Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-01-10
DRAWN INTO THE QUlCKSAND.
Collapse Of q Caisson at Louisville
With Great Loss Of Life.

One Of the most frightful disasters Of recent
times occurred last night at Louisville. A new
bridge is being built between that city and
Jacksonville, Ind. At pm, just as the men
were to come up out Of the caissons, there was
a crash at caisson No. II and fourteen men
we're engulfed in the waters Of the river.
The caisson known No. Ii was about one
hundred yards from the Kentucky shore. As
the workmen Of the pumping station were
looking for the men in the caisson to put off in
their boats, leaving work for the night they
suddenly saw the low, dark structure disap-
pear in dashing white waves and heard,
before they could realize what had happened,
the roar of the furious maelstrom. A runner
was dispatched to the life-saving station and
three skiffs were manned and pulled to the
scene OF the wreck. = Word was sent to the
police station and squad was at once ordered
to the ground to aid in the work OF recovery.
The coroner was called and went with q corps
Of physicians.
The site of the bridge is at the upper end of
the city, just below Tow Head Island. Within
an hour from the Disappearance of the caisson
5000 people were on the shore and strained
their eyes trying to see something of the
wreckage. Dozens of boats were plying about
over the spot where the caisson had stood and
lights danced to and fro with them, but there
was no trace of the massive structure of stone
and timber which had kept off the hungry
river to promise any hope to the anguish
stricken mothers and wives who stood in the
throng on the shore. The water rolled sui
leny, but smoothly down from the Golfer dam
above the pumping barge below where the
calssOn had stood. 1t was soon known that
only four Of the eighteen men who were at
work at that time had escaped. The bridge Of
ticials ordered the reporters of the pumping
barge and made it difficult as possible to get
information.
Corrected reports from the scene of the ac-
cident show the following list of killed: VIM
L. Haines, forty years. Louisville; John Knox,
twenty-eight years; James McAdams, twenty
six years, Hyde Park, Pa; Frank Mahar,
twenty-three years, native of New Jersey; Pat
Naylor, twenty-seven years, Philadelphia;
Thomas Ash, colored, thrty-eight years, Hen
derson, ky.; Monroe Bowling, colored, thirty
four years, Henderson, KY; Charles Chiles,
coiored, thirty years, Henderson, KY; Thomas
johnson, colored, thirty years, Henderson, KY. !;
James Gordon, coiored, Henderson, Ky; Ham
ilton Morris, twenty years, Henderson, KY;
Ky.i Frank Snapper, colored, twenty-five
years, Henderson, Ky; Robert Tyler, sixteen
years, Henderson, KY.
The men saved are as follows: Abe Taylor
Lewis Coche and Frank Haddox, all of Hender-
son, Ky. The last man out of the caisson was
Frank Haddox. He was barely saved by Muir
ray, who dragged him from where he was
caught waist deep in the quicksand. Taylor
says he stood nearest the iron ladder by which
they got in and out of the caisson. He heard q
rumbIing, and there was rush of air almost
ut the same instant He jumped upon the
prongs OF the ladder, followed by the other
men. They had hardly got clear of the caisson
when the water burst through the manhole in
surge. knocking them all into the river
where they were picked up. Haddox says he
saw Ham Morris, who was climbing next below
himself, swiftly drawn under by the sand and
heard his cries for help hut could do nothing.
The caisson is not wrecked. as at first sup
posed, but has settled down in the bed of the
stream completely filed with sand and water.
The pumping station is hard at work clearing
the way to the bodies, but none will be reached
tonight There seems absolutely no hope for
any Of those caught within the caisson.
John knox, the gang boss, took charge Of
the work Monday. The men who escaped say
he had them dig too deep before the caisson
settled. and the digging was too close to the
shoe of the caisson. Just before the accident
Knox gave some order to Robert Baldwin,
the keeper in charge of the upper door to the
exit baldwin then opened the door and the
compressed air, which kept out the river
rushed out letting in the stream. The men
say they were working in an ugly quicksand at
the time. The caIsson was about forty feet by
twenty and built of timbers twelve inches
square. 1t was projected by a cofferdam, but
the river is very high and the pressure Of the
water very great