Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-05-15
ROASTED LIKE PORKERS!
Maniacs and Paupers Meet Common
Lot in an Asylum.
A Ram-Shackle Building in New York
Their Cremat0ry.
Idiots See in the Wild Blazes q Balm
for Suffering.
The Inhabitants i'm Mortal Dread of
Wild Depredations.

UTICA, N. Y, May S.-A large portion
of the Chenago county buildings located
at Preston, near Norwich, burned last
night at midnight, and ten inmates. pos
sibly more, were burned. The buildings
destroyed were an asylum in which were
about eighty inmates, and pauper house
and idiot ward in which were forty in
mates Both were three story wooden
buildings in good repair, having wings
two story in height. The were valued at
S25, 900 and insured for $4,000, and are
a total loss. The horrible part of the
disaster was the burning of ten idiots who
were penned in their cells and roasted
alive. The origin of the fire was probably
the smouldering sparks of a slight fire
which occurred Wednesday afternoon.
Deborah Dibble, a feeble minded old
woman, was smoking her pipe aud set
her clothing and bedding on fire and
Burned Fatally
before the flames could be extinguished.
Her corpse was buried last night. 1t is
supposed that the fire started from some
undiscovered smouldering sparks from this
event.
The keeper was awakened by pauper
and attempted to release the idiots but
was driven back by the fire. He ran
through the other buildings in his
night clothes rescuing the inmates
The insane patients had, some of them, to
be forced out and fought against it, but all
were saved Most of them were taken to
the Methodist and Universaiist churches
until other quarters are provided. Some
escaped to the woods, where the sheriff is
hunting for them today. The names of
Nine Idiots
who burned are:
Sarah Mills,
Sarah Gallagher,
Arvilla Atwood,
Sarah Bailey,
Laura Grey,
Deborah Dibble,
Mary c. Daniels,
Almeda Austin,
Adela Benedict.
Keeper Mainwaring rescued several at
the peril of his life. The scene at the
burning was indescribable and the hor-
rors of Tongue Pointe were re-enacted on
a smaller scale. The demented and ter
ror-stricken inmates wandered around the
burning piles in hopeless manner. The
great wooden buildings lit up the hills for
miles around. A bucket brigade was
formed, and about hundred men labored
to save the smaller buildings in the rear
with success.
Friends Alarmed.
Norwich, N. Y, May 8.-The excite
ment over the destruction of the poor
house and county insane asylum this
morning was intense. All who had
friends among the unfortunates eagerly
sought information of their fate. Preston
is six miles from any railroad, and pro-
cession of all sorts of vehicles has been 60
ing there all day. The smoke and stencil
from the holocaust are perceptible
in this city, and at the scene of
the disaster the stencil was sickening. The
idiots were locked In and roasted like
beasts. Keeper Mainwarning said: On
opening the door leading from the hall to
the idiot department | was thunderstruck
to see the interior mass of flames. | at
tempted to rescue the poor inmates who
were all securely shut in their cells as
usual but was driven back by the heat and
smoke. | saw that the
Idiots Were Doomed
and nothing could save them. [ then
aroused the paupers. In some instances
the poor people were dazed and it was
necessary to carry them bodily from the
house and turn them loose in the yard and
fields. There were twelve inmates in the
idiotic asylum and they were over
come by the heat for I heard nothing
from them and they roasted like pigs"