Newspaper Stories of Hudson County, New Jersey
"Sick List"

July 21, 1824 - Another Boiler Burst
Extract of a letter, dated City of Jersey, July 12
“With grief and sorrow I inform you of a melancholy accident which has happened on board one of our Steam Ferry Boats. About one o’clock this day whilst lying in dock, waiting for passengers, the boiler burst with a most tremendous explosion. It tore away everything before it – the after cabin was blown overboard, the railings broken, & c. We have ascertained but one person to have been killed, a young lady of New York, a Miss Nelson. Two of the Boatmen are severely, but it is hoped not dangerously, scalded. This boat was driven by a low pressure Engine and on Fulton’s plan. When we think how frequently this boat has passed the river, full of passengers, and what awful destruction and loss of lives there would have been had she blown up crossing the river, we cannot be sufficiently thankful that the explosion took place at a time, and in a place, when and where, it was least capable of doing injury.” Dem. Press. [Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania) - Submitted by Nancy Piper]


January 18, 1882 - Michael McMahn, aged 50, living on Dudley street, Jersey City, while cutting up old railroad iron in the iron works of Theodore Smith & Bro., had his right hand cut off by the shears, just above the wrist. He was taken home in an unconscious condition. [Submitted by Shauna Williams]

©2006 K. Torp
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