St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-05-10
SWIFT AND FATAL FALL.
An Elevator at Hamm's Brewery Be-
comes Unmanageable
AND TWO MEN ARE KILLED,
A Third Seriously Injured--The Acct
dent Due to the Mems Own
Carelessness.

Two employees at Hamm's brewery
were killed yesterday by the falling of
an elevator, while third was seriously
injured. A few minutes before s
O'Clock Joseph Grobner and John Fart
were on an elevator between the ice
house and malt house, taking ice from
the upper story of the latter building to
the basement of the malt house. Charles
Miller was just below Oh a scaffolding,
assisting them. From all that can be
learned of the accident, the men had
pushed large block of ice
over the elevator floor on to the
scaffold below where Miller was
working. Grobner and Fart started to
go down On the elevator In its de-
scent it struck the piece of ice over
hanging from the Scaffold to ele-
vator shaft. The elevator caught and
Miller attempted to pull the block cut
of the way. By the time he had sue
ceeded in doing this, some twenty feet
OF the cable had become unwound from
from the drum, the men in their excite
ment forgetting to stop the machinery,
and as the block of ice gave way the
elevator fell. The slack of the rope
was taken up instantly, the terrible
momentum wrenched the drum from
its faStenings, and the three
men were precipitated fully sixty feet
to the bottom of the shaft. Down came
the heavy drum, crashing upon them,
and Joseph Grobner and Charles Miller
were instantly killed. 1t is almost a
miracle that Fart escaped, but the drum
only struck his feet, breaking his leg in
two places and fracturing his arm.
The load on the elevator was not eX-
ceSSive, it being made strong enough to
hold twice the weight of ice that could
be placed on it. At the time of the acct
dent it had On it some 500 pounds of
ice and the three men. The cable held
against the accident, but three of the
overhead timbers, 3x12 inches and
five feet long, were broken. As
these timbers would withstand a
strain of six or seven tons it will be
seen what a fearful momentum the load
must have gained III its fall. Joseph
Grabner, one of the men killed, was a
married man, living at SO Case street.
Charles Miller, the other, was single
man, living at the brewery, where he
had been but a short time. He has no
relatives i'll the city. Matt Fart, the in
lured man. has wife and two children
living on DIinnehaha street. He was
fered from two severe flesh wounds i'll
the side, besides the fractures men
toned. His condition is serious, but
unless he has some internal injuries he
will recover.
AN INQUEST.
AT o'clock last hight Coroner Quinn
held an inquest at the brewery, impan-
neling &. Shepherd, o. Tankerhoff, p.
Hauser, G. T. Pitt, E. Magnuson ana j.
Q. Haas as jurors. The witnesses exam
ined bore out the general statement
made above. John Rieling, Matt Letter,
Michael Bortenschlager and Albert
K0ehler were called upon and ali agreed
that there would have been no accident
if the ice had not been pushed over the
platform falling in the way of the de-
scending elevator. Joseph Gable, the
millwright who put in the elevator, test
fled that it was an ordinary one which
had been used for six Or seven years in
another building and recently moved to
the space between the ice house and
malt house. 1t ran seventy-five feet in
two minutes, and had never. to his
knowledge, got out of order. The jury,
after hearing the evidence, retired and
shortly returned verdict that the men
killed were victims of their own care
lesSnesS in running the elevator.