Dark Tide (42 page)

(1) Ages listed are according to death certificates; these were sometimes incorrect, especially for immigrants, for whom the actual date of birth was not always known.

(2) In the language of the day, a “teamster” was, literally, a man who drove a team of horses, usually transporting a wagon full of goods.

(3) Though Damon Hall and Martin Clougherty argued strenuously that Stephen Clougherty’s death in the insane asylum was caused by the trauma he suffered in the molasses flood, Hugh Ogden disagreed and awarded no damages for Stephen’s death.

(4) No death certificate exists for James Kinneally. We do know, from testimony of his wife, Mary, that the couple had been married for thirty years at the time of his death. Together, they had nine children—only five of whom were still alive when Mary testified in Hugh Ogden’s courtroom.

A
long with the allure of telling the molasses flood story for the first time came a flutter of uncertainty about my chances of uncovering sufficient documentation to breathe life into a little-known subject—with secondary sources scarce, primary source material would be essential to
Dark Tide’s
foundation.

With help (see the acknowledgments), I struck gold. Most of the narrative and characters relating to the molasses flood in
Dark Tide
are based on three rich primary sources:

Dorr v. U.S. Industrial Alcohol
, the forty-volume, twenty-five-thousand-page transcript of the three years of molasses flood hearings, housed in the Social Law Library in Boston, Massachusetts.

Reports on Damages
, four boxes of Hugh Ogden’s individual awards to the victims of the flood and their families, housed in the Massachusetts Superior Court archives (Suffolk County): Box 1, Docket numbers 110980-114349; Box 2, Docket numbers 114350-115592; Box 3, Docket numbers 116777-118392; Box 4, Docket numbers 121269-126172 (April 1925).

Hugh Ogden’s final
Auditor’s Report
to the Superior Court that he issued in April 1925 (copies of which are included as part of the transcripts and contained in each damage award case).

These sources, especially the transcripts, provide stunning, often riveting, firsthand accounts from eyewitnesses, victims, family members of the deceased, and expert witnesses. One can hardly imagine a richer trove of primary source material than testimony from people who are under oath, especially when attorneys from each side asked many of the same questions I would have if I could speak to these people today. In addition, because the attorneys needed to establish the backgrounds of all the witnesses, the transcripts offer rich biographical and background information, as well as insight into the characters of all of the participants. Finally, but no less importantly, the transcripts contain important vital records, including the death certificates of those who perished in the flood, and other documents critical to the case—for example, the full exchange of letters between Arthur P. Jell and the Hammond Iron Works (including the incriminating correspondence in which Jell commends and thanks Hammond for “rushing the tank” to completion).

Ogden’s damage reports contain his summary and assessment of every individual’s suffering or financial loss, and his rationale for awarding the amounts he did; the latter, especially, provides a revealing look into the auditor’s character and thought process. Ogden’s final fifty-plus page report offers rich background on the disaster, and tells us as much about Ogden as it does about how he weighed the testimony and evidence. Ogden is a careful writer, setting the scene remarkably well in the report, and tackling each of the major issues with literary verve and methodical analysis.

In addition to the report itself, Ogden attached exhibits to his final document that included the lease agreement between USIA and Boston Elevated for the waterfront property on which the tank was built; the set of specifications for the tank and the steel plates that Hammond Iron Works prepared for USIA; and USIA’s permit request to the Boston Building Commissioner.

This book is the first published account to draw on most of these sources. To my knowledge, neither the twenty-five-thousand-page transcript nor Ogden’s damage awards have ever been cited before.

Many lines in the original double-spaced transcript pages are underlined in heavy black pencil, which I believe Ogden made as he reviewed the case in preparation for his report. When Hugh Ogden turned over the forty volumes to the Social Law Library in April 1928, he said in his cover letter: “I decided the evidence on damage in a separate report in each case. Of these latter, I have no copies available. They are on file, however, and if anyone is interested to see the way in which the matter of damages was handled, the evidence is available in the files of the Superior Court.” Evidently, there was little or no interest up to the time I tapped these records to research this book. I broke the seal on many of the individual damage awards—they had lain apparently untouched in the archives for eighty years—my white gloves sooty with fine, black dust.

It should be noted that excerpts from Ogden’s final report have been included in a handful of magazine articles written about the flood.

Other primary source material includes:

The Hugh W. Ogden Collection
from the University of Pennsylvania. It includes correspondence from Ogden to Horace Lippincott, some of Ogden’s Army correspondence, many of his writings and speeches, and newspaper articles about him.

Numerous Boston Fire Department records
, including call reports, incident reports, property loss reports, and personnel cards of the key men from the Engine 31 firehouse.

MIT Professor Spofford’s
Special Examination of Commercial Street Premises of Molasses Tank
, which he conducted at the direction of the Boston Building Department.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court,
In the Matter of Purity Distilling Company,
Frederick M. Harrison, Petitioner, “Petition for Dissolution” (November 30, 1917, No. 28316 Eq.). The petition was granted, and all Purity assets, including the molasses tank on Commercial Street, subsequently became assets of U.S. Industrial Alcohol, Purity’s parent company.

Boston Municipal Court,
Inquest Docket Sheets
(pertaining to victims of the molasses flood), prepared and filed by Judge Wilfred Bolster (March 1, 1919).