Shocking Accident at Paper Company

DONOHUE, DONAHUE, OBRIEN, OBROIN

Posted By: Nettie Mae (email)
Date: 5/20/2020 at 20:36:48

The Clinton Weekly Herald
June 9, 1870
SHOCKING ACCIDENT.
Two Men Fearfully Scalded!
THEIR CONDITION CRITICAL.
A distressing accident occurred yesterday afternoon at the works of the Clinton Paper Company, in South Clinton. Two of the employees of the company, Michael O'Brien and James Donahue, had commenced work in the mill that morning, having been formerly employed at the lumber mills of C. Lamb & Son. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon, while engaged in some work about one of the vats of hot water, in which the straw was being prepared for the manufacture of paper, a screw gave way and they were both precipitated into the boiling mass below. O'Brien was scalded from the neck down, and Donahue from the waist. Assistance was rendered as soon as possible and they were conveyed to their homes. O'Brien was fearfully scalded and is not expected to live. Donahue was less severely injured, but is in a critical condition.

Also on the same page:

PAINFUL DEATH!
Result of the Accident at the Paper Mill!
THE VICTIMS BOTH DEAD.
We are called upon to chronicle the painful conclusion of the accident which occurred on Monday, by which two of the employes of the Clinton Paper Company were fatally scalded. At the time of our previous writing the lives of the victims of the accident were despaired of and since then they have both breathed their last, having perished by one of the most painful and shocking deaths which it is possible to conceive. Michael O'Broin [sic], the man who was the more severly scalded of the two, suffered comparatively little pain and lay in a state of unconsciousness after nine o'clock until about two o'clock on the following moring, when he expired, passing away with little apparent pain.
Jas. Donohue, his companion in suffering, though less severely scalded, suffered much greater agonies, for his injuries had not been so severe as to deaden his nerves. He also lay through the night in a state of semi-consciousness, apparently knowing nothing of what was transpiring, yet in great suffering, and requiring to be kept quiet by opiates. He lingered until about nine o'clock yesterday morning, when he also expired.
The patients were both attended by Drs. McCormick and Reynolds, who did all in their power to alleviate their sufferings, little hope being felt of saving the lives of either.
O'Broin was, we believe, unmarried; Donohue, however, leaves a wife and two children deprived of their support by his sudden and shocking death.