Omaha daily bee., 1890-05-09
TEN IDIOTS INCINERATED.
Burned to Death in New York County
Poor House.
CAUGHT FROM A PATIENTS PIPE
An Old Woman Sets Herself and the
Institution on Fire-Almost rs
Bad as the Tongue Pointe
Horror.

UTICA, N. Y, May S-A large portion OF the
Chenango county buildings, located ut Pres
ton, near Norwich burned at midnight last
night and ten inmates, possibly more, were
burned. The buildings destroyed were an
asylum, in which were about eighty inmates
and paupcr house and idiot ward in which
were forty inmates.
Both were three-story wooden buildings in
good repair, having wings of two stories in
height. They were valued Mt $4,000; ina
surcd for $4,000, and are 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 from
smouldering sparks of slight fire which oo-
CURED Wednesday afternoon.
Deborah Dibbe, a fceble-mindcd old
woman, was smoking pipe and set her cloth
ing and bedding on fire and was burned fa-
tally before the flames could be eNtinguished.
Her corpse was buried last night.
1t is supposed the fire started from some
undiscovered smouldering sparks from this
event. The keeper was awakened by the
paupers and attempted to release the idiots}
but were driven back by the fire, He then
ran through the other buildings in his night
clothes rcscuing the inmates. Some of them
escaped and took to the woods, where the
sheriff and deputies are hunting for them to-
day.
The names of nine idiots who were burned
are:
Sarah Mills, Sarah Gallagher, Arvilla At
wood, Sarah Bailey, Laura Gray, Deborah
Dibble, Mary o. Daniels, Almeda Austin,
Adelia Benedict
Keeper Mainwaring rescued several at the
peril of his life.
=, ~,
and the horrors of Tongue Pointe We're re-
enacted on smaller scale. The demented
and terror stricken inmates wandered
around the burning piles in hopeless
manner. The great wooden buildings
lit up the hills for miles around. A buclSet
brigade was formed and about II hundred la
bored to save the smaller buildings in the
rear
NORWICH, n. V, May S.-The excitement
over the destruction of the poor house and
county insane asylum this mornings intense.
All who had friends among the unfortunateS
eagerly sought information of their fate
Preston is six miles from any railroad
and procession of all sorts of vehicles
has been going there all day. The smoke
and stencil from the holocaust is perceptblo
here. AT the scene of the disaster the stencil
was sickening. The idiots were locked in
and roasted like beasts.
Keeper Mainwaring said: "On opening
the door leading from the hall to the idiot de-
partment was thunderstrucll to see the in.
terror mass of flames. attempted to res
cue the poor inmates, who We're all securely
shut in their cells as usual, but was driven
back by the heat and smoke. | saw
that the idiots We're doomed and moth
ing could save them. l 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 yards and fields. There
were inmates in the idiot asylum and they
must have been overcome by the heat, for 1
heard nothing from them and they were
roasted like pigsn
Coroner Fernald of this place went to Pres
ton and ordered the removal of the charred
and blackened remains in the ruins. Buckets
of waterwerc dashedu upon them, and AT length
roasted trunks were pulled out and laId upon
the grass. All were burned beyond recog-
milton. In some instances remains were re-
moved with shovels, nothing but n skull or
few bones giving any indications that they
were once human beings.