The weekly Oskaloosa herald. [volume] (Oskaloosa, Iowa) 1855-1885, 1877-01-11
are no remains can ever be identified.

are no remains can ever be identified.
The three charred, shapeless lumpsre-
covered up to noon to-day are beyond
all hope of recognition. Old or
young, male or female, black or
white, no man can tell. They are
alike in the crucible of death. For
the rest there are piles OF white ashes
in which glisten the crumbling par
ticles of calcined bones. In other
places masses of black, charred de-
bris, half under water, which may
contain fragments of bodies, but
nothing of human substance. 1t is
thought there may be few corpses
under the ice, as there were women
and children who sprang into the
water and SANK but none have been
thus far recovered.
Tho usual plain, deadly looking
pine boxes were laid upon the floor
TO the number Of couple of dozen,
and in them lay things which at
first sight looked like heaps of half.
decayed offal or charred stumps of
trees. These | was informed were
the remains Of the least destroyed of
the victims. A few specimens will
suffice for all. The form of medi-
um sized man, apparently young,
well dressed His lower person,
having been under water, was unin-
iured. In box numbered Is lay u
heap of rags and bones, plump leg
with white hose and red garter. The
foot, being cut off, cleaned ghastly
from the narrow hoops ofa pull-back,
while the companion limb was hid
den by rubbish, revealing, however,
q we'll formed and we'll booted foot.
The upper portion was wholly
gone. This, paper slip pinned on
the remains informed me, was ali
that was left Miss Lucy g. Thomas,
No. 419 South Division street, Buff
alo. Letters found on her pocket
led to her Identification. In box %
lay shapeless trunk, the head burn
ed to skeleton and two upper teeth
showing prominently. A long gold
chain, all discolored from the fire,
encircled the withered bust. at is
my sister-in-law exclaimed an awe
stricken man from Milwauk ee.
"There's her chain and locket, and l
could tell her teeth anywhere. She
always showed them when she smil-
ed" He showed me a picture of
handsome woman under 30, lady
in every feature, "Ihat was she,"
said the poor fellow; "good God,"
and he turned away crying. Subse-
quent inquiry revealed the name,
Mrs. l.. Il. Palmer, Binghampton, N.
Y, who was going to visit her rela-
tives. I'll wear that's my brothers
overcoat !" exclaimed Charles Picker
ing, of Chicago. "This horrid mass
must be his body, but where is my
beautiful boy? Oh, my poor wife !.
What will she do" Up to the pres
ent, Mr.. Pickering, whose only son,
aged six years, perished with his
brother, has been unable to find any
of either victim. Near by lay the
bloated, headless trunk of a stout
woman, identified as Mrs. Searie, of
Cleveland. Her grandchild, Matte,
also much disfigured, lay in little
box beside her. Then l observed
two finely dressed gentlemen hand
ling the relics of what had been a
stout man. Everything above the
waist was gone, but one leg remained
intact, showing the remnants of doe
skin pantaloons, a crossed-barred Ii
ming, knit drawers, and a tongued
boot with morocco leather tops?
care you from the press ?" they in
ouired. eyes" "Then please an
nounce that we believe this to be all
that is left of the Rev. DR.. Wash
burne, of Cleveland" They showed
me the picture. 1t was that of a no.
; ble-looking-man, middle-aged, grey
bearded. His picture bore no shadow
of doom so sudden andaso awful.
Two men, only partially burned,
both good looking even in death,
their lips compressed in anguish, their
eye-balls bursting from their heads,
and theirhands fercely clinched, lay
side by side. l looked at the slips of
paper pinned upon them and read,
aL. w. Hart, Akron; L. G. Grain,
with Joyce & Co, New York" An
other pile Of loathsone rubbish,
dreadful to contemplate, lay near the
foregoing. A lot of burned rags of
the material worn bG women alone
T proclaimed the sex. She is supposed
to be Mrs. F. Cook, of Wellington,
%. One of the ghastlies pictures in
the group was that Of Isaac Meyer,
of Charter street, Cleveland, who
with his little daughter Birdie lay
dead close together, both awfully,
but fairly recognizable. The little
one must have been very pretty,
Her arms were drawn up as in the
act of suffocation, as were those OF
her father, while the roasted brains
of both bulged from their nostrils
and eye-sockets. A pair of hands
torn off in the act of taking his body
from the ruins lay between Meyers
legs. There were other corpses, OIL
pieces of corpses, quite as revolving
in aspect but why prolong this
chapter of horrors, which cannot be
cheerful reading on New Years
f morning? 1t is horrible to think
what loving sentiments and high
hopes these olackened frames cher
ished a few hours since. Such scenes
are enough to cloud the time-honored
holiday of all christians.