Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 January 1890 — BURNED IN THEIR BEDS [ARTICLE]

BURNED IN THEIR BEDS

l FAMILY NEARLY WIPED OUT BY A NIGHT FIRE. Two Sons Narrowly Ear a pert the Awful Fate of Tlielr Parents. Eight Brothers and Sisters and a Guest of the Parents Given as tho Cause of the Cremation. A Hancock (Mich.) dispatch says: A talamity, the horrors of which have seldom seen equaled in this country, was that which occurred at the little village of Hurontown, when the family of Theodore Jross, consisting of the parents and eight children, with one visitor, were cremated ay the burning of the house in which they ived. It appears that the family attended i dance the previous night and did not return home until about 2 o’clock, being followed at 2:80 by their uon Theodore, Jr., who is employed in the Huron stamp-mills. Having prepared to retire, be, as lie supposed, blew out the lamp and went to bed. Boon after, however, his brother Nicholas awoke him and declared that he heard screams that seemed to come from a room next to theirs and which was occupied by three of their sisters and their little brothers. Running to the door, they were horrified to find the room a mass of flames and fire rapidly climbing the stairway. Finding it impossible to assist their brothers and sisters, who were being roasted alive in the now fiery furnace, and being warned by the stifling heat and smoke which encircled them that they must flee, if they would save their own lives, they rushed to the nearest window and leaped to the ground, having received serious cuts from the glass. One attempted to enter the house on the ground floor, where the father, mother and two children slept, but he was driven back by the roaring flames that now completely enveloped the ouilding. Many spectators had gathered by this time, but it was utterabiy impossible to render any assistance to the unfortunate prisoners, and the crowd was compelled to stand by and hear their agonizing cries. In the course of three hours a searching party went over the ruins and discovered the charred remains of the eleven bodies, which were distinguishable only by the size of the bones. They were gathered in a sleigh box and deposited in the public hall. The victims were: THEODORE GROSS. MRS. GROSS, his wife. JOHN GROSS. TONY GROSS. JOSEPH GROSS. MICHAEL GROSS. CATHERINE GROSS. MARY GROSS. LIZZIE GROSS. LENIE GROSS, all children. LENA ERBST. the guest. The apes of the children range from 2 to 22 years. There is no reliable information as to how the fire started. Theodore Gross, ,Jr., says that it might have originated from the lamp that he supposed be extinguished before he went to bed. One point is certain—it started on the inside of the house. There are rumors that the dreadful calamity occurred through the carelessness of the parents, who are alleged to have returned home intoxicated from tbe dance. The holocust is the second which hat occurred in the little village in the last two weeks. In tbe former three livel were lost