Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1869 — The Terrible Disaster at Indianapolis. [ARTICLE]

The Terrible Disaster at Indianapolis.

The Indianapolis, Ind., Journal of the 2d> contains a detailed account of the terrible accident which occurred on the Fair Grounds in that city on the Ist. We extract as follows: # “ The engine was set up alxnit seventylive yards west of. the Fewer Hall, and the saw mill some fifty or one hundred feet due north of the engine. The force of the explosion seemed to be lateral. Heavy pieces of the machinery were blown to the north and to the west s long distance; a few of the lighter parts were found some distance to the east, but more were thrown backward. Those who saw it, say nothing was thrown higher thau thirty or forty feet. The bodies of several men were lifted into the air, and alighted in mangled and mutilated shapes many yards from where they were standing when struck with the steam. An idea of the force and power, and the horror of the explosion, may be gathered from some of the. incidents which we have been able to collate. “Where the engine stood was left no perceptible trace, except an area of smoked and blackened ground. Even the foundation had been torn up, and not a brick was left standing thb one upon the other. The training of thcj saw mill was thrown askew, turned over, broken and dislocated. A large piece of the boiler, which must have weighed five hundred pounds, was carried a distance of a hundred yards. One smaller piece was thrown clear into the time track, and skipping over it, buried itself into the sod beyond. Another large piece was blown westward, clear over tnc dyke upon the cattle pens. It crashed through the roof of one, and struck a large ox on the horns,, breaking off the tips, passing entirely outiof the enclosure of the fair grounds. One of the shafts, to which was attached an eccentric, was thrown sideways over Power Hall, and landed at the side of Domestic Hall. One of the rods was twisted off and carried at least three hundred yards in a northerly direction, striking a man on tin: load who was standing not far from the amphitheatre. In almost every direction smaller pieces were thrown, and the air was literally full of splinters, holts, screws, nuts, pieces of rods, and such of 'the lighter portions of the engine. Innumerable are the storfes told of how deadly missies alighted Jtjßi in front oi people, arrested

by a gracious providence In their deadly flight. . t ,TTz. “ To attempt a pen picture of the scene were folly. Imagine 15,000 people, pallic with fear, rushing and crashing to one fro, impelled by; a nameless something toward an undcftnable objectmCn bearing dead and wounded into the various halls; women shrieking and crying, for fear their husbands, sons or brothers may be among the killed; strong men convulsed and in tears becauso temporarily separated from wives and children, and in suspense as to their safety; here stumbling across the mutilated form of a man; there appalled with the horrid spectacle of a skull absolutely stripped of its flesh ; here an arm, there a pair of legs; hero a side of flesh cooked until it looked* like tripe; there a pool of dotted blood; here a horse struck dead in its harness; with the occupants of the carriage dumb and palsied with terror. All this and more, infinitely more, must be imagined -to fill in the details of a picture of which it wore next to impossible to give but the faintest outlines. INCIDENTS. “ A man, walking in frost of the Executive head-quarters, was startled at seeing the skull of a man drop in front of him, the flesh actually scalped off the bones, but the eyes and teeth still remaining in the sockets and jaws. “ Beveral yards from the disaster was found a pair of legs held together by the merest shred of flesh. At one place was the headless trunk of a man; at another was the leg of a woman, with her boot and stocking and a part of her drawers still upon it; the arm of a man was found driven into a poplar board; while not far from Power Hall was seen the bOdy of a man so horribly mutilated that his heart, stomach, liver, and lungs could readily be seen. When first discovered his heart was still palpitating, and the motion of the organ was plainlyobserved. “ Mr. John E. Foudray, with a friend, was sitting in a carriage on the east side of Power Hall They both saw a piece of the boiler coming toward them, when Mr Foudray’s friend pushed him aside, and the deadly iron imbedded itself in the ground not three feet behind him. “ The scalp of a man was found near the stairway to the amphitheatre. “ One piece of the boiler, flying through the air, took off the top of a man’s hat. “Gov. Baker’s coachman was standing* near the horses, while the Governor, in company with Maj. Walker and Capt. De La Hunt, were standing just at the side of the carriage. Mrs. Baker had left the Governor but a short time before, and for a half hour the Governor was in great distress for her safety. While the coach mart was so badly injured, the escape of the Governor and his friends seems miraculous.

“ The little daughter of Mr. Dawson was struck in the head while standing naar its lather. The girl died very shortly after reaching home. “ A baby wagon was struck by a piece of the flying iron, and wagon utterly demolished, but the child left unhurt. “A piece of the boiler was blown into the cattle shed 300 yards, where it passed through the roof and knocked the tips off the horns of the mammoth ex, but doing him no other injury. ~, “ Mr. E. A. Vinton and his daughter were sitting in a buggy about 50 yards away, looking at the running oi the mills, when a piece of the boder struck the horse, killing him instantly, and upsetting the buggy, throwing both occupants out, but doing them no Berious harm., “ A piece of a man’s head, snowing a part of the forehead, and nose, and left side of the face, the hair and whiskers very black, slightly tinged with gray, Was found near the executive oftice. “ One of P. L. Davis’ arms was blown over a hundred yards from the place where be fell dead. His body was otherwise terribly mutilated. “ In a lumber pile, near the place where the boiler stood, was found some of the remains of a man literally wadded into the interstices between the planks. One woman, inquiring for her liuSband, asked one of the reporters if his name was upon their list of the killed. It was, but the man could not summon courage to tell th< poor bereaved wife, and he put her oft with an evasion. “ There arc many other incidents which could be given, but these will suffice as an index of the general character of the disaster.”