Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 January 1883 — DREADFUL CALAMITY. [ARTICLE]

DREADFUL CALAMITY.

Burning of the Newhall House at Milwaukee. The Number of Lives Lost Estimated at One Hundred. Thrilling Scenes In and About the Biasing Death-Trap—Heroic Work of the Rescuers. A few minutes before 5 o'clock on the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 10, the Newhall House, in Milwaukee, which sheltered at the time 200 souls, was discovered to be on fire In an incredibly short space of time the large hostelry was a mass of ruins, and it is probable that 100 persons lost their lives. Many leaped from the windows, only to be mangled by the sidewalks below, or to be shockingly lacerated by the intertwined telegraph wires, while others sank back into the flames, appalled at the dreadful distance to the street There were sixty young girl servants in the house, and but eleven were rescued, somepf whom were fatally injured. Many escapes from a dreadful death are recorded, and the heroic deeds Of some of the firemen in aiding and saving the helpless make a bright spot tn the dark tragedy. The total loss, including injuries to adjoining buildings, will foot up $500,000, and the insurance is $102,300. A detailed account of the dreadful holocaust, gleaned from the reports telegraphed to the daily press, is printed below. The fire was said to have caught in the basement, shot with lightning rapidity up the elevator-shaft, and burst forth in terrific volume from the roof. The flames spread out in the different stories as they were rmched, and, in a few minutes after the first alarm, the floors on the south end of the building were a sea of Are, all burning at once. Guests, awakened from their sleep by the heat or the bursting of the flames into their rooms, were forced to the windows, where their heartrending cries rang in the ears of the vast concourse' of people gathered in the street, powerless to render aid Men who in the dally walks of life have been accounted heartless and unfeeling wrung their hands in despair, running about utterly bewildered, exclaiming: “My God! my God, this is horrible!” Then a black object would appear oh the outside of the window, driven out by the smoke and flame, a piercing scream rend the' morning air. and a heavy thud would announce that a human being had dropped from the dizzy height to meet death on the pavement below. At one time there were six persons hanging from six window-sills at the fifth story at the same time, crying in agonizing tones for the help that could not be rendered them, and one after another loosened their grip and met their fate. One man,by letting himself down at arms’ length from a fifth-story window, put his feet through the window below and reached the fourth floor in safety. The operation was repeated until the third floor was reached, each point in his perilous descent being greeted with encouraging cheers from the bystanders. As he was putting his feet through the top of the second-story window his hand slipped from the sill above, and with a wild shriek of despair he fell backward. turning over several times and striking the pavement on his head, andayas mangled beyond recognition. Another man jumped from the fifth-story window, struck the telegraph wires on Michigan street, bounded up, and came down a mangled moss of flesh and bones. A number of people dropped out of the different stories on to the jumping-canvas, but, in a majority of cases, they were killed outright or sustained injuries fromwnich there is little hope of recovery. During the progress of the fire two men appeared at a window in an upper story, and, as they looked down upon the scene below, the floor of the room gave way, and, with an agonizing shriek, they fell backward into the vortex of flames. Mr. Allen Johnson and his wife sprang from a fifth-story window. He was caught in the jumping canvas, but sustained injuries from wnich he died. His wife struck on the telegraph wires, bounded over, and was also caught, but was so badly Injure i that she only survived her* husband about an hour. In three-quarters of an hour after the discovery of the fire the building was a total loss. At 5:30 o'clock the Broadway front of the building, unsupported by rafters from within, gave out, and came thundering to the pavement Shortly after that the tottering walls of the southeast corner of the building followed, tearing a heavy telegraph pole to the ground, which felled Ben Van Haag, a truckman of Hook and Ladder Company No. 2, beneath its weight Poor Ben, a favorite in the department, received fatal injuries. He died in a few hours later, faithful to his post unto death. While these scenes are being enacted on the Broadway and Michigan sides of the illfated building, one of still-greater horror was being enacted in the alley in the rear. The servants’ quarters were in the northwest quarter of the building, remote from the place in whiqh the fire was raging, but all means of escape by the stairways was cut off by the flames. As the terrible roaring and crackling of the'flames struck upon their ears they became panic-stricken, and eight of them followed each other in leaping from the dizzy height to the ground in the alley. The jumping-canvas was on hand, but it was powerless in the conflict with death, and was clotted over with the victims’ blood. At this juncture the cool-headed hero of the day appeared upon the top of the building, opposite the servants* quarters, with a ladder in his hand For a moment tne long, uqwleldy thing poised in mid air and then descended, with a crash, through the window of the hotel It framed a bridge across the alley, however, and before it became steady m its position the man had crossed over into the hotel Then, amid the cheers of the multitude below, the man dragged the helpless creatures across the slender bridge until fully a dozen were rescued They were all of them in their night-clothes, ana many were badly frozen before they could betaken to shelter. A woman in a dead faint, and unable to help herself in any particular, was dragged across in safety, but at one time the whole of her body was hanging over clear of the .ladder, while the brave man held her by one of her ankles. The crowd below held their breath in suspense, expecting every moment to see the ladder turn over or break beneath the terrible strain. The man, however, was equal to the ■ 'emergency, and, by a herculean effort,

pulled her upon the slender bridge and finally placed her out of danger, while the crowd, which had endured the most painful suspense for fully ten • minutes, burst forth with round after round of applause. As early as 6 o’clock the bodies of seven unfortunate waiter-girls, once blooming in youth, were stretched upon the snow and ice, with broken limbs, writhing in agony until death ended their sufferings. After almost superhuman efforts ladders were stretched from the roof of the bank-building across the alley to the sixth story of the hotel and the brave fire-laddies carried ten girls across the frail bridge, four of them dead The maze of telegraph-wires encircling the building on the south and east sides played sad havoc with the unfortunates who made* the frightful leap. Several of the bodies were fairly cut deep into by the wires, and then the torn and bleeding foxms would drop to the ground Others would hit the wires crossways, rebound, and be hurled to the ground with a dreadful crash. To the poor unfortunate waiter-girls (all lodged in the sixth story and the attics) the saddest lot had fallen. Of the sixty young girls only eleven were heard from as alive as late as evening. The dead and a portion of the wounded were conveyed to the American Express office. The wounded were cared for at the Kirby House and the stores on East Water street John F. Antisdel, the principal proprietor, was driven crazy over the terribleaffair. He ran up and down Michigan street, moaning and crying: “Oh! Oh! Mr God, who set that afire?” Over his head, was a black cloth. He held his hands heavenward as if Invoking divine aid. When he came to the mangled body of one of his guests his ravings were pitiful in the extreme. All efforts to soothe him failed. His son and partner, Jumes Antisdel stood on the street, silent and undemonstrative, as if paralyzed by the horror. All of the landlord’s family escaped Mr. Nash too, is almost wild with grief, and can only say repeatedly: “Oh, my God! If these lives were not lost! I don’t care anything about the loss of the building, if these people had only been saved” He was a one-third owner of the building and contents. Miss Libbie Chellis, for ten years in charge of the dressmaking department in T. A. store, occupied a room in one of the upurer stories, fronting on Michigan treet /Surrounded by flames, she appeared at mre of the windows, and for an instant looked imploringly down at the throng below, and then fell back into the vortex of fire and.perished There was a fire escape within her reach, but the poor woman was so completely overcome by the horror of her situation that she was powerless to act Judson J. Hough, of Peoria, Hl, who had both legs broken and received other internal injuries by dumping from a fifth-story window into the canvas held .by the firemen, died at the 1 entral Police Station. Mr. Hough was visiting the family of Allen Johnson. He was a special agent of tne Northwestern National Fire Insurance Company of the city, and leaves a wife and four children. He was about 40 years of age. There was a touching scene when he tried to tell the bystanders where he lived. He spelled out the words “P-e-o-r-i-a, w-i-f-e, b-a-b-y!” One of the saddest facts in connection with this awful catastrophe is the fate of Mr. and Mrs. John Gilbert Mr Gilbert is connected with the Minnie Palmer Company, playing the part of the gambler in “Mv Sweetheart.” Monday, in Chicago, just before leaving for Milwaukee, Mr. Gilbert married a young lady to whom he was devotedly attached, and Who reciprocated thp love bestowed upon her. Wednesday morning the fair young wife lay in the morgue dead, and at the Plankinton House, writhing in agony, lay the husband, but a step from death’s door. There was a strange incident when Mrs. Gilbert’s body reached the morgue. An Irishman identified the corpse as that of his daughter. He at once proceeded to strip from the fingers of the dead woman her sparkling rings and to wrench the ornaments from her ears. At that moment old Mrs. Donahue reached the morgue, and, with a passionate burst of grief, recognized the body as that of her daughter-in-law. “It’s my child,” cried the alleged father, still stripping the jewelry from the dead woman’s person. The grief-stricken old lady and the robber confronted each other, ana the painful scene amid the ghastly surroundings created the greatest confusion. The multitude by this time had swelled to thousands, who stood in perfect awe, but few having self-possession and resolution enough to lend a helping hand on the canvases stretched out to receive those of the despairing inmates of the burning pyre who risked the leap down to the stone sidewalk 100 feet below. At first there were only Lieut Rockwood, Detectives Rleman and McManus, Officers O’Brien and Campbell and a few Sentinel men stretching the heavy canvas, which required fully thirty strong men to handle successfully. A poor fellow stood on the cornice of the fifthstory corner window for twenty long minutes, not daring the fearful leap. Finally he became bewildered, to judge by his actions, or dumbfounded by smoke, and slid off his perro to the canvas below. The few who held it could not j>ive it the necessary resistance. The body fell unhindered by the canvas, with a crash which sent a shudder through every witness. The shattered body was carried into the American Express office. All the while hundreds of people had been looking on, body responding to the demands of the officers for aid. Everybody seemed to be spellbound. The terrible spectacle seemed to have paralyzed every bit of willpower. In the sixth-story window, right over this unfortunate, sot the figure of a man, crouched upon the window-sill gazing like one absent-minded into the fiery abyss below, motionless, but from time to time sending up a heartrending shriek. Steadily the flames encroached upon him. He did not seem to mind it Then the flames singed his hair, licked his night-clothes. One despairing look he gave to the crowd below, and then tumbled bock into the sea of fire. A man and woman appeared at a window of the third story. They were recognized as Allen Johnson and his wife. A canvas was stretched below the windows of their apartments, formerly occupied by Prof. Haskins and lady, and a thousand voices called, beseeching them to jump. Mr. Johnson kissed his wife, then leaped into the air and shot downward into the canvas, but his weight was such that the canvas waM nulled out of the hands of the few who held it, and he landed on the ground with deathly force. His wife followed Her body struck the veranda and fell to the ground lifeless. Mr. Allen died shortly afterward in the express office, and his dead body was laid beside that of his wife until they were borne away. About a dozen jumped from the Michigan street front Each leap meant death or shattered limbs, and not less than four unfortunates at one time lay upon the icy sidewalk in front of the Chamber of Commerce, clad only in night-shirts, blood and brains oozing from the wounds through which the bones protruded Some were carried to the express office and others to the ground floor of the Mitchell Building, where cots had been hastily arranged, ana from there they were carried off to the houses of kindhearted people. Gen. Tom Thumb and wife, who were stopping at the hotel had a narrow escape. They were awakened by a policeman, and hurriedly made their ent through a window and down a long ladder, Mm Thumb mak-

ing the descent in the arms of the officer They lost all their baggage. Hon. William E. Cramer, editor of the Evening Wmcomlo, and wife, who had rooms on the second floor, received serious but not fatal injuries, and he is now under medical care at the Plankinton. Mr. Cramer was badly burned about the handsand head. Mm Cramer's hair was badly burned, as were also her hands and feet Sixteen of the victims have been positively identified, as follows: Allen Johnson, commission man, Milwaukee; Mm Allen Johnson. Milwaukee; D. G. Powers, inventor, Milwaukee; J. H Hough, traveling man, Peoria, III; Mrs, John Gilbert, wife of the actor; Miss Libbie Chellis, dressmaker, Milwaukee; Mr. Huff, insurance agent, Iowa; Mm Kelly, servant; Miss O’Neil servant; Bessie Brown, chambermaid; Thomas E. Van Loon, capitalist formerly of Albany, N. Y., later of Milwaukee; Maggie Owens, servant Milwaukee: Kate Linehan, servant Milwaukee: Maggie Sullivan, servant Milwaukee; Augusta Gesa, servant Milwaukee; Mary McDade, servant Milwaukee; Mitchell Hallan, servant Milwaukee* C. Hewey, conductor Wisconsin Central Milwaukee; Muy McMahon, Milwaukee; Charles Keisey, Tom Thumb’s servant; Mary Conroy, laundress, Milwaukee; Ottillie Waltersdorf, kitchen girl aged 18; Catharine Monahan, pantry-waiter, Bridget O’Donnell hall-girl Sun Prairie, Wls. The Newhall House was built by Daniel Newhall and his associates in 1K57. The original cost of the structure, including the lot and furniture, was $270,000. It was situated on the southeast corner of Broadway and Michigan street; was built of Milwaukee brick; the dimensions were 120x180 feet It was six stories high and had 300 rooms. The hotel was a tinder-box, a fire-tirap. Instead of brick partition walls, trestle-work of twelve-inch pine timber formed the main support and constituted the principal divisions of the entire building above the ground floor. A Milwaukee dispatch of the 12th Inst says: There were 110 guests and sixty-seven employes in the building. Qf these twenty have been so far identified among the dead, forty-eight are missing and sixty-seven are known to be saved, leaving forty-two unaccounted for and supposed to be in the ruins. The tottering walls wereitorn down yesterday by a force of 100 men employed by the Board of Public Works. The Common Council indulged in a squabble as to the expense of rescuing the bodies, three Aidermen opposing the prosecution of the search. A week will be required to remove the debria

Nineteen bodies, or rather parts of the bodies of nineteen been dug out of the ruins of the burned hotel up to the morning of the 15th Inst One or two of the bodies was taken out almost entire, yet so badly blackened and crisped as to preclude the possibility of identification. Of the others only fragments were found. A horrible feature of the calamity is revealed in the number of fragments of human flesh and bones found in tne ruins—here a foot, there an arm, and elsewhere a portion of a skull or some other portion of a body—which goes to show that as the victims fell back in the vortex of flame and descended with the floor-timbers, they struek upon the network of gas and water-pipes and were' torn to pieces It has been ascertained that Mr. Brown, of Hamilton, Ont., his wife and four children met death in the ill-fated hostelry. Jay Gould sent SSOO for the relief fund, and the Western Union Telegraph Company $11)0. A Milwaukee dispatch of the 16th says: Fifty-one bodies have so far been recovered, twenty-eight of which are burned beyond recognition, leaving thirty still missing. The excavation reached the west wail yesterday, where five bodies were found in a heap under the location of the servants’ quarters. A correct estimate as to the loss of life it is impossible to form until the books of the hotel can be got. The above estimate, giving fifty-one dead and thirty missing, making the probable total loss of life eighty-one, is thought to be as nearly correct as possible by all parties. The afternoon papers made the following statement: “Taken to the morgue, sixteen; received from ruins, twenty-one; since died, eight; dead not taken to morgue, five; total fifty. This does not Include the fragments of bodies found. About forty people reported missing are yet unaccounted for, which swells the list to ninety. It is almost a sure thing that over 100 people lost their lives by the calamity.” John Gilbert, the actor, is reported better. He imagines he has been on a big spree, and remarked to his physicians this morning that “This drinking whisky is a terrible thing.” It is thought that he may not survive the shook of the news of the death of his wife. It will be kept from him as long as possible. Christina Hagen, one of the servants reported missing, is safe. This makes ninety-six known to be saved out of 177.