The Hazard Powder Company is a former American manufacturer of gunpowder and explosives. It was located in Hazardville within the town of Enfield, Connecticut. Tobacco-shed

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 (chemistry), salt is also known as Indian saltpetre (large deposits of which were historically mined in India). It is an ionic salt of potassium ...

, sulfur, and charcoal. and Employees lived in a company town named Hazardville, which took its name from Colonel Augustus George Hazard, 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, demand for blasting powder during the California Gold Rush 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 ...

, 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 ...

, 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 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 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 when DuPont assets were divided in 1912 under provisions of the Sherman Antitrust Act, 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