How I found it: WNJ 14/57

• On October 4, 1918 at 740 AM the TA Gillespie Company suffered an accident that causes explosions that last for more then 2 days. he accident began when molten TNT was being poured into 155mm shells when fire broke out, setting off the explosion of several freight train cars. Nearly 31 million lbs of explosives were set off, along with over 200,000 shells in the warehouse. Homes for miles were destroyed or damaged. Martial law was declared as far away as Perth Amboy.

• 6,000 people were rendered homeless.  Due to exposure, a lack of medical supplies, a lack of doctors (many of whom were off fighting WWI) and a lack of electricity and heat (many families simply spent the night outdoors) the Spanish flu spread quickly amongst the survivors.

• 108 people died, many of them could not be identified. The bodies were buried in a mass grave off Ernston Rd here in Sayreville.

The cemetery here was forgotten and abandoned for many year apparently. On the day I arrived, decades of debris and overgrowth were in the process of bewing cleared.  The mass marker is the largest headstone in the cemetery. Even so, it doesn't seem to do justice to the event though. When you consider the scope of what happened,  (thousands sick, hundreds homeless, hundreds dead) I imagine something a bit bigger.

Email from a fan:

Hi, I just read your article on the Morgan Explosion and enjoyed it very much, and must agree with you that more should be done to honor our dead.  I came across your article as I was doing research on a lamp that I purchased at an auction.  You probably already know this, but in case you do not, evidently a company in Jersey City N.J. shortly after the explosion made lamps out of 75 M/M shell casings that survived from the Morgan Plant.  The lamp I purchased has a sticker on the bottom that reads, "75 M/M lamp manufacturd by the Snead & Company Iron works, Jersey City N. J., founded 1849, this lamp was made from a genuine U.S. Government French-American 75 M/M shell saved from the Morgan Explosion.  Snead Lamps are patented as follows:  April 22, 1919   May 13, 1919  June 3, 1919.  Other patents pending".  

I have no idea on how many were produced, but evidently like your article states that the war ended 39 days later, so I guess they found a use for them since they were no longer needed for the war.  One other thing I almost forgot  to add, around the base of the shell is this quote, "They shall beat their swords into plow shares and their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more".  This is very interesting history, if you might have any further information on these lamps, I would greatly appreciate hearing about it.  Thanks for the interesting article! I will try and get some pictures e-mailed to you.  As far as the lamp we  just stumbled across it at an estate auction. This estate was from a  person who collected war memoribilla, and he had a lot of empty shell  casings, small cannons etc.  This was the only thing that had an   inscription. I have tried to research this "victory lamp" on Yahoo without  any luck, I plan to e-mail the New Jersey Historical Society, hopefully   they have ran across these before and can give us a little more  information. Thanks for your interest and feedback!

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