Connecticut Disasters: True Stories Of Tragedy And Survival

Connecticut Disasters: True Stories Of Tragedy And Survival

by Ellsworth S. Grant
Connecticut Disasters: True Stories Of Tragedy And Survival

Connecticut Disasters: True Stories Of Tragedy And Survival

by Ellsworth S. Grant

Paperback(First Edition)

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Overview

Dramatic retellings of twenty true events, including the Moodus earthquake of 1791, the Norwalk train wreck of 1853, the Great Hurricane of 1938, the Great Hartford Circus Fire of 1944, the Mianus Bridge collapse of 1983, and many others.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780762739721
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date: 09/01/2006
Series: Disasters Series
Edition description: First Edition
Pages: 208
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Lifelong Connecticut resident Ellsworth S. Grant has been a manufacturer, mayor of West Hartford (1969–1973), personnel director, educational film producer, president of the Connecticut Historical Society, and brother-in-law to the legendary Katharine Hepburn. Born in Wethersfield, he attended Kingswood-Oxford School in West Hartford and graduated from Harvard in 1939. The son of the president of Allen Manufacturer Company (which made various kinds of fasteners, including the “Allen wrench”), Ellsworth went into a career in manufacturing. In his second career as a writer, much of his work has covered Connecticut’s history of manufacturing, such as in The Colt Armory. Two of his best-known books are Yankee Dreamers and Doers, published by Pequot Press in 1974, and The Miracle of Connecticut, the second edition of which was published by Connecticut Historical Society and Fenwick Productions. In collaboration with his first wife, Marion Hepburn, he wrote The City of Hartford (1986), a pictorial history. Before Connecticut Disasters, his most recent book was his 2004 autobiography A Connecticut Journey (Wood Pond Press). He is a lifelong sailing enthusiast on the Long Island Sound and a contributor to various magazines, including American Heritage, Northeast, Hartford, and Cruising World.

Read an Excerpt

It was the worst human-caused disaster in Connecticut, occurring at the height of World War II in Hartford. The death toll was 168, mostly women and children who perished in its first ten minutes. By Thursday, July 6, 1944, the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus had arrived in the city to set up its large tent on Barbour Street for its annual spectacular. It was a warm day, with a strong southwesterly breeze, perfect for mothers and fathers to take excited youngsters to enjoy an afternoon of fun. Under the oil-impregnated canvas, 6,000 fans applauded an animal act. Just as the lions were herded back into the runway cages and the Flying Wallendas ascended to a high wire, it happened. Fifty feet from the main entrance was a four-sided canvas screen for the men's toilet. A man inside carelessly tossed his cigarette butt onto the ground. In seconds a flame crept up one side of the partition and licked at the guy ropes. One of the Wallendas pointed to the blaze from his perch above and yelled, "The tent's on fire!"

Table of Contents

(1) Preface (2) The Burning of New London, 1871 (3) The Moodus Earthquake, 1791 (4) The Raid on Essex, 1814 (5) Deadly Steamboats, 1833 and 1840 (6) The Ill-Fated Farmington Canal, 1835 (7) The Amistad Affair, 1839 (8) The Norwalk Train Wreck, 1853 (9) The Fales & Gray Explosion (10) The Colt Armory Fire, 1864 (11) The Tariffville Bridge Wreck, 1878 (12) The Great Blizzard, 1888 (13) The Park Central Explosion, 1889 (14) The Influenza Epidemic, 1918-1919 (15) The Great Flood, 1936 (16) The Great Hurricane, 1938 (17) The Hartford Circus Fire, 1944 (18) Hurricanes Connie and Diane, 1955 (19) The Cathedral Fire, 1956 (20) The Hartford Hospital Fire, 1961 (21) Connecticut River Pollution, 1965 (22) Buildings Collapse, 1978 and 1987 (23) Highway Tragedies, 1983 and 2005 (24) Bibliography (25) About the Author
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