St. Paul daily globe., 1888-05-05
None Of the Family Alive to
Relate How the Tragedy
Occurred.
No Marks of Violence Visible,
But Foul Play Is Sus-
peeted.
A Teacher and Her Scholars
Narrowly Escape Death
by Lightning.
Special to the Globe.

Special to the Globe.
ARLINGTON, Neb.. May A large
barn on the farm of Mr.. Freese, about
mile from here, burned between 6 and
o'clock this morning, and the dead
his wife and three children and his
brother Louis were found among the
ruins. So far as known there was no
person present other than these
seven who lost their lives. Shortly
after o'clock this morning smoke was
seen issuing from the FreeSe farm. AS
old straw and hay stacks are being
burned off quite extensively in the sur
rounding country, no attention was paid
to it at first. After the fire burned for
some time, however. the, color of the
smoke changed from grayish shade.
such as comes from burning hay or
straw, to dark blue, and large sparks
were carried toward Arlington and fell
in the streets. Upon examination these
were found to be
CHARRED WOOD.
There was now no room for doubt that
either the Freese dwelling, the barn OF
some of the outhouses on the place were
burning, and loading a wagon with
buckets, axes and ladders, number of
citizens haStened toward the farm.
When within short distance of the
place, which is partially hid from the
view of one looking from Arlington,
they saw that the barn was burning, but
was so far gone that it was useless to
attempt to save it. The south end of
the building, which was a large two
story structure, had already fallen in
and the rest of it fell in shortly before
the men arrived. When they reached
the fire neither Fred Gratetuschen, Mrs.
Freese, the Son-in-law, the hired
man nor any of the family were in
sight. Two men went to the house.
They found all the doors wide open and
everything in disorder, as if the occu-
pants had left in very great hurry.
This fact seemed to destroy the force OF
a suggestion of some of the men that
the family might have gone to some
neighboring farm house the night be-
fore, and had not yet returned. All
doubt as to this supposition was soon set
at rest, however, by a horrible discovery
made by one of the men. While stirring
the debris i'll the south end of the barn
with rake, he caught one of the teeth
in a mans boot He gave it hard
pull, when to his horror he dragged out
the
DEAD BODY OF A MAN.
All the clothing was burned off and
only shred of blackened flesh clung to
the skeleton here and there. From the
size of the remains, however, they were
recognized as those of Fred Crate
luSchen. Together with his wife and
three children and his brother Louis
he lived with Mrs. FreeSe, who is q
widow, and managed the farm fey her.
After the discovery of Fred Crate
luschen all the men got rakes, hoes,
poles and whatever else they could
find and continued the search.
They were soon rewarded by discover
ing the bodies of Mrs. Grateluschen,
her three children, Louis Grateluschen
and the old lady Freeze. Both women
seemed to have been only partially
dressed. Nearly all the flesh was burned
II
hand who was employed on the place
was nowhere to be found, and after the
thorough search which has been made
it is thought hardly possible that his
body could have been among the ruins.
Owing to the fact that the bodies found
WE'RE so NEARLY CONSUMED
it is almost impossible to discover marks
of foul play, or if they were stabbed,
choked, poisoned or shot. None of the
skulls are crushed. One theory is that
the fire having been discovered too late
to save the barn, the whole family went
inside to get out the cows and horses,
of which there were some fifteen or
twenty in all, and having some trouble
in getting them out. stayed too long and
were sutfocated. The known diff
Guilty of getting horses out of
burning building, and the
fact that the body of Mrs. Grateluschen
was found under horse lends support
to this theory. A heavy rain fell yes
terday, and the ground about the barn
was very muddy. If the hired man
murdered the family in the house and
then dragged them to the barn and fired
it, he was careful to destroy all trace of
it in the mud between the buildings.
A daughter, who is away from home Oh
a visit, is the only survivor of the
family