Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1905 — THREESCORE DIE TERRIBLE DEATHS [ARTICLE]

THREESCORE DIE TERRIBLE DEATHS

Boiler Blast in a Shoe Factory Frightful in Results. FIRE FOLLOWS THE EXPLOSION Victims of the Catastrophe Are Burned Past Recognition. Even Their Sex Is Undlscovernble In Some Instances—Many Wound, ed and Many Others Missing. Brockton. Mass., March 23. —Public funeral services were held for more than two acore of persons who lost their lives last Monday In the explosion and Are which created the greatest calamity in the history of the city and one of the greatest New England ever has known. Twenty thousand of Brockton’s inhabitants work in the great shoe factories of the city, and all that vast number Joined in the public manifestation of sorrow. Brockton, Mass., March 21. This city is in mourning for at least three score of her citizens whose lives were blotted out by the explosion of a boiler in a large shoe manufacturing establishment in the Campello district, conducted by the R. B. Grover company. The explosion was immediately followed by a flash of flame which consumed the factory, a long, four-story structure, as If it were a house of cards, and Incinerated an unknown number of men and women who were unable to extricate themselves from a mass of tangled wreckage formed by the terrific unbeaval in the boiler room. More than half a hundred of the employes in the building were maimed, burned or bruised by the time they reached safe ground. Heat Drove Book the Rescuers. Some had jumped from the roof, some from windows, and others had been Injured in the mad rush to escape from the doomed factory, which from all parts emitted the intense, awful heat of an inferno, driving back the band of heroic rescuers who in a few brief moments bad performed gallant service. The Are extended from the factory to seven other buildings in the vicinity and destroyed them. The total financial loss is stimated at a quarter of a million dollars, $200,000 of which falls on the It. It. Grover company. The monetary loss is nearly offset by insurance. Remain* Are Horribly Burned. It may never be known Just how many persons perished in the wreckage. No one knows exactly how many persons were in the factory. The number has been estimated at 400, but Treasurer Charles O. Emerson said he doubted whether there were so many at work. Two hundred and fifty survivors have been accounted for, and at this writing the remains of fifty bodies have been recovered from the ruins. Fragments of human frames which possibly might belong to bodies other than those enumerated have also been found. Few of the remains have been identified. The head in nearly every case is missing, and except in rare instances it was impossible even to distinguish the sex. Harrowing Scene* ; Thrilling Rescue*. The disaster was attended by many harrowing scenes and thrilling rescues. For hours hundreds of the relatives of the factory operatives besieged the ruins and the fire and police stations in quest of missing ones. Some in their violent grief and agonizing stress of mind collapsed. Several of the rescuers and searchers fainted as they beheld the distressing scene. There wns no trace of the body of David W. Rockwell, engineer of the plant, who was not seen after the explosion.

NAMES OF A FEW OF THE DEAD Also of Those Wounded Who May Add to the Death Roll—Miming. The work of Identifying those killed by the explosion progressed slowly, owing to the generally unrecognizable remains of the victims. The list of identified dead follows: J. Ray Cole, Harry H. Hall, Jerome A. Mayo, Geo. Smith, Emma B. Pray, Florence A. Dunham (bookkeeper), Samuel A. Tiley, Ernest Carlson, Nellie Leary. Miss Serena Shaw Burrows, Marion Tufts. Miss Fitzgerald, James N. Bell. The following are part of those who were seriously injured, some of them, it is believed, fatally: Nora Coughlin, Hiram Pierce, William Lightfoot, Churles Rolius, Mrs. J. H. McCabe, George Jones, Mrs. August Burgess, Mrs. John Howard, Kitty Noonan, Mrs. Julia Shields. Andrew Lundell, Elmer, E. Dodge. Mrs. Samuel Bicknell, F. Forrest Wcatherbee. Following Is a list of missing, and they are all believed to be dead: Andrew Johnson, John Lundell, Jennie Styles, Almoran Hallett, Miss Georgle Emerson, Miss Mary Fitzpatrick, George Burgess, Barnabas Lewis, David W. Rockwell (engineer), Hannah Lindberg, Sadie Hickey. J. Victor Turner, Arthur Pray, Alderman Geo. A. Monk, Jessie Chandler, A. F. Nelson, Bror Lundell, Samuel Lovejoy, Mrs. Stella Kelley, Mrs. Clara Atwood, Richard Sprigging*, Mamie

O’Connell, Mamie Leonard, W.R. Armstrong, Kate Kelly, Louis Hickey, Granville Hoppln, Miss Burgess, Linus Burgess, Mrs. William V. Hurd, John N. Sullivan. A 1? this hour the remains of fiftythree persons have been recovered. Fif-ty-three persons are known to be still missing, the names of thirty-one of whom have been obtained. Many others are reported missing, but it is considered possible that some of them are at their koines In near-by towns. The estimates of the dead range from sixty to eighty, and of the injured from fifty to 100. Many persons not seriously hurt, went to their homes and did not report their injuries. BAD JU9T GOT TO WORK Scene of Industry Converted Into n Scene of Frightful Suffering. The explosion which was followed by such a sacrifice of life occurred shortly after the operatives had settled down to work for the day. Suddenly the air vibrated with the roar. At the same moment the large wooden frame of the factory quivered, and then the rear portion of it collapsed. In a fraction of a second this section of the great building had been transformed Into a mass of iron and wood wreckage, in the midst of which human beings were pinioned. In another moment fire had broken out in the debris, and death by fire and suffocation became the fate of scores of the operatives. Scenes of horror followed the wrenching apart of the factory building. In the rear the three upper floors, weighted as they were with heavy machinery, collapsed. Men and women operatives were working in departments of this section, had time but to turn in an attempt to flee after the first dull roar when the* flooring sank beneath them and they were carried to the ground floor, crushed and bruised amid the mass of debris. Many fell Into a veritable fiery furnace. Scenes of horror followed the structure collapsed when a tongue of flame started up from the boiler pit and reaching out as it ascended communicated with the splintered wreckage and immediately afterward with the standing walls. Soon the entire factory was in flames. SOME DEEDS OF HEROISM Those Post Helping Go to Death Helping Others to Life. During the fearful scenes attending the disaster there were acts of self-sacrifice and heroism that should be written in letters of gold. A man whose legs were caught under an iron beam cried to the reseuers that they could not extricate him, and to help the girls behind him. Stretching out his arms he lifted several girls one by one and passed them to the rescuers. Then the tire reuched him and he died. A woman who was entangled in a shoe machine cried out that she was dying and commanded the rescuers to attend to others who might live. She begged to be shot. Soon the flames enveloped her. Many persons rushed into the ruins and pulled out the injured at the imminent risk of their own lives. Imprisoned operatives, too far away for rescue, amd who knew that their lives would last but a few minutes, spoke words of encouragement to tnose who seemed nearer escape. Some prayed aloud. Others pleaded with the rescuers to say “good-bye” to relatives. Perhaps the most pathetic incident of the explosion was Mrs. Lena F. Baker's escape from what looked like certain death, with the assistance of an unknown man, who afterwards lost his life. Her feet were wedged between two timbers. His legs were so tightly pinned down that escape for him was an impossibility. Exclaiming “Thank God, if I can’t escape myself, I can help some one else to do so,” he reached forward, tore apart the timbers which imprisoned Mrs. Baker and then fell back fainting. She escaped by leaping to tlie ground, where she was caught by three men.