Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1869-09-22
ANOTHER MINING DISASTER,
Four Men Killed by the Fall OF N
Building at the Ogden Iron Nine, N.
J.-Alleged Criminal Care1cssness
OF the Owners of tho Works.
From the New York Times. Sept. 8.

From the New York Times, Sept. 8.
The Ogden Iron Mine, located three
miles from Ogdensburg, In the township of
Sparta, Essex county, in New Jersey, was
on Friday the scene of fearful catastro-
phe, resulting in tho death of four of the
men employed in the mine. The mine is
an oblong cut-some $50 feet deep, and
having length of about seventy feet and n
width of between forty and fifty feet. Up
on one side of the cut frame building had
been erected for the storage of tools. 1t
contained also the engine and other appar-
atus used in hosting the ore. II had rested
mainly upon the embankmcnt upon one
side of the cut, but projected to some ex-
tent beyond the line of the embankment,
and overhung the cut That it might be
rendered the more secure, braces ran from
the side of the mine to its most extreme
projecting points. The purpose of having
it thus project seems to have been that it
might hold the fixtures of the hoisting ap-
paratus which were attached TO it.
On Thursday night, tue Superintendent
of the mine, who had determined to re-
move the engine to another shaft, ordered
the building to be taken down. Six men
were engaged i'll doing his bidding, when,
on Friday morning, without any Fremont
ton, IL fell.
Two OF tho men, who were busy upon
the roof mt the time, saved their lives by
jumping from their working places 90 tho
embankment Their less fortunate fellow
workers, four in number, went down with
the building, aud were buried under its
ruins. Their bodies would have been inn
mediately removed from the debris but for
the fact that a hugo rock overhanging the
spot where it lay momentarily threatened
TO fall rs we'll. This was loosened FROM it's
stay and thrown down upon the ruins be-
low before anyone of the men vcntured tn
90 10 the rescue OF their buried Gonzales.
When, Mt length, these were reached. all,
with one exception, were corpses; and tie
one exception was 20 badly injured that he
lived scarcely ten minutes after his rem0y-
al from the ruins
To add to the misfortune of their death,
each of these men left behind hrg0 fanl-
| lies, wholly dependent on him for support.
| Thomas Fox one of the killed, was the
father of six children and the husband of O
wife. who survives him. William Fitzgib-
bons, q second, loaves wife and five chill
dren. The family of William Ross. third,
consists of his widow and six children, and
that of James Turner, the fourth, widows
and seven children.
As to tho immediate cause of the acci
dent, host of theories prevail. There can
be no doubt, however, that the building
was, owing 10 its position, an unsafe One
This was the opinion which prevailed
among tho men engaged IN the mine. and
so strongly did they hold il that for many
days they had refused to work undor it
Insecure as it WAS, the rains of Tuesday
and Wednesday made it doubly so. These
moistened the ground on which it stood il
part, and penetrated downward the side o
the cut against which the props rested. L
il the generally prevalent opinion. howey
er, that these rains hestened but by two o.
three days the catastrophe of Friday morn
ing.
| A deep-seated feeling of sorrow pervadei
the res. tents of Sparta; but is not unmixet
with feeling of indignation that the build
ing should over have been erected, or j
erected, ever been allowed to stand.