The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1876-07-27
DEATH IN A JIMEKILN.
Terrible Fate OF Tive children mud a
'IIIH y Womnn In penus-Iv anin.

Terrible Fate or TIVE children mud
UIt Woman In Penus-Iv anin. . d.
John Il. Cameron lives on farm one
mile from Pottsville, Pa. He has q
limekiln q quarter OF mile from his
house, near tho main road. He started
a fire init and went away to his work in
bayfield,. Two Of his children, 6 boy
nine years old and girl aged Eve, were
playing about the kiln. Over the mouth
of the kiln is windlass by which q
large bucket is lowered TO the bottom.
| The Oldest OF the two children thought
il would be nice TO ride his little sister
up and down in the bucket. She clam
bered in, and he let her down into the
pit. The fire had by that time got under
good headway, and the stone was be-
coming heated and emitting poisonous
gas.
The little girl screamed TO come up,
and her brother tried to pull up the
bucket, but could not start it. After
several attempts he started on q run for
home, where he told his mother and
grandmother, who were alone in the
house, the situation as above. The two
women ran to the kiln. Mrs. Cameron
saw her child lying on the bottom. She
had fallen out OF the bucket, being over
powered by the gas. Thinking that the
child might be restored il taken ont mt
once, Mrs. Cameron drew the bucket up.
She placed her little boy in it, and telling
him to place the body of his little sister
in it as quickly as possible, and get
back into il himself, she lowered him
into the noxious pit. The little fellow
succeeded in placing the body in the
bucket, and, clinging TO the side of it
himself, was drawn few feet upward,
when he succumbed to the influence of
the gas and fell back unconscious to the
bottom.
Mrs. Cameron drew the body of her
little girl to the top and hastily removed
it from the bucket and placed it on the
! ground. She then gave the crank OF
tue windlass toher mother-in-law, o lady
nearly seventy years old, and told her
to lower her quickly into the pit to the
rescue of her other child. She then
got into the bucket. Her weight was
more than old Mrs. Cameron could con.
troll, and the crank slipped from hel
hands, and whirling round, struck hel
on the head and knocked her senseless
to the ground. Her daughter in-law
was hurled violently to the bottom oi
the kiln, and no doubt rendered uncon
scious before the gas affected ber.
The Pottsville stage came along about
the time Mrs. Cameron was precipitated
,, into the kiln. John Kane, the driver
seeing the bleeding body of the ole
lady, and the apparently lifeless body o.
the little girl, stopped the stage ant
! jumped out. he discovered the bodies
of the other two in the kiln. Calling {
gentleman in the stage to his aid, ht
went down into the kiln by means o
the windlass rope, and placed the bod,
of Mrs. Cameron in the bucket. 1t wa
drawn up, and the bucket lowered
Kane succeeded in getting into thu
bucket with the boys body, but became
unconscious soon afterward, and wa
taken from the bucket in that state.
was some time before he was restored
Old Mrs. Cameron was brought t.
consciousness in a short time, he
wounds not being serious. Her daugh
ter-in-law and the two children wer
dead. AS soon as Kane recovered suffi
GENTLY, the three bodies were placed il
!, the stage and taken home, and MI
i Cameron summoned from his work
> Mrs. Cameron was tbirtyfive years old
This makes ten deaths that have occurre
$ under similar circumstances at this Kill
during the past seven years.