New London School
In 1937 New
London, Texas, in northwest Rusk County, had one of the richest
rural school districts in the United States. Community residents
in the East Texas oilfields were proud of the beautiful, modern,
steel-framed, E-shaped school building.
On March 18 students prepared for the next day's
Inter-scholastic Meet in Henderson. At the gymnasium, the PTA
met. At 3:05 P.M. Lemmie R. Butler, instructor of manual
training, turned on a sanding machine in an area which, unknown
to him, was filled with a mixture of gas and air. The switch
ignited the mixture and carried the flame into a nearly closed
space beneath the building, 253 feet long and fifty-six feet
wide. Immediately the building seemed to lift in the air and
then smashed to the ground. Walls collapsed. The roof fell in
and buried its victims in a mass of brick, steel, and concrete
debris. The explosion was heard four miles away, and it hurled a
two-ton concrete slab 200 feet away, where it crushed a 1936
Chevrolet.
Fifteen minutes later, the news of the explosion had been
relayed over telephone and Western Union lines. Frantic parents
at the PTA meeting rushed to the school building. Community
residents and roughnecks from the East Texas oilfield came with
heavy-duty equipment. Within an hour Governor James Allred had
sent the Texas Rangers and highway patrol to aid the victims.
Doctors and medical supplies came from Baylor Hospital and
Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children in Dallas and from
Nacogdoches, Wichita Falls, and the United States Army Air Corps
at Barksdale Field in Shreveport, Louisiana. They were assisted
by deputy sheriffs from Overton, Henderson, and Kilgore, by the
Boy Scouts, the American Legion, the American Red Cross, the
Salvation Army, and volunteers from the Humble Oil Company, Gulf
Pipe Line, Sinclair, and the International-Great Northern
Railroad.
Workers began digging through the rubble looking for victims.
Floodlights were set up, and the rescue operation continued
through the night as rain fell.
Within seventeen hours all victims and debris had been taken
from the site. Mother Francis Hospital in Tyler canceled its
elaborate dedication ceremonies to take care of the injured. The
Texas Funeral Directors sent twenty-five embalmers.
Of the 500 students and forty teachers in the building,
approximately 298 died. Some rescuers, students, and teachers
needed psychiatric attention, and only about 130 students
escaped serious injury. Those who died received individual
caskets, individual graves, and religious services.
For more information, please visit www.nlse.org
