Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1870-06-01
TERRIBLE CATASTROPHE.
Three Men KilIed-Tvo Others b2re.
ly Escape with their Lives.
From the Pittsburgh Post, May ID.

| ly Escape with their Lives.
! From the Pittsburgh Post, May ID.
| Last evening, about six o'clock, mos
horrible accident occurred in Ormsby
borough, just beyond the limits of Eas
Birmingham, by which three men lost
their lives, and two others barely escaped
similar fate. The accident occurred or
the premises of Matthias Wilhelm, Sr., who
keeps boarding house on Carson street,
| Ormsby borough, between Ihmsen and Nc
Clurg streets, about square beyond the
passenger railway depot. Mr.. Wilhelm
had for some time been engaged in digging
a well to be used as privy vault. which
he completed yesterday. The new vault
is contiguous to one that has been in use
for many years, and separated therefrom
some eighteen inches. It is supposed he
went down into the new vault about 6
o'clock last evening, for the purpose OF
tapping the old one. This he did, and
while trying to make his escape up an or
dinary rung ladder, was suffocated by the
mephtic gas, and fell back into the rapidly
filling cesspoo1.
Mrs. Wilhelm happened to notice the &C
cident within a moment of its occurrence,
and raised the neighborhood with her
screams. Her son, Matthews Wilhelm, Jr !,
was the first to reach the place, and started
down the ladder to rescue his father. The
moment he reached the same place on the
ladder from which his father had fallen,-
about eight feet from the bottom of the
vault,-he seemed to lose all physical pow
or. and fell headlong into the reeking abyss
of death below.
By this time large number of people
had gathered to the spot, attracted by the
cries of the women and children in the
neighborhood. Mr.. James Mooney, who
kept saloon on the opposite side of the
street, started down the ladder to rescue
the two Wilhelms, and he in turn was suf-
focated and fell from the ladder, and of
course lost his life. AS the crowd increased,
everyone seemed anxious to rescue those
who were in the deadly vault below.
The next man to go down was Richard
Mackey, who, when he reached the fatal
rung, fell like the other three, but FORUM
ately lodged between the ladder and the
wall and was rescued, although life was
seemingly extinct, and it was almost an
hour before he was restored to conscious
ness. In efecting his rescue he received
very serious wound in the right thigh, in
ficted by the grapnels that were used, as
well as several very severe wounds in the
back by the fall. And yet another was
willing to risk his life in this case of life
and death. Patrick Harvey, an old man in
the family of Mooney, the saloon-keeper,
first taking the precaution of having a rope
tied around his waist, descended into the
gulf of death, and was drawn up, FORUM
ately, in time to save his life-but only in
time. He was able to be about at 10 o'clock
last night. Mackey, it is thought, will re-
cover.
The deceased were drawn out of the
vault at about half-past o'clock last night
with grappling-irons, and their remains
properly prepared for interment, and re-
moved to their respective homes, where
they await the action of the coroner this
morning.
The elder Wilhelm was about SIS years
of age and is survived by his wife and four
children.
His son Matthias was aged about "a years,
and was unmarried.
Mooney was a married man, aged about
80 years, and leaves -wifa- and two child.
The scene last night, when our reporter
visited Ormsby, was indescribable. Groups
Of terror-stricken women standing about
the corners talking in whispers and point
ing in the direction of the fatal spot, the
harsher voices of men and officers who had
charge of the solemn task of performing
the duties of humanity for the victims Of
the sad catastrophe, and over all the sbrill,
sharp wall of women and children weeping
over the dead, was enough to touch heart
of stone, and make it quicken with the
pulses of tho tonderest humanity.
A solemn awe seemed to have fallen over
the district, Houses of entertainment
were closed, and the whole community
thereabouts seemed to realize that the
angel of death had overShadowed them
with sudden swoop of his sable wing.
Mr. Wilhelm, the wife and mother of two
of the deceased, was wholly distracted and
her wild cries and rawlings were enough to
curdle the blood of the bravest heart. Mrs.
Mooney was but little better, while the
cries of her two little children, one clasp
ing her about she neck, and the other
clinging to the skirts of her dress, in the
presence of their dead father, was a scene
no one would desire to witness twice in q
lifetime.
When the two Wilhelms were brought to
the surface with the graphing irons, the
father was clasped in the arms of his son,
showing that the ruling passion is indeed
strong in death. Dropping as young Will
helm did under the influence Of asphyxia
into the fatal vault, his last and only desire
seemed to be, as it was, the rescue of his
parent and he clasped him with that in
tent in the last throes of death.