Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1874-07-03
The Syracuse Horror.

A SYRACUSE On. " dispatch of june
"A gives the following particulars of the
recent accident in that place caused by
the giving way of the Central Baptist
Church building, in which a festival was
being held:
The list of killed numbers thirteen The
number of wounded foots up 100 OF
whom twenty are seriously injured.
The occasion of the gathering last
night was 1t festival given by the ladies
of the church, and concert by The
Little Old Folks" At the rear of the
church are Sunday rooms, occu-
pying the first floor, and the church
parlors, occupying the second floor
| This part of the edifice was in
use for the festival and concert. AT
| the time of the accident supper was
| being served in the central parlor, which
| had been prepared for the occasion with
| tables, etc. This room, which was forty
| feet square, was filled with people, the
session-room below being deserted save
| by few persons. The number in the
| supper-room is variously estimated at
from $50 to 500, mostly grown persons.
AT the time the floor gave way the chill
| dren of the congregation were in one of
| the ante-rooms being prepared for the
u
| the list of dead must have been very
much larger, as many of the helpless
| little ones would have been crushed to
death in the mass of humanity crowded
into the "V" shaped vortex formed by
the falling timbers. At the moment of
the falling of the floor the scene within
the parlors was one of happy en-
joyment While all were pleasantly
| engaged, without a single sign of
warming, the floor suddenly sank
beneath them, and in an instant all were
buried in a mass of struggling humanity,
intermiXed with falling timbers, furniture
etc, and in utter darkness, the gas hav-
ing been extinguisaed by the breaking of
the gas pipes. An instant after the fear
full descent had been made, all was silent
as the grave, but Immediately after heart
rending appeals for help were to be
heard from hundreds of those who we're
in agony. Immediately after persons
were seen issuing from the doors and
windows, which were smashed out by
frightened people, and an alarm was
sounded. The uninjured within th'
church who were able to free thems elves
from the mass began at once to ass lst IL
rescuing others. The iremen and police
were quickly at hand, and labored nobly
| in the work of rescue.
| The scene within the building was ter
rible in its details, and that without th'
| edifce heart-rending indeed. Father
and mothers searching for their children
hus bands looking for wives, wives in
quiring for husbands, brothers for sis
ters, and children for their parents, Q
| whose fate all were uncertain ana II
dread. Quickly and rapidly the work O
extricating the people was carried on BY
aid of lanterns. AS fast as the liyins
and dead were rescued they were passed
out through the windows and doors
where ready hands assisted to conve.
the dangerously injured and dead to th'
physicians offices and neighborins
houses.
The excitement without the churcl
was terrible, and as the bodies were beins
carried to adjoining houses the mas
surged back and forth, all terribly anxious
to ascertain who they were and whethel
dead or alive. At the height of the ex
citement not less than 10000 people were
crowded into Montgomery and Jefferson
streets and in adjoining premises.
The floor which fell was suspended 10y
iron rods from wooden truss under tht
roof These rods went through the lower
but not through the upper chord of the
truss. The lower chord had been spliceC
the wrong side up, and that side
was the first to give way. The floor
having no props beneath it, sunk in the
form of a letter V. The most of the
deaths were caused by falling timbers O
the truss; some, however, were smoth
cred by plastering The floors of the
church were supported originally by tht
pillars A short time ago the Churcl
Building Committee, with the consent, a.
they say, of the architect, removed the
iron pillars The truss was very imper
fectly constructed, besides being spliced
The most prominent builders in the city
declare that it was rotten. 1t was put il
green, and has the dry rot.