Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1906 — SEVENTEEN ENGULFED [ARTICLE]

SEVENTEEN ENGULFED

Twelve Go Down with tho Wreck of Homes, Five Are Rescuers. flames (Cremate the victims Warning of the Disaster Is Given, bat Is Unheeded. * - Thirteen Houses Crumble When a Clay Pit Caves In at Haverstraw, N. Y.—No Bodies Recovered. Haverstraw, N. Y., Jan. 10.—Seventeen persons are missing and are believed to have gone to their death when thirteen houses on Rockland street In Haverstraw toppled over Into a-pit sixty feet deep which had been cut by clay diggers In connection with the brick-making industry here. Twelve of the persons missing were occupants of the fallen houses; five were among the rescuers .who went to the aid of neighbors after the first house fell, and were carried down when the twelve other houses went crashing over the precipice. The wreckage quickly caught fire, and those who were in the mass were either crushed or burned to death.

Kept an All Night Vigil. There Is grave fear of another oaveln along the same street, and the occupants of seven or eight houses have moved away. Others kept an all-night vigil, ready to alarm their neighbors In case of Impending danger. Names of the Dead. The missing, all of whom are almost certainly dead, are as follows: Harris Nelson, merchant; Benjamin Nelson, his son; Mrs. Silverman and a young son, Charles Cohen and wife, P. Mannim and wife, John B. Beauchamp, A. Proviteh and daughter, Abraham Dias, Joseph Albert, John McMurray, Bartley McGovern, Mrs. Joseph DaHey, and Rev. M. Alden, a Jewish rabbW— last flve names arc those of rescuers, who lost their lives. Warning Was Not Taken. The landslide was caused by the falling In of the bank under which the excavators of the brick manufacturers had- been working for a number of years. The ground began cracking and showing seams at noon Monday, and some of the occupants of houses along the brink took warning and left. Others believed that nothing serolus would happen and remained. When the breakage occurred one house toppled over into the pit with all who were living within its walls. The other occupants of the houses prepared to leave their homes in the face of a blinding snow storm. Rescuers Are Kngullbd. Numbers of j>eople who lived nearby rushed to their aid and were assisting them In getting out when twelve more houses went down, carrying with them not only the families who occupied them, but also several of those who had gone to their assistance. Overturned stoves set fire to the buildings, and firemen came from miles around, but when the landslide occurred It broke the water main, thus cutting off the entire supply. He Saved His Wife’s Life. James Sammie, who lived along the edge of the pit, did not get out of its house until It had settled eight feet All the rest of his family escaped, but his wife, and she went down with the building. Sammie obtained ropes and went down after his wife, brlnjdng her up with the aid of two men. Her leg was broken In tlio fall, but she suffered no other Injury.