During the 1870s, wealthy manufacturer Amasa Sprague Jr. built a mansion at the corner of Cowesett and Post Roads in Warwick. Sprague lived there until he died on Aug. 2, 1902 and then the mansion was sold to attorney and congressman Walter Russell Stines and his wife Ella (Valentine). A graduate of Brown University and Boston University School of Law, Stines served as a United States representative, an aide on the staff of the governor and as state railroad commissioner.

Stines died at the age of 70 on March 17, 1924 and the mansion and its contents were auctioned off over the course of four days in July of 1926. Those with deep pockets turned out to bid on exquisite household furniture, expensive silverware and rare books among the hundreds of objects that went up on the block. Others were there for the property itself — which was being divided up into parcels. One parcel consisted of the mansion house and 44,610 square feet of land. Another parcel consisted of the stable and 28,750 square feet of land. Another contained the greenhouse and 29,132 square feet of land. The garage, barn, shed and 30,750 square feet of land made up another parcel. The rest of the land was divided up into 27 building lots, each being auctioned off separately.

Another politician made the winning bid for the lot with the mansion on it. He used the property as his summer residence for two years before selling it for $17,000. After that, the mansion mostly sat empty — 16 rooms, four baths and four entrances looming large and mysterious to young, adventurous boys.

James Clarence O’Brien, of Arnold’s Neck in Warwick, had lost his father when he was only 8 years old. The elder James had been employed at the Apponaug Finishing Company when he attempted to make repairs to a leak in a hot water tank at the plant one morning. A seam on the tank opened as he worked, sending the hot water pouring over his body. He died as the result of burns that night at Rhode Island Hospital. The younger James was now 17 years old and living with his mother Susan (Kingman) and his siblings Elmer, Barbara, Honora, Virginia, Robert and Shirley, and palling around with 15-year-old John Forrest. John, the son of Leonard and Harriet (Wright) Forrest, lived on Arnold Street in Warwick with his parents and five siblings and, like James, had eyed the empty mansion and was up for adventure.

The two boys ambled onto the old Stines property one day during that April of 1937. Undoubtedly aware of their illegal trespass, they snuck into the barn and descended into the cellar beneath it. There in the utter darkness was what appeared to be some sort of tunnel. The boys were greatly intrigued but unable to see much of anything so determined they would come back in a couple of days better prepared.

Two days later, on April 14, James and John returned to the Stines place and made their way back into the bowels of the old barn. Seconds later, all of Apponaug was shaken by an explosion as James lit a match at the entrance to the old tunnel so that he and his friend could see what was inside.

Many years earlier, the mansion had been modernly equipped with a carbide gas generator to provide light. The carbide was produced in a furnace using a mixture of lime and coal-based fuel. Water dripping on the carbide produced highly flammable acetylene gas which burned and produced light. When the generator fell out of use, it was stored in the cellar of the barn. It remained there for years, aging yet never losing its deadly ability to burst at the strike of a match.

James sustained second degree burns to his head, face, arms and body. John wasn’t burned but was thrown 20 feet from the mouth of the tunnel by the sheer force of the explosion. Both boys were transported to St. Joseph’s Hospital.

James died of his injuries on April 18. He was buried at the Cottrell Cemetery in Fiskeville. His gravestone is etched with the words “Our Boy.” The mansion — with its exciting, dangerous beckoning — eventually burned down.

Kelly Sullivan is a Rhode Island columnist, lecturer and author.