Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 May 1859 — Remarkable Accident at Wheeling—A Man Thrown 100 feet in the air, and Escaped Alive. [ARTICLE]

Remarkable Accident at Wheeling—A Man Thrown 100 feet in the air, and Escaped Alive.

[From the Wheeling Intelligencer.

, A most dreadful, and, at the same time, : most remarkable dccident occurred at the C atholic Church, on the morning of the 6th inst. Some twenty persons were eno-ar-ed in putting up the new bell, which arrived the evening before. There was a windless I erected on the ground, to which was attached a snatch-block and shieve. Immediately I above the open space in the cupola, to which the bell was to be drawn up, there protruded a beam. t;> which was attached another snatch-block and pu'ly, and the bell was to have been conveyed to the top by means of i strong ropes, working through these shieves by the power of the windless and cyl rider upon the ground. Tne bell had been raised I in this way almost up to the open space in j the cupola, and the men were just ready ,o I pull it in. A man named Thomas Newton {was below, engaged in guiding the folds ■of the rope as it wound round Hie cylinder. { To do this, he had a firm grasp upon the rope, i When the bell had reached a great hight i from the ground, one of the cogs in the wheels : in the windless fixture gave way. ■ Another revolution oi the wheel ripped off’' i all the cogs; the bell fell to the ground, a»>d i Newton who had hold of the lower end of ! the rope, was carried up, with frightful ve[locity, a distance of one hundred leet from I {the ground, and about four feet above the' {aperture where the bell was to have been ! taken in. For the instant, every one was ; surprised beyond measure, and before those • engaged in the work could comprehend what { had happened, Newton, with his han s all ‘ lacerated and bleed, ng', worked himself down ‘ {opposite the aperture, and called tor h'-lp to ' I those within. Bishop Whelen, who was on , the platform in the cupola, reached out at ’ the risk of his lite almost, and seized New- I ton by the waist, pulled him from his awful I position. ihe accident struck everybody i witii amazc m ■ nt, and all out the cy e witnesses were l»th to believe n the incredu- { lousjfeat. The bell weighed three thousand [s-ven hundred pounds, and as it fell without hiiffiirance, some idea may be formed of. the ' rapidity with which Newton ascended. He j says lie thought of letting go the rope, but ! before the thought was clearly defined, he! { was at the beam, a hundred feet above. Ho { : hgzd not time to let go nis hold upon the rope. { {Some cogs and pieces of machinery were; ■ hurled a distance of two squares from the ■ church, and a Mr. Smith, who was standing I near, received an ugly wound in the face I { from a flying particle. Mr. Newton was ta- ' I ken to the office of Dr. Hupp, where his! I? wounded hands were dres-ed. The flesh, . was all torn from the palms of his hands, | even to the bone, which is supposed to have i been done by the death grasp, and his sliding ' down the rope during the .swift passage in- i to air.