Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1890 — FATE OF HILL FARM MINERS. [ARTICLE]

FATE OF HILL FARM MINERS.

Thirty-one Entombed Men Now Known to Have Perished in the Blazing Pit, Filteen and a half days have elapsed since that flash of gas set fire to the Hill Farm mine. Hope and work was abandoned Tuesday evening, at 6 o’clock, and the dust or ashes of the thirty-one imprlsoned men may rest beneath the Dunbar 1 hill till the last day shall come. The caskets which were so carefully secretly carried up to the mine were as; quietly brought back. So were the stretch-1 ers, and blankets, and medicines brought) to the grounds by the physicians. This was because the men could work no more.i After being driven from the mine byl smoke and black damp, twenty-one brave) men resolved to make one more attempt tol rescue their comrades, and at 2 o’clock they again entered the burning pit. Three of! the party returned to within a few Hundred yards of the burning subterranean | fire and satisfied themselves that the men were dead and that further search was, useless. The fctench of burning human flesh sickened them, but they visited nine places where the men were known to have been at work. Two dinner pails were found, with dinners 'untouched, and two coats. The picks and shovels were all lying just as a man would drop them as ho started on a dead run for bis life. One mule was found dead and putrefied. Otherwise no trace of the men could be found. While prosecuting their search still further they ran into a dense cloud of black damp, which put out their lights. A struggle for life then followed, but they succeeded in getting back to the rest of the party. After a sad consultation it was decided to abandon the search, and the party left the pit to tell the friends and relatives of the entombed men that the search could not be prosecuted further. The company will now make an effort to extinguish the fire and save some of their property. Superintendent Hill announced that all the rescuers would be paid for their work by the company.