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Abercrombie, Clotiele B.
Abercrombie, Loyd D. Sr.
Abercrombie, Virgie Blalock
Armstrong, John
Bain, Pamela
Bento, Lola
Box, Dorothy Womack
Campbell, Lu
Holbert, Pearl Shaw
Challis, James E. "Ike"
Cole, Beaver
Coleman, Howard
Cronkite, Walter
Degnan, Julie E.
Duch, Greg
Erikson, Charles Henry
Ezell, Alta Reigh
Farrell, Hal
Gregory, Doug
Grenley, Martha Rogers
Grigg, Horace
Grigg, William N.
Hannon, Bill
Harris, Howard
Johnson, Joe and Bobby
Kronjaeger, Jim
Lester, George
Lester, George - Playmates
Lummus, Darlene
Lummus, Don
Martinez, Nelma Cummins
Mayhew, Bessie
McAllister, Mark
Meissner, J. Raymond
Moody, Mildred
Motley, Pete
Nelson, Ron
Plant, Sally
Platton, Mike
Read, Osceola Jefferson
Robertson, William Judson
Robinson, Jimmie Jordan
Mack Thornton Rogers
Ryan, Terri Jo
Seacrist, Debra
Shaw, Marjorie
Stanley, Glenda G.
Taylor, Bob
Taylor, Jim
Thompson, Bill
Vail, Mary Lechtenberg
Vento, Eduardo
Vinson, Allen Earl
Vinson, Melvin
Williams, William B. |
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William
N. Grigg (Bill) age 11
was in the 5th grade
and was supposed
to be in study hall. |
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Age 11 |
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Age 81 |
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As you walk past the graves in the Pleasant
Hills Cemetery, headstone after headstone
repeats the the same inscription "Died on March
18,1937."
William N. Grigg's
brother "Edwin Grigg" wasn't
buried in the cemetery a few miles out of town
with almost half of his classmates who died in a
natural gas explosion in the high school. George
Able and Jessie Mae Grigg took their 13 year old
son to a family plot near Paluxy, TX, and laid
him to rest in the Rock Church Cemetery.
But the memories of the natural gas explosion
that destoyed London's
high school and much of the community's
second generation that Thursday afternoon
remain.
William Grigg, age 11 at the time, was supposed
to be in study hall at 3:05 Thursday March 18th.
"I didn't
like study hall and was helping a teacher out by
cleaning the math room, emptying trash baskets
and cleaning erasers. There was another boy
helping me (I don't
remember his name) and we had just stepped out
of a rear door about 5 minutes before school
would have been let out, when the explosion
occurred! The building and ground shook like an
earthquake, and the building seemed to suck in
then blew out. I didn't
hear anything, though it was heard for miles
away. I ran away and in doing so I climbed a
fence that was around the school. I had never
been able to climb it before. But I did that
day! Then I climbed back over and started to
look for my brothers. I went around towards the
front and remember seeing a girl who sat in
front of me in class. All that remained of her
was her head and upper torso. I couldn't
find my 2 older brothers and I remember starting
for home, which was about 5 miles away. Some man
picked me up in his pickup. There were some
other kids in it and he dropped me off at my
house. My parents (George A. Grigg and Jessie M.
Grigg) were both home and I told them what had
happened. They had thought that a boiler had
blown up somewhere when they heard the noise."
"My father and I went back to search for the
Edwin and Horace, and mother stayed home. We
found Edwin at the Legion Hall that had been
turned into a makeshift morgue. We identified
him when I saw a foot that was sticking out from
under a sheet that was missing a big toe. (He
had lost the toe about a year earlier playing on
a pump jack.) We never did find Horace 'til the
next evening. He was at a hospital in Overton.
He was 17 at the time and when he became
conscious, he thought that he had been in a car
wreck or something. He suffered from a punctured
lung and his back was broken in several places
and had to stay in the hospital for several
weeks. We didn't
tell him that Edwin had been killed 'til his
condition had stabilized which was about 2
weeks. Dad and I took Edwin to a family plot in
a cemetery near Paluxy, TX and buried him. When
we got back they were still working on
identifying the dead. We finished the school
year in Quonset hut like buildings and we could
see the workers demolishing the rest of the
building! One day a couple of months later I
remember a secretary to the assistant principal
accidentally turned over a file cabinet, causing
a loud bang and we all left the building in a
flash. Some even jumped out the windows. They
let us go home early that day!"
His surving brother Horace has returned to
London many times for the reunion they have
there every 2 years. He didnt see what actually
happened, the serching for survivors, the
victims laid out in the makeshift morgues
waiting to be identified. By the time he woke up
in the hospital everything that had been
remaining had been torn down. Hauled away. The
victims had been buried.
Dad (William N.) is now 77, married with 3
children. Horace was married, but his wife died
several years ago and they had 1 daughter.
Horace now resides in Carlsbad, New Mexico.
Their dad, George A. Grigg died in 1954 of
cancer and is buried in Paluxy along with his
wife Jessie Mae. She died in late 1998 of
natural causes in Harrison, Arkansas.
"New London was an oilfield community," William
recalls. "It was located east of Dallas and the
boomtown grew from a population of a few hundred
to a few thousand in just a couple of years
after oil was discovered in Rusk County in 1930.
The oil companies paid for all the expenses of
the cleanup and the funerals of everyone, even
for the families who didn't work for them."
Dad put the disaster out of his mind for many
years, until he went to a survivors' reunion
back about 6 years ago. It was very rough for
him. Someone asked him a question, and he
couldn't remember. It had been so long since he
had thought about it. After the explosion he
never got close to anyone since all his buddies
had been killed. He pretty much became a "loner"
'til he went into the Army. And he says that's
another story!
© W.N. Grigg |
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My best friend,
Donald Barrett.
Died in the explosion. |
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