Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 142, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1918 — SIXTY-TWO BODIES REMOVED [ARTICLE]

SIXTY-TWO BODIES REMOVED

ONLY TWENTY-f OUR HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED—i-OTHERS BEYOND RECOGNITION. Gary, June 23.—Sixty-two bodies of Hagenbaek-Wallace circus employes, who were killed in the wreck six miles west of here on the Michigan Central railroad early Saturlay in temporary morgues here and at Hammond, last night, while circus officers made frantic efforts to compile an accurate list of dead and injured. Only twenty-four of the bodies had been identified. Most of the others were charred and mangled beyond recognition. The revised list of known dead follows:

,J James Conner, baggage superintendent of horses, Bliss, Okla.; Mrs. Verna Conner, Wild West rider, Bliss, Okla.; Arthur Diericks, member “Three Strong Swiss,” Erickton, Md.; Joseph Diericks, member “Three Strong Swiss,” Erickton, Md.; Max Freehand, member “Three Strong Swiss,” Erickton, Md.; “Big Red” Barnum, driver; Jennie Ward, aerolist, Bloomington, Ill.; Eddie Devoe, clown, New York; Mona McDhy, equestrienne, Michigan; Victoria McDhy, equestrienne, Michigan; Virgil Barnett, rider, Bliss, Okla.; Nellie Jewell, animal trainer, tiger hoseback act, Washington, D. C.; Louise Cottrell, equestrienne, London; Mrs. Joseph Coyle, Cincinnati; Joseph Coyle, Jr., 11, Cincinnati; Charles Coyle, 3, Cincinnati; Jeb Cattanacs, electrician, Chicago; Mrs. Bessie Cattanacs, areolist, Chicago; Mrs. George Brown, equestrienne, Denver; Leroy Jessup, usher, Toledo, O.; Henry Miller, animal trainer, New York; Charles Rooney, bareback rider, Chicago; Earl Machiel Berry, Schenectady, N. Y.; Henry Hanson, West Baden, Ind. An attempt to remove Fireman Gustave Klauss from Michigan City to Hammond last night met with failure. Acting Coroner Henry C. Green sent a deputy to summon Klauss but the man returned to report that Klauss had gone to Kalamazoo, Mich., where Engineer Sargent is awaiting summons to the inquest set for today. It is expected that by today circus officials will be able to furnish an authenic list of the missing. The time sheets, it was said, will be available at Beloit, Wis., where the show had been booked to play Tuesday. Edward M. Ballard, general manager of the circus, last night issued a statement saying figures complied indicated that probably eight-five persons had been killed. He said a hasty tabulation of scattered employes showed that sixty are missing in addition to the twenty-four identified dead. Most of the missing were said to be “razor backs,” many of them negroes. F. Whipple railroad trainmaster, also has been given up as dead. Parts of two bodies cremated in the furnace of tangled steel and timbers which was the circus train were dug out tonight. The authorities said if the death list is as great as estimated by circus men, the additional bodies probably were reduced to ashes.

An inquest will be held at Hammond today and Gustave Klauss, fireman of the troop train of empty Pullmans, has been ordered brought to Hammond to testify. “We will have the engineer, Alonzo K. Sargent, present when we are ready for him,” was all Deputy Coroner Green, of Lake .county, would say. Sargent is being held in Kalamazoo, Mich. Neither man was injured. None of the $25,000 in cash, reported by circus officers as being lost in the wreckage was recovered. The list of injured in hospitals last night was reduced, fifty-eight here and twenty in Hammond. Only three or four of these are expected to die. The gruesome task of trying to identify charred corpses continued throughout the day with the influx of relatives of victims. Little progress was made. Pitful scenes were enacted ks women and men passed between rows of bodies retaining such identification marks as bracelets, lavelieres and signet rings. Circus folks, swathed in bandages and many on crutches haunted the morgue in search of relatives and many collapsed when (the bodies were found. .. .. j....•