Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 October 1895 — DEATH IN THE CRASH. [ARTICLE]

DEATH IN THE CRASH.

AWFUL DISASTER AT A CHURCH CORNER STONE LAYING. Platform Gives Way and 300 Are Precipitated Into a Pit—Parochial School la Tnrned Into a Hospital— Forty Persons Injured. —— —— Many May Die. A frightful disaster plunged Lorain;;; Ohio* into mourning Sunday, and what .was, meant to be an incident of glad rejoicing became in an instant a catastrophe of appalling horror. One child was killed outright, ten persons were fatally injured and between thirty and forty others were seriously hurt by the sinking of a section of temporary platform built on rotten timbers. The accident occurred at the out. set of the ceremonious laying of a corner stone for the new St.. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, and just after the priests had hushed a crowd of 5,000 people into solemn silence. The list of dead and injured is as follows: .■■■._ Killed: - Mary Weber, 3-year-old daughter of ! M«t Weber, of Sheffield. Fatally injured: ! Miss Kate Deidrick, of Sheffield; both legs hi-oken and hurt internally. Mrs. John Eustin. aged lady, of Lorain; r left leg crushed and chest injured. ■ John Feldkamp, of Lorain; hurt internally. Katie Griffin, S years old, of Lorain; left leg crushed and hurt internally. Mrs. Michael Kelling, middle aged, of ’Lorain; injured internally. Rosa McGee, 3 years old, of Lorain; skull fractured. . Mrs. Mary McGrath, of Lorain; left leg crushed and hurt internally. - Mrs. Margaret Maokert, -of Lorain; hurt internally. Mrs. Cornelius Sullivan, of Lorain; •spine injured and left leg crushed. Mary Sieder,. of Lorain, aged lady; jcheat crushed and hurt Internally, i* Seriously hurt: ! Col. W. I. Brown, leg and arm bruised, —Mrs.. William Burgett, of Lorain; hurt fraternal hr. Mrs. M. Bruco, of Hoganville; le.ft ankle broken. Nellie Dollard. of Lorain; head cut. John Kustin.'of Loraiii"; Back hurt." ' Mrs. John Fox, of Sheffield; both legs broken. Mrs. Mary Latimer, of Carlisle Center; right leg crushed. John Martin, of Lorain: left leg broken. Mrs. Mary O'Keefe, of Lorain; hurt ilnterually, and leg will have to be amputated. William Ryan, of Lorain; right leg [broken. George Theobald, 3 years old; head cut. } Nicholas Wagner, leg bruised. Platform Was Crowded, The foundations of the church are extended about ten feet above the bottom of ;the unfinished basement. It was on these •foundation walls that a large platform bad been built, on which the ceremonies were to be held. From an early hour in the morning until after noon people had boon gathering on this platform, anxious to secure a point of vantage from which the services of the church could be seen and heard. When the reverend/fathers took their places on the platfpjfci at. 1 o’clock fully a thousand people were standing or sitting on it. The great ma-‘ jority of these were women and children. Four thousand others were grouped about the place, all within earshot. Just as Monsignore Boss. of Cleveland, the chief Roman Catholic dignitary present. raised his hand to bring the audience to quiet, a sound of splitting timbers threw the great crowd into consternation, which became panic when it was seen that a section of the temporary platform was sinking beneath the weight of 300 people huddled together upon it. The crash came of a sudden and every one of the 300. .save a dozen or two who scrambled off the edges, was precipitated into the pit ten feet below. The section which gave away was in two wings, and as it formed a veritable death trap for the victims. The pi: with its slanting board walls, resembled an inverted roof of very steep slant, the gable ends being closed up by the stone foundation walls, and into this vortex were heaped men, women and children in one conglomerated, struggling heap, all in frightful, maddened panic. The sound of the crash was followed by a wail from the helpless victims aS'by an echo, and that again by a great cry from the spectators of the tragedy. who had been stricken into a panic and were well-nigh as helpless as the victims themselves.

The inevitable result of panic followed and doubled the horror, already great enough. Those persons at the top of the mass escaped easily, but when the pit was partly emptied those victims who were still entrapped could not clamber up the pteep sides, and they trampled upon each ’other like so many wil'd creatures, the strong men getting on top and the weaker women and children being crushed and beaten down beneath the greater weight. Three thousand people, lost to presence 1 of mind, made a mad rush forward toward the pit, hoping to lend aid to the un- * Tortunates, but as they pressed forward their weight threw at least fifty of those nearest the edge headlong into the pit. For at least fifteen minutes no aid was given, and nothing was done except in the why of making matters worse. Finally ropes and ladders were procured and handed down to the struggling victims. When assistance finally reached them a till the rescue was well under way it was found that the dead body of one child lay In the'bottom of the basement, and that almost fifty other persons were lying bruised mid mangled on the floor.

Church Is Made a Morgue, i The old Catholic church, a few rods distant from the new, was turned into a morgue and hospital, and some of the injured persons were carried into the parochial school nest door and there made as comfortable us possible.' Twenty physicians were oh the scene within twenty minutes, and they were kept busy until sundown eaHng for the victims’ wounds. Several of the injured will die before daybreak. When the people had carried the dead aud wounded into the old church and quiet had to some extent been restored among those who escaped the services of corner stone laying were resumed. The delay occasioned was not more than thirty minutes, and the ceremonies laid down by the Human Catholic ritual were not altered in any wise,-except that they became a shade more solemn and to the devout hearers a trifle more impressive, father Boss delivered the sermon. It eloquent and impressive and was tinged with the somber hoe of the dark

tragedy that introduced It. Reference to the disaster was frequent throughout. | The pray era and then the formalities inl which Father Boss was assisted by six | other priests also partook of the unwonted Badness, yet they were carried through with imperturbable purpose, though the* audience was altogether unnerved and unstrung. Following prayers came the laying of the corner stone. When the ceremonies were finished the priests called at the extemporized hospitals and made inquiry concerning the condition ofthe victims—their parishioners. H