Mt. Vernon Register News Saturday, February 15, 1936.

Sawmill Boiler Explodes; 1 Killed; 2 Hurt
Three More Escape With No Injuries
Cause unexplained thus far. Probably will 
not be determined until coroner’s 
investigation tomorrow.

McKinney is in grave condition.
Force of explosion scattered parts of machinery 300 feet : Sawmill located 
in E. Salem neighborhood.

Orla Lisenby, 50, was killed and Louis McKinney, 23, was injured seriously 
in the explosion of a boiler in use at a sawmill seven and a half miles northeast 
of Mt. Vernon at 8:45 a.m. today.

McKinney, brought to a local physician’s office and later taken to Mt. Vernon hospital, 
suffered a fracture at the base of the skull. His condition was described as “very serious.”
S. C. Jordan, acting coroner during the illness of Coroner Hardy Manner, gave permission 
for the removal of Lisenby’s body to an undertaking establishment and said that he would 
conduct an investigation tomorrow.

Willie Lisenby, said to be a cousin of the fatally injured man, received a painful leg 
injury, but his condition was not regarded as serious. He received first aid treatment 
at the scene of the explosion. 

The sawmill was located in the East Salem neighborhood four and a half miles north of 
State Route 15 on the County Farm road. The equipment was owned by Stephen Laur and a 
Mr. Crain. The farm on which the timber was being cut is said to be the property of 
Frank Keen of near Benton.

The cause of the explosion had not been determined this morning and probably will not 
be known until the acting coroner makes his investigation.. He visited the sawmill this 
morning and notified all witnesses to report to him tomorrow. 

Six men were employed at the sawmill, but three escaped without injury.

The force of the explosion scattered parts of the machinery as far as 300 feet. The entire 
engine was moved approximately 30 feet and only the wheels and firebox were left entirely 
intact.
Lisenby, who was believed to have been standing nearest the boiler, was crushed beneath it, 
a heavy wheel striking his head and shoulders. McKinney was felled by a heavy timber which 
had been piled near the boiler. Several of the timbers were thrown 30 feet across a nearby 
road.

The equipment being used at the sawmill included a regular threshing machine engine operated 
by a steam boiler.

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