Cktober 5, 1907 



HORTICULTURE 



465> 



BOILER EXPLOSION AT THE KELLOGG GREENHOUSES 



Our illustrations depict more graph- 

 ically than we can describe, the havoc 

 occasioned by the explosion of a steam 

 boiler at the greenhouses of George M. 

 Kellogg, Kansas City, Mo., early on 

 the morning of September 26. Had 

 the disaster occurred but 45 minutes 

 later the entire working force would 

 have been on hand and serious loss of 

 life would have been recorded. The 

 boiler that exploded was one of a bat- 



tery of five. The effect was terrific, 

 the other boilers being thrown from 

 their foundations, about 100,000 feet 

 of glass being destroyed, timber, 

 brick and stone being scattered in all 

 directions and the country shaken for 

 a radius of several miles. The dome 

 of the boiler, weighing 500 lbs. was 

 carried 600 feet. Mr. Kellogg writes 

 that the damage outside of the loss on 

 plants and their produce is not less 



than ?o.i.OOO. He says that the gauge 

 had been shut off the ijoiler and the 

 stoani valve letting the steam into 

 the houses closed tight. Two tem- 

 porary boilers have been put in po- 

 sition and glass is arriving by the 

 car load hut lumber for repair work 

 will be hard to obtain. Mr. Kellogg 

 has our warm sympathy and our sin- 

 cere hope that cold weather will hold 

 off until he gets his houses closed in. 



OBITUARY. 



Edgar Sanders. 



Not expected, but nevertheless 

 touching, comes the news of the death 

 of Edgar Sanders, dean of the Chi- 

 cago horticultural profession, at the 

 ripe age of 80 years. Mr. Sanders 

 was born Oct. 10. 1827, in Sussex. 

 England, the son of a gardener and 

 one of a large family of children who 

 had to begin early to earn something. 

 He commenced his career in garden- 

 ing at the age of 13 years at Wm. 

 West's nursery, after which he held 

 various positions in several localities 

 until he came to America in 1853. 

 where his first employment was as 

 gardener to Gen. J. F. Rathbone at 

 Albany, N. Y., whence in 1857 he went 

 to Chicago and started as a florist 

 with a small greenhouse. He is said 

 to have opened the first flower store 

 in Chicago, under the Sherman 

 House, in 1867, and later moved to 

 Dearborn street. He lost everything 

 in the flre of 1871. He held in suc- 

 cession several public offices and did 

 considerable writing for the Country 

 Gentleman, Prairie Farmer and other 

 periodicals and later became the regu- 

 lar Chicago correspondent of the 

 Florists' Exchange, continuing thisi 

 work until incapacitated by failing 

 health. He served for many years as 

 the treasurer of the Chicago Florists' 

 Club. He was the first president of 

 the American Association of Nursery- 



men, Seedsman and Florists, and was 

 again elected president oi that body in 

 1884, which position he held at the 

 time of the secession of the Society of 

 American Florists, whose first meet- 

 ing at Cincinnati in 18^5 he attended. 



TiiK Late EufiAR Sanoers 



A few years ago he was stricken with 

 a paralytic attack and ever since has 

 been confined to the home of his 

 daughter, which has become a Mecca 

 of the profession locally, and of loving 

 friends visiting in Chicago, who have 

 been glad to call upon the old gentle- 



man and help lo brighten the tedious; 

 hours with their presence. He had 

 failed rapidly of late, and nis demise 

 was known to be imminent all of last 

 week. The funeral was numerously" 

 attended bv members of the Chicago 

 I''lorists' Club and the profession, 

 generally. 



Other Deaths. 



Barney Nailer, Newville, Pa., passed" 

 away on September 21 at the age of 74. 



W. S. Taylor, for the past seven- 

 years florist at the Morton House,. 

 Grand Rapids, Mich., died Sept. 22 at 

 the age of 57. 



Mrs. W. H. Kuebler of Brooklyn, 

 N. Y., wife of W. H. Kuebler, the 

 wholesale commission dealer, passed" 

 away on Sept. 19. 



Charles Schleeter, a florist near 

 Louisville, Ky., died suddenly on Sept. 

 21. He was 42 years old. A wife an* 

 six children survive him. 



John C. Hepler, who was superinten- 

 dent of Charles Evans Cemetery, Read- 

 ing, Pa., for 27 years, died on Septem- 

 ber 26. Mr. Hepler was born in Read- 

 ing April 17, 1829. 



F. H. Reynolds, the pioneer nursery- 

 man of the River Raisin Valley at 

 Monroe. Mich., died Sept. 2Sth, near- 

 ing his 90th birthday. He was born 

 in Delaware County. N. Y.. and came 

 to Monroe. Mich., when only 20 years; 

 old starting in the nursery business. 



