The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1885-06-05
BURIED IN THE RUINS.
Fall of a Tenement House i'm
Jersey City.
-Four Children Killed and Ten
Persons Injured,

The sudden collapse of frame rookery on
Colgate street, Jersey City, N. j., buried in
its ruins six families, numbering in all twenty
seven persons Four of the inmates wero
taken out dead, and number of those who
escaped death were badly bruised, and one
of them seriously so. The house was q
three-story structure, built sixteen years ago
and owned and partly occupied by James An
derson, a baker in the Hudson county peni'
tertiary
Its foundation, consisting of only few
beams, was laid on the earth Half
block from that place the trains of the
pennsylvania railroad rattle along n high
trestework, and jar all the 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
bed and found the building rocking, he paid
no attention to it.
a moment later he heard cracking sound.
and before he could cry out to alarm his wife
and children the walls parted, and the next
thing he remembered was being dragged out
from under mass of timbers, plaster and
FURNITURE. Men and women were climb
ing over the mass of broken tim
oers; When he got out he went to
work to extricate his wife and chill
dren. 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 nelghboring factories. Those who were
in the vicinity say the only indication of a
collapse was 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 wrunp
from the fire box and the firemen, who were
soon Joined by the police, worked earnestly to
get out the injured Among the first who
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 1T impossible to control her
Word had been te.ephoned to Mr.. An
derson at the penitentiery on Snake
Hill, and he reached the place an hour
after the house had fallen He stun
bled rather than jumped out of the Snake
Hill supply wagon, which carried him down.
and was making his way like a blind man
throug h the throng, when his wife fell upon
his neck. His first question was "Where's
my baby" "Oh, they're dead They're all
dead! his wife cried. Her husband ran
hand in hand with her to where on the side
They had just been dug out of the ruins.
The next body taken out was that of Michael
Webb, Jr., seventeen Years old His head
had been crushed in by a 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 n hos
pita was deemed necessary
The names of the dead are: Mamie Amber
son, aged months Ella Anderson. aged 5
years; Bernard Anderson, aged IL 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 81.
badly bruised and cut about the head and
body; Patrick Coyne, aged 10, injured about
the face and scalp; Julia Coyne aged ., both
ankles broken; Mary Coyne, aged Il, injured
about the back and shoulders: Bridget
Coyne, aged b, several ribs broken; Hugh
McGurty, mouder, left side of face badly
injured; Mary Ann McGurty, several ribs
broken; Maggie Anderson. cut about the
head and one leg broken: Julia Carlin. aced
8. bruised about the body; Lizzie Hussey,
aged 20, of New York, who was visiting Mrs
Anderson, hurt about the head and body.