The Hazard Powder Company is a former American 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, charcoal (which is mostly carbon), and potassium nitrate, potassium ni ...

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 exp ...

. It was located in Hazardville within the town of

Enfield, Connecticut Enfield is a New England town, town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, first settled by John and Robert Pease of Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region, Connecticut, Capitol Planning Region. ...

History

The company was founded on the Scantic River in 1835 by Allen Loomis in an area then known as Powder Hollow, with the construction of a small gun powder mill. 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 a sharp, salty, bitter taste and the chemical formula . It is a potassium salt of nitric acid. This salt consists of potassium cations and nitrate anions , and is therefore an alkali metal nitrate ...

sulfur Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...

, 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, ca ...

. and Employees lived in a

company town A company town is a place where all or most of the stores and housing in the town are owned by the same company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schoo ...

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 The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...

, demand for blasting powder during the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) 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 from the rest of the U ...

of 1849, and the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

, when the Hazard Powder Company supplied both

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

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

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, the mill was one of the three chief sources of gunpowder for the Union 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. It is home to aerospace manufactu ...

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, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...

and Laflin & Rand) among the six companies of the

United States Gunpowder Trade Association The United States Gunpowder Trade Association (also known as the powder trust or the gunpowder trust) was a trade association of major American powder manufacturers which coordinated pricing for powder from 1872 to 1912. The cartel was dissolved thr ...

(popularly known as the powder trust). 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 The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (, ) is a United States antitrust law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce and consequently prohibits unfair monopolies. It was passed by Congress and is named for S ...

, 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