Bennefield, colored.

One Mile from Memorial The tank, which exploded, was
about 20 feet from the timekeeper's office at the
quarry, more than a mile from the site of the Stone
Mountain Confederate Memorial, and close by the foot
of the mountain north of the memorial. It is located
on private property of the granite corporation and
is reached by a rarely used dirt road. The dead and
injured were placed upon a work train immediately
after the accident and rushed to the town of Stone
Mountain, three miles away. There they were met by
doctors, nurses and ambulances from Atlanta and
Decatur. Cowan was killed instantly, while Davis and
Glaze were carried to Wesley Memorial hospital, but
died within a few minutes after reaching the
operating room.

All four of the negroes died
instantly, or before reaching Stone Mountain.

SEVEN
KILLED, SIX HURT IN EXPLOSION

Drs. Cheston King,
James Wells and William McCurdy, of Stone Mountain
rendered first aid to the injured, with Atlanta and
Decatur doctors aiding as fast as they could reach
the scene. Funeral Rites Today The dead, with the
exception of Davis and Glaze, who died after
reaching the hospital, were removed to the parlors
of the Bridges Undertaking company, of Stone
Mountain, where funeral arrangements were incomplete
Thursday night, though is was expected that services
would be sometime today. Every resource of the
little Georgia town was devoted Thursday night to
helping and comforting the bereaved families. Headed
by Sheriff Jake Hall, of Dekalb county, officials of
the town and county rushed immediately to the scene
of the disaster and promptly placed every facility
at the disposal of the families of the dead men.
According to George Weiblen, secretary-treasurer of
the Stone Mountain Granite corporation, there was no
forewarning of the blast. Mr. Weiblen was about 100
feet away from the timekeeper's office when the tank
exploded. Explosion Described "I had seen Davis
enter the office a moment before and was going over
to talk with him about several business matters,"
said Mr. Weiblen, "when the concussion suddenly rent
the quiet surroundings. There wasn't a particularly
loud explosion, more a sort of exaggerated pop,
something like a big tire casing blowing out. Then
the air was full of flying boards and men. There
wasn't much dust and I didn't have time to take
special notice of anything." The exact cause of the
tragedy probably never will be known. The men had
just finished work for the day and had turned the
petcocks on the compressed air hose with which they
work their drills before going to the time keeper's
office to punch the time clock. There was no
automatic safety device on the tank itself, which
rested on wooden blocks about 20 feet away from the
little office. The air pump is at the main plant of
the quarry about a quarter of a mile away, and air
is carried to the tank by piping. At the main plant
there is a battery of similar tanks connected by
pipes and with cutoff valves between each tank. It
is presumed that the cutoff valve leading to the
distant tank was not turned off when the men quit
work and with no air being used, the pressure simply
became too strong for the heavy steel and burst the
end out. Tank End Blown Off The tank is of inch
thick steel and is about 18 feet long and about six
feet across. the cylindrical end was blown off as
neatly as though it had been cut all around the edge
with a saw. The tank itself was hurled 50 feet away
from its original position, while the blown-out head
was several hundred feet away across the quarry when
it finally came to rest. It was this circular steel
head that smashed into the little timekeeper's
office, crowded with men, and completely wrecked the
building, hurling the men to death against the walls
or near-by rocks and leaving a writhing, screaming
mass of dead and injured on the surrounding ground.
One negro was standing on top of the tank when it
exploded. He was hurled about 20 feet into the air,
but landed on the ground on his feet and suffered
nothing worse than a sprained ankle. Thought Auto
Backfiring W. J. Wade, blacksmith, was several
hundred feet from the tank when it exploded. He said
that when he first heard the blast he thought it was
an automobile backfiring, although from his position
the noise was hardly sharp enough for that. He then
saw Weiblen running, noticed that the timekeeper's
office had disappeared and hurried to the scene of
the tragedy. C. G. Davis, the superintendent who was
killed, lived in Stone Mountain and is survived by
his widow, a daughter and a young son. He formerly
lived in Macon, moving to Stone Mountain about five
years ago to work on the Confederate memorial under
Gutzon Borglum, the first sculptor.

O. Z. Cowan,
another of the three white men who died is a native
of Gastonia, N. C. He moved to Stone Mountain less
than two years ago, also going there first to work
on the monument, but joining the granite corporation
forces when work on the memorial was stopped some
months ago. He married in Stone Mountain and is
survived by his widow. J. D. Glaze, the third white
man to die, was about 50 years of age and lived in
the country some distance from the town of Stone
Mountain. He is survived by his widow and several
children. One of his sons also worked at the granite
quarry, but was in a different part of the workings
Thursday. The corporation normally employs about two
hundred men, although the force at present has been
reduced to little more than half that number, it was
stated Thursday. Had the full force been employed it
is probable that the list of dead and injured would
have been longer. Sorrow Shroud Town The little town
of Stone Mountain is shrouded in sorrow, today,
preparing sadly to bury her dead and resume the
quiet tenor of life. Headed by Mayor Spence for the
city, and Sheriff Jake Hall for the county,
everything possible will be done for the bereaved
families. Funerals are expected to be conducted
separately, though there was some mention of a
public service at which the fellow citizens of the
dead could express their sorrow and evidence their
sympathy. Families of the dead, however, indicated
that they would prefer to arrange quiet rites
individually. Sympathetic neighbors quietly acceded
to their wishes and silently offered the only help
they had to extend, sympathy and respectful
condolences. Work at the quarry, it was stated, will
be suspended until after the funerals.

ATLANTA, GA., SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 1929 Following is a
verbatim transcription of a follow up news article
on the Stone Mountain air tank explosion form the
Saturday, March 2nd edition of the Atlanta
Constitution.

AIR TANK TRAGEDY LAID TO 'ACCIDENT'

Explosion That Killed Seven Due to " Lamentable
Accident," Probe Indicates.

While Solicitor General Claude E. Smith, of DeKalb
county, indicated following an investigation, that
his department found nothing to warrant grand jury
action, officials of the Stone Mountain Granite
Corporation and insurance inspectors late Friday
continued their searching probe of the air tank
explosion which Thursday killed seven workers and
injured as many more.

Solicitor Smith stated Friday afternoon, after
personally investigating the scene of the blast,
that as nearly as he could determine the affair was
a lamentable accident. He explained however, that
should the company's probe bring to light any
criminal negligence or any other contributing
criminal cause his department and the grand jury
will deal with it.

George Weiblen, secretary-treasurer of the company,
with a number of insurance inspectors from the firm
of Adams, Holmes & Eckford, were on the scene of the
explosion early Friday and through the day went over
the ground and inspected several other tanks. They
also questioned a number of employees, but Friday
night declined to make public their findings pending
the completion of the investigation.

It was explained by company officials that the air
which collected in the exploding tank, had passed
safely (...ILLEGIBLE...) functioning properly in
those tanks. There also are three or four tanks
beyond the exploding one.

It was decided Friday that no formal inquest over
the bodies would be held, but an informal inquest
under the direction of Coroner J. S. Thomas may be
held later, it was stated.

While funeral arrangements had not yet been
completed for the victims, three of the more
seriously injured were reported to be improving.
Morris Brown, a driller, was improving rapidly at
his home in Stone Mountain, Friday afternoon, while
John Swain and Eugene Shinn, also were reported to
be virtually out of danger at a local hospital.