The Hazard Powder Company is a former

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

manufacturer of

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). ...

and

explosives An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...

. It was located in Hazardville within the town of

Enfield, Connecticut Enfield is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, first settled by John and Robert Pease of Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony. The population was 42,141 at the 2020 census. It is bordered by Longmeadow, Massachusetts, and East Longm ...

History

The company was founded on the

Scantic River The Scantic River (pronounced SKAN-tik) is a river that flows through the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut and is tributary to the Connecticut River. The Scantic River's tributaries rise in the towns of Hampden, Wilbraham, East Longm ...

in 1835 by Allen Loomis in an area then known as Powder Hollow, with the construction of a small gun

powder mill A powder mill was a mill where gunpowder is made from sulfur, saltpeter and charcoal. Milling steps Crude grinding and mixing operations such as the Frankford Powder-Mill of Philadelphia were a cottage industry until the industrial revolution ...

. A company called Loomis, Denslow and Company, named for Loomis and his business partner, was established the following year.Hazardville Gunpowder Industry
Enfield Historical Society. accessed September 17, 2009
, Enfield Historical Society website, accessed September 17, 2009 The company manufactured powder from

saltpeter Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . This alkali metal nitrate salt is also known as Indian saltpetre (large deposits of which were historically mined in India). It is an ionic salt of potassium ions K+ and nitrat ...

sulfur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...

, and

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...

. and Employees lived in a

company town A company town is a place where practically all stores and housing are owned by the one company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schools, markets and re ...

named Hazardville, which took its name from Colonel

Augustus George Hazard Augustus George Hazard (April 28, 1802 – May 7, 1868), known as Colonel Augustus Hazard, was an American gunpowder manufacturer and Hazardville, Connecticut's namesake. Hazard was born in Kingston, Rhode Island, on April 28, 1802, a son of Thom ...

, who bought into the company in 1837 and eventually built it to become a major producer of gunpowder. The company changed its name to Loomis, Hazard & Company in 1837, and became the Hazard Powder Company in 1843 when Hazard bought Loomis' share of the business. Production increased over the years in response to the needs of the U.S. military for gunpowder during the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...

, demand for blasting powder during the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

of 1849, and the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

, when the Hazard Powder Company supplied both

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and

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with gunpowder, shipping a total of 500 tons to Britain. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, the mill was one of the three chief sources of gunpowder for the

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forces, producing up to a day. At its peak, the Hazard Powder Company operated in 125 buildings occupying hundreds of acres of land. It had 25 water wheels and three steam engines along a mile of Scantic River frontage. There were additional mills in

East Hartford East Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 51,045 at the 2020 census. The town is located on the east bank of the Connecticut River, directly across from Hartford, Connecticut. It is home to aerospac ...

and Canton.Sharpe, Philip B. (1953) ''Complete Guide to Handloading'' Funk & Wagnalls p.136 The business declined after the Civil War. However, Hazardville still had a relatively large population of 1,500 in the 1890s. Hazard Powder was one of the three largest (with

DuPont DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...

and Laflin & Rand) among the six companies of the United States Gunpowder Trade Association (popularly known as the powder trust).Winkler, John K. ''The DuPont Dynasty'' (2005) Kessinger Publishing pp.122&123 DuPont gained majority stock control of the company in 1876 after Colonel Hazard died in 1868. The plant became part of

Hercules Powder Company Hercules, Inc. was a chemical and munitions manufacturing company based in Wilmington, Delaware, United States, incorporated in 1912 as the Hercules Powder Company following the breakup of the DuPont explosives monopoly by the U.S. Circuit ...

when DuPont assets were divided in 1912 under provisions of the

Sherman Antitrust Act The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (, ) is a United States antitrust law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce. It was passed by Congress and is named for Senator John Sherman, its principal author. Th ...

, and it closed permanently after a major explosion on January 14, 1913, destroyed much of the plant.

Notes

{{reflist Ammunition manufacturers History of Connecticut Gunpowder mills Enfield, Connecticut