St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-08-24
LITERALLY BEHEADED.
Fifteen Persons Instantly
Killed by an Explosion at
Neenah, Wis.,
Thirty Others Mangled and
Manned, Some of Whom
Will Die.
The Calamity Traceable to
the Bursting Of a Super
heated Bleach.
In Connection With the Ca
tastrophe a Paper Mill
Is Burned.
Special to the Globe

Special to the Globe.
NEENAH, Wis.,, Aug. ga few min
utes after IL of o'clock this morning the
paper mill of George A. Whiting in
Menasha caught fire in the boiler room,
removed from the mill. But the flames
spread thereto and burned furiously.
The fire was at its height when sudden
ly the huge rotary bleach situated in the
mill and weighing twenty tons exploded
WITH A DEAFENING CRASH.
1t shot upward few feet and then
took horizontal course, skipping along
from end to end, and alighting in the
midst of large crowd of spectators,
terribly mangling and killing outright
fifteen persons as follows:
GILBERT MERICLE, foreman ofC. r. Smiths
cooper shop, leaves wife and hve small
children.
Louis REsCH, cooper, leaves a wife and
three children.
JACOB VEDDER, cooper, leaves wife and
three children.
JOHN HOFFMAN. cooper, leaves wife and
H, KNELKE cooper, leaves wife and three
children.
MICHAEL MUNTNER, leave wife and six
children.
JOHN MoHR, cooper. single.
+. LANDoVER- employe OF Smiths pail
factory, wife and one child.
JOHN WEAVER, leaves wife and four chill
dren.
WILLIAM BUgLITz, Jr, thirteen years old.
son OF William Bublitz, leading merchant
f. SCHIFFER night watchman for the Mill
Waukee Northern railway. single.
d. EUHL, single.
JOSEPH BREUGGAN, single.
5. LIEBHAUSER, single.
THOMAS JOuRDAN.
Those badly injured and who will,
probably die are:
MYRoN FISHER, leg broken in two places,
and internal injuries.
WILL KRUsE, leg broken and afterwards
amputated.
CARL SCHIEFFER arm broken.
AUGUST HECKNER. head injured.
JoT-N ScHMITzER, side injured.
bruised badly.
About twenty-five others, men, women
and boys were also injured by being hit
by missiles from the explosion, but no
one except those whose names are men,
toned are seriously wounded. When
the end of the bleach first struck the
ground it crushed five men, and the
sights in the wake of
THE DEATH-DEALING MONSTER
were terrible to behold. Arms, legs and
heads wre scattered about and one man
crushed almost beyond recognition was
AOuIo ~ VIZ oOP iloJ 4OOU llODl GilO
mill. Those who were killed and in-
jured were standing east of the mill, on
tramway, and were struck by the ro-
tary in its fight. The rotary boiler was
filled with bleach and water The dead
were all picked up, most of them being
close together, the heads of all being
nearly severed from the trunks, and
were taken to the city hall, which was
converted into mOrgue, and undertake
ers fixed the bodies up as well as posi-
BILE and placed them in caSketS. Each
body was then turned over to its rela-
tives. The fire caught in the boiler
room, IN large quantity of fuel. shay
ings, etc. The fireman, Peter Nelson,
had been out during the evening and a
friend had worked for him. About IL
o'clock he went from his post to get a
drink of water, and in looking back into
the boiler room found flames among the
piles of shavings. Before he could get
hose, or pull the whistle to give the
alarm, the flames rushed through the
room and drove him out. When the de-
partment arrived and began playing
upon the fire
THE MILL WAS DOOMED.
The cause of the awful calamity is
traced directly to the iron bleach. This
was full of steam and rags and had be-
come superheated. When the cold
water from the fire engines struck it,
the explosion followed instantly.
The destroyed mill was built by Will
lam Gilbert, of Chicago, and George A.
Whiting, of Neenah, in 1882. The
members of the firm had business diff
ferences and dissolved about two years
ago, Gilbert retiring.
A coroner's jury was impanneled, and
rendered verdict in each case of acci-
dental death. All of the killed will be
buried at the city's expense, as they are
all in poor circumstances, and some of
the families of the killed
ARE ALMOST DESTITUTE.
Mayor Lawson has appointed a COM
mittee to solicit aid for the families of
the killed, and already good deal of
money has been subscribed. Every
factory in the city is closed to-day, and
will remain SO till after the burials.
Flags are at half mast on all the public
buildings. The financial loss to the
mill property is 100000, on which an
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