Graves and Tombstones
The only way to confirm the men’s fate is to look at the research data included on this website that show what I believe are the graves of some of the injured. My best effort in finding them was to use a few search items such as similar name, close date of death, then looking into where they were from. To date we still cannot find the graves or fate of some of the men. This website will hopefully help.
I recently spoke to the caretaker of the Big Hill Cemetery where Harmon Teaster is buried to ask if he knew of any rumors of other men being buried at Big Hill from the explosion of 1905. He in fact did have some information. His statement, passed down from his 95 year old uncle, is that three stones are affixed in the cemetery 20 feet from Harmon's grave. These three stones are marking the graves of three men from the T.J. Salts explosion. Today, three of the stones are still there and are unmarked. As of 01/21/2023, he has informed me that years ago a fourth man who was buried alongside the three, was exhumed by his family members and moved to another cemetery. He is looking into any information on the name of that person and will inform me of his findings. This recent information lines up with the list of the dead and confirms the story that all men were taken directly to the cemetery and buried with no formal funerals.
On another page labeled “The Dead and Injured” are screenshots of the graves I think are of the men (courtesy of Findagrave.com). While some may be inaccurate it's my best attempt at this time of finding them. It is interesting that some of the death dates are a day or two before the explosion as well as Harmon Teaster’s gravestone having his death date two months after his actual death. These inconsistent dates can be answered by assuming that relatives back then may have guessed the exact date when they got around to placing gravestones. One has to take into account that the location of the explosion and the Big Hill Cemetery were all located in an extremely rugged and remote area. Accessibility was very limited back then.
At the Big Hill Cemetery in Del Rio Tennessee, are the locations of the four remaining graves. The person who took the photograph is probably standing on the original grave location of the fifth man that was exhumed.
Another interesting find was the grave of the owner of the T.J. Salts Lumber Company in Piney Flats Tennessee, courtesy of Findagrave.com
In order to find all this material, as well as grave and tombstone information, I used a small program that would notify me any time the internet encountered key search strings like "1905 Explosion Tennessee” or "T.J. Salts Explosion". I also used the website called findagrave.com that I have found to be most helpful. Since new data is constantly being loaded onto the Internet, more data becomes available. As of last week another discovery of a mortally wounded man was made that I had never noticed in any other new reports prior. Although the information was there in some of the news reports it was hard to notice. His name was Murray Ford and we will continue researching his name as well as others. Since that discovery the total count of injured men is 16. More recently a new historical photograph surfaced at the Tennessee State Historical Society that I will discuss later on this site.
At a later date a small marker will be placed on the exact site of the explosion.
background photo ©2002, dean teaster, insert photo artificial intelligence generated
The photos below show the stones that mark the graves of three of the five that were killed at the explosion. The fourth man was exhumed and moved and Harmon Teaster remains there with the other three.
