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Volume 057-4 - October 2003 (6 pages)
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Page: of 6
NCHS Bulletin October 2003
earliest settlers of Nevada City and a
well-liked and respected businessman.
Adding to the tragedy, William’s wife,
Statira Tomlinson Maltman, had only a
short time ago left to go back East to visit
friends and family and was still in New
York when the accident occurred.
According to contemporary newspaper
accounts, a cloud of red dust and smoke
rose from the Manzanita claims as a loud
explosion was heard in Nevada City.
Residents and business owners ran out
their doors, thinking that a blast had
blown out of the ground. It was soon
learned that an explosion of Giant
Powder had occurred in the smelting
works, and that William Maltman, one of
the owners, had been killed.
After hearing the unbelievable news,
many of the businessmen abandoned
their work and headed for the site of the
explosion, one-half mile above the town.
An hour before, Edward P. Marsellus,
Maltman’s partner, had left the smelting
works to go into town, Maltman was in
the old mill building where he was drying
fifty pounds of Giant Powder. The stamps
for melting and running the gold taken
from the claims into bars.
James Hackley was first to enter the
building and view the grizzly scene. The
mangled remains of the deceased and the
debris attested the violence of the explosion which cost Maltman his life. The
body was laying against the end of the
down in the explosion. The body had
been propelled at least 30 feet and MaltFirst page of Statira Tomlinson Maltman’s letter. (Courtesy of Searls Library.)
able to get in the door, and stood outside on the cold
December day. Rev. Mr. Anderson, of Grass Valley conducted the services. The large number of friends and acquaintances in attendance was a testimony to the deceased’s
respect and standing in the community. The procession was
lead by the Masons, Nevada Lodge, F.&A.M., who turned
out in large numbers and headed the large procession to the
cemetery.
The untimely death of William Maltman had cast a deep
gloom over the entire community. William was one of the
2
man’s clothes had been torn into shreds.
His hat, part of his coat and a glove were
found ten feet from where the body lay.
There was a large gash on his head, and
his arms, legs and thighs were severely cut and mangled.
The building was shattered, and the brick from which the
furnace was built was almost ground to powder. Pieces of
cast iron were thrown against the sides of the building and
lay half-buried in the timber. The siding and shakes and
everything within was broken into splinters.
A bier was constructed by friends and taken down to his
brother Oscar’s house on Sacramento Street. The Daily.
Transcript described Maltman as “a man honored by his
friends and highly respected by acquaintances, of genial
house, which had been partially thrown’
had been removed from the old building “™
and a smelting furnace had been erected”