Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1884-02-16
CINCINNATI.
The First Serious Loss of Life - The
River Falling.

| CINCINNATI, February 15.-About 8 40
| O'Clock this morning fire-alarm was
| sounded from the box at Ludlow and
/ Pearl streets, where the water surrounds
| the houses. When the engines reached
the place it was discovered that the rear
part OF two brick buildings on the south
| side of Pearl, near Ludlow street, had
! fallen, and ten persons were buried in the
ruins or drowned. The occupants in the
front portion had given the alarm, and
before the real cause could be ascertained
| tire-alarm had sounded. The tiremen,
| in conjunction with the police, used su-
perhuman efforts to rescue the living and
dead. The buildings were occupied as
clearinghouse, and had twenty to thirty
| occupants The living were soon brought
out Four members of a family named
Burke, Mr.. and Mrs. Golfer, Maud Ellis.
Lydia Ellis, Willie Kyle and another
name notf2known, are supposed to be
crushed or drowned. Mrs. Webb, an oc-
cupant of u room in the part that fell, was
awakened by the cracking of the walls,
and tried to awaken the others, but fell
with the ruins, and yet escaped without
injury.
Later.-The buildings that fell this mora
ing were occupied as boardinghouscs by
Robert Kyle and George Oyster. There
were about thirty-tive people in the build
ings at the time. The following are known
to have been killed, either by falling tim
bers or drowning: John w. Kyle, son of
the proprietor Libby Golfer, Maud Ellis,
James Ogden, Barney Winkler, Mrs.
Winkler, Thomas Buck, Mrs. Lena Buck
and two children, William and Louis
Buck, making ten lives so far known to
have been lost. The rescued women were
conveyed in police-wagon to the fire en-
ginehouse in the vicinity, where they were
made comfortable by the firemen. Mrs
Kyle, whose son was lost in the ruins, was
inconsolable. She imagined her boy was
alive and struggling for his freedom. Then
she gave him up for lost, and her agony
was heartrending. Mrs. Webb, who occu-
pied a room in the part that fell, says she
could not sleep for the cracking of the
walls. She thought first it was the paper af-
fected by the water, but afterward supposed
it something worse. Il got up at last,n
she said, "and awakened Mary Golfer and
told her we must get out, something was
going to happen. l went to the door of
the next room, where Maud Ellis was
sleeping, and tried to awaken her. Then
| called Mary Golfer again to hurry. She
was sitting on the bed. l was near the
door. / felt the house going. l could
have stepped through the door to the front
part, but | turned to get Mary. | couldn't
see, and l felt all around for her, and then
we all went down together. / do not know
how ! escaped, but l crawled out and
screamed" This was told between sobs
as the poor woman bemoaned her room
mate, Mary Golfer, and the girl Maud
Ellis.
Occupants of the house say they called
the attention of the owner last summer to
the weakness Of the rear wall, but it was
not repaired. One of them thinks the
wooden Intel over the rear cellar door
broke by the effect of the water, and so let
the rear wall down. The body of Thos
Burke was recovered shortly before noon.
1t was crushed fearfully. The accident
has spread terror among the occupants of
similar old buildings in the flooded dis
trict, and many who can do so are getting
out 10 safer quarters.
BY confusion of names the report was
current that two additional bodies had
been found, making the total number of
victims twelve. 1t was afterward learned
that the two people hitherto called
Winkler in the reports were Mr.. and Mrs.
Woenker. This leaves the total num-
Der OF victims, so far as known, ten. The
body OF Maud Ellis was recovered. The
body of another woman was found fast
under the partition wall, but owing to the
danger OF other walls falling, further
search was abandoned till the water falls.
The disaster is increased in horror by
the discovery of two more dead bodies not
hitherto known TO have been among the
victims. Mr.. and Mrs. Walkmeir have
been taken from the ruins, and identified
The search is still in progress for others.
3 O'Clock 4. N.-River seventy feet four
cold. River falling all the way above very