Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1876 — Tragic Death in a Lime Kiln of a Mother and Two Children. [ARTICLE]

Tragic Death in a Lime Kiln of a Mother and Two Children.

Tun farm of John E. Cameron, near this nlace, was the scene of a fearful tragedy yesterday morning. Mr. Cameron early in the day built a fire in his lime kiln. He lowered his son by means of the bucket and windlass into tilth kiln to see that everything wag. in order there, and then the two went to their work half a mile away. The operation of lowering the boy into the pit had been witnessed by two other children of Mr. Cameron, a boy nine years old and a girl aged five. Soon after their father had gone away, the little boy told his sister to get in the bucket, and he would give her a ride. He helped her in and lowered her to the bottom of the kiln. When he attempted to pull the bucket up, he could not move it, and after several attempts he ran home and told his mother. Mrs. Cameron and her mother-in-law, a lady about seventy years old, were the only persons in the house. They both accompanied the boy to the kiln. Mrs. Cameron, on looking down into it, saw the body of her child lying in the bottom of the pit she having fallen from the bucket, and discovered that the noxious fumes from the burning limestone had commenced to fill the kiln. Not believing that her child was yet dead, Mrs. Cameron placed her little son in the bucket. and telling him to put the body of his sister in it, and to get back ipto it himself as soon as possible, she lowered him to the bottom. He jumped from the bucket and lifted tlie body of the girl into it, and than clinging to the side of it was drawn a short distance upward, when the gas overpowered him and he fell back to the bottom. Mrs. Cameron hurriedly drew up the bucket containing the body of her child, and placing the body in the yard, told her mother-in-law that she would have to go down into the kiln herself to rescue her Son, and that the old lady must handle tlie windlass. The latter grasped the crank, and Mrs. Cameron climbed into the bucket. Her mother-in-law lowered her one or two turns of the crank, when the weight became too much for her strength, and the crank slipped from her hands, striking her in the head as it whirled round and knocking her senseless to the ground. Mrs. Cameron was hurled violently to the bottom of the kiln, and was doubtless rendered unconscious before the poisonous gases affected her. The heat in the kiln was now becoming intense, and but for tbe arrival of aid the bodies of Mrs. Cameron and the boy would in a short time have been burned up. The Pittsville stage came along by the kiln not long after Mrs. Cameron was precipitated into it, and John Kane, seeing the bodies of the little girl and old Mrs. Cameron, the latter bleeding about the head, lying on the ground, jumped down to make an examination. He soon discovered the bodies in the kiln, and calling to a gentleman who was a passenger in tlie stage, the two set about a rescue. Kane climbed into the pit, down the windlass-rope, and placing Mrs. Cameron and the boy in bucket, it was raised by his companion. So dense was the poisonous gas and heat that when tlie bucket was lowered for Kane he with difficulty crawled into the bucket, and when he w as hauled to the top he was unconscious. The fresh air soon revived him, but it was some time before he was able to get upon his feet. Old Mrs. Cameron was restored to consciousness, but the other three were past all aid. During the past seven years ten persons have lost their lives in this limekiln under circumstances similar to the above.—Pittsville (Pm.) Cor. if. Y. World.