The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1885-06-10
BURIED IN THE RUINS.
Fall of a Tenement House in
Jersey City.
Four Children Killed and Ten
Persons Injured.

The sudden collapse of frame rookery on
Colgat, street, Jersey City, n. j., buried i'll
its ruins six families, numbering in all twenty
seven persons. Four of the inmates were
taken out dead, and number of those who
escaped death were badly bruised, and one
Of them seriously so. The house was n
threestory structure, built sixteen years ago
ard owned and partly occupied by James An.
Gerson, a baker in the Hudson county peni
tentiary.
It's foundation, consisting Of only few
beams, was laid on the earth. Half a
block from that place the trains Of the
Pennsylvania railroad rattle along high
trestlework. and jar all tho buildings The
occupants of Anderson's building felt the noise
more than the others. but they had be-
come so used to it that when Hugh McGurty,
who, with his wife and five children, occu-
pied half Of the third story. jumped out of
bel and found the building rocking he paid
no attention to it.
A moment later he heard n cracking sound,
and before he could cry out TO alarm his wife
and chill lren the walls parted, and the next
thing he remembered was being dragged ont
from under mass OF timbers, plaster and
furniture Men and women were climb
ing over the mass Of broken tim
berS. When he got out he went to
work TO extricate his wife and chill
drcn. who lay near him in the wreck. At
the time the building fell there were in the
street men and women hurrying to work in
the neighborng factories. Those who were
in the vicinity say tho only indication Of
collapse was a sudden quivering of the
framework. The clouds of dust which arose
prevented those in the street from knowing
at once the cause of the disaster, but the
cries of those pinned beneath the wreck led
them to the rescue. An alarm was wrung
from the fire box and the fremen, who were
soon joined by the police, worked earnestly to
reached the place after the building fell was
Mrs Anderson, the wife of the owner. She
had gone out to purchase groceries, and had
left her five children behind her. She ran
back to find her home in ruins. When one
after another of her children was carried out
Of the debris dead, she became crazed, and
the police found it impossible to control her
Word had been te.ephoned to MIR. An
derson at the penitentiery on Snake
Hill and he reached the place an hour
after the house had fallen. He stun
Hill supply wagon, which carried him down.
and was making his way like blind man
through the throng, when his vito fell upon
his neck. His first question was "Wheres
my baby!" ooh, they're dead! They're all
dead!" his wife cried. Her husband ran
hand in hand with her to where on the side
walk, lay the bodies of their three children.
They had just been dug out of the ruins.
The next body taken out wes that of Michael
Webb, Jr., seventeen years old. His head
had been crushed in by timber and his skull
was broken. Ambulances were called, but
after the recovery Of the four bodies referred
to no one was found whose removal to hos
pital was deemed necessary.
The names Of the dead are: Mamie Ander.
son, aged months; Ella Anderson, aged s
years; Bernard Anderson, aged 10 years;
Michael Webb. Jr., aged II.
The injured inmates who were cared for
by neighbors or who went to hospitals are:
John Coyne, life insurance agent, aged SO,
badly bruised and cut about the head and
body; Patrick Coyne, aged IL, injured about
the face and scalp: Julia Coyne, aged 9, both
ankles broken; Mary CQyne, aged II, injured
about the back and shoulders; Bridget
Coyne, aged 80. several ribs broken; Hugh
McGurty, a moulder, left side Of face badly
injured; Mary Ann McGurty, several ribs
broken; Maggie Anderson. cut about the
head and one leg broken; Julia Carlin, aged
s, bruised about the body; Lizzie Eussey,
aged 26, of New York, who was visiting Mrs.
Anderson, hurt about the head and body.