Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1899 — LITTLE ONES PERISH [ARTICLE]

LITTLE ONES PERISH

ELEVEN CHILDREN BURN TO DEATH AT QUINCY, ILL. Several More Fatally Injured in the Flames— Frightful Tragedy Occurs While Rehearsing—Hundreds of Pupils in St. Francis Parochial Building. Eleven persons were burned to death, eight others fatally burned and half a dozen injured in the most harrowing disaster of years in Quincy, Ill., at 3 o’clock Friday afternoon. While a score of happy children were on the stage in the auditorium of St. Francis’ Catholic school rehearsing for a Christmas entertainment, the garments of one of the children came in contact with a burning gas jet. In an instant the flames spread over her. The little ones screamed and as they and the sisters rushed to each other’s assistance the terror of the situation appalled them and a panic followed. The fire department hurried to the scene and the flames were quickly extinguished, but there remained the task of taking out charred bodies and of rescuing the little ones who were lying in half-suffocated anguish. The dead are: Irena Freiburg, May Wavering, Mary Althoff, Bernadina Freund, Colletta Middendorf, Mary Hickey, Wilhelmina Gnttendorf, Oliva Timpe, Addie. Futterer, Josephine Bohme, Margaret Warner. In the hall at the time of the calamity there were between 500 and 600 pupils of the school and a number of children from Saint Aloysius’ orphan asylum, near by. They had been invited to attend the dress rehearsal, which had begun early in the afternoon and eight numbers on the program had been given before the tragedy occurred. The ninth number was a tableau, “The Birth of Christ,” and every one of the little girls, ranging from 8 to 12 years of age, who were to take part in it is either dead or fatally burned. The girls were just preparing to take their places on the stage, when Laurena Menke, who was adjusting her mask, came in contact with the gas jet in the dressing room. In an instant she was enveloped in flames and as she ran screaming among the other girls their clothing was set on fire. The screams of the sisters and horrorstricken girls behind the curtains started a panic in the front part of the hall and before any of the girls whose clothing had been set on fire had emerged from the stage the juvenile audience was rushing pell mell down the stairs to the street. Oscar Kathman, 9 years old, leaped from a third-story window, but suffered nothing more than a broken finger. But for the fight against the flames made by Father Andrew and the sisters the list of dead and injured would have been much longer. Probably the saddest sight was that presented by little Bernardino Freunde, who ran down the stairs with nearly all of her clothing burned off and threw herself into the arms of a man, crying, “I am Bertie Freund,” and fell lifeless to the floor. The excitement inside the building was soon intensified by the situation without. Crowds congregated in an instant and parents soon came searching with anxious eyes for their little ones. The landing at the third floor was a combination of hospital and morgue. Bodies charred to a crisp were lying there, side by side with forms in which life still remained. Father Andrew was seriously burned about the hands. Prof. Musholt and Sisters Theotama, Ludwiga, Redultha and Ephren were also badly burned in rescuing the children who ran through the halls and around the building, shrieking and begging to be saved. St. Francis school is where the members of the congregation of St. Francis' Catholic Church, one of the largest and most flourishing in the city, educate their children. It is a handsome new building across the street from the imposing church. In the rear of the church is the St. Francis monastery, and in the block adjoining is St'. Francis Solames College, one of the largest of its kind in the West. All of these institutions are located in the northeast part of the city.