Augustus George Hazard

Augustus George Hazard (April 28, 1802 – May 7, 1868) was an American gunpowder manufacturer and the namesake of Hazardville, Connecticut.

Hazard was born in Kingston, Rhode Island, on April 28, 1802, a son of Thomas Sylvester and Silence Knowles Hazard. He is a seventh generation descendant of Thomas Hazard, the progenitor of the Hazard Family, found on the list of early settlers of Rhode Island and the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

His family moved to Connecticut when he was six years old, where he lived and worked on the family farm until the age of 15. As a young man, he worked as a sales merchant in Savannah, Georgia.

Col. Hazard married Salome Goodwin Merrill on July 24, 1821, in Hartford Connecticut, and together they had eight children. He assumed sole ownership of the company in 1843. The business was known thereafter as the Hazard Powder Company, and the village that supported it became known as Hazardville.

Col. Hazard and Salome returned to Connecticut in the 1840s in order to oversee his business and raise their family. More than 2.75 million pounds of first-quality gunpowder (a majority of the powder used by the Confederacy) were produced before its closure in 1865.

By comparison, Union gunpowder manufacture was distributed among many mills, with the larger Hazard Powder Company of Connecticut producing a large portion of the annual production of 8.4 million pounds.

From March 11,1839 to January 13, 1913, 67 employees were killed by explosions. The most disastrous accident on July 23, 1862 caused the deaths of nine men.

Hazard lived on Enfield Street in Enfield, several miles from the powder mill, and ran the business until his death on May 7, 1868, at Ascot House in New York City.

His eldest daughter Elvira Hazard Bullock married Alexander Hamilton Bullock, the 26th Governor of Massachusetts. Their daughter, Fanny Bullock Workman, was an explorer and mountain climber who set many record in the Himalayas.