Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 June 1888 — HORRIFYING DISASTER. [ARTICLE]

HORRIFYING DISASTER.

Monday morning the Murdine Hotel at Rockdale, Texas, caught fire and was quickly all ablaze. Inside were thirteen persons, only two of whom escaped alive. * Dr. W. A. Brooks, the proprietor, was pulled out of the burning building with his hair and beard singed off, and otherwise badly burned, leaving behind him his wife and four children, who perished. Pemberton Pierce, jumped from the burning building and was killed. D. M. Oldham, of Dallas, escaped, 'badly singed. The mystery about the thing is that so many should have perished when none were _ higher up than the second story, and there were galleries and exits on both sides of the Myding : .(^,Q»MQfL^.tbe.iSlegperß.No one was heard to call or scream, all dying without a cry for- help, though a great crowd quickly gathered, and exThe remains of several have been recovered from the ruins, buf*they are unrecognizable. Mr. Pierce is the only . non-resident victim. The pecuniary loss is about f 15,000.