St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-03-24
Six Meet Death in the Burn
ing Of a Boarding
House.
Construction Of the Building
Such That Escape Was
Impossible.
Victims Driven Back From
the Windows by Smoke
and Flames.
Corpses Burned to a Crisp
and DIST cured and
Slackened.

CLEVELAND, o.. March ga fire
horror unprecedented in the history or
Cleveland occurred shortly after noon
today. when five women and one child
were burned to death in an apartment
house on one of the leading residence
streets. The fire occurred at the Nor
gan, a fashionable boarding place at sos
Prospect street The building was a
three-story and basement brick struct-
ure containing fortY-five rooms, and 1T
had nearly forty inmates. Just at the
hour for luncheon. Mrs. j. Ill.
Miller, one of the boarders, dis
covered flames i'll the hall OH the second
floor. Escape by the stairway was cut
off, so Mrs. Miller jumped from a
second story window to the ground and
gave the alarm. The fire spread rapid
Is through the halls and the hundreds OF
people who congregatet on the scene
at once attempted to rescue those who
were in the building. Nobody thought
however, toIturn in a fire alarm, and 1t
was at least half an hour before 4 steam
er arrived or policeman had been sent
to the place. The utmost excitement
prevailed and it was not until the
famee had been subdued that
The Extent of the Catastrophe
was learned. AS soon as the engines
began working three car lines which
pass the building were blocked, and the
crowd grew TO thousands. Many of the
spectators assisted the fremen in trying
to rescue the persons i'll the burning
structure. and several of them were
badly burned as they were driven back
by the DANES.
The names of the dead are as follows:
Mrs. Mary f. Abbey, widow of Judge
Abbey, aged seventy-eight; Mrs. Emma
Somers, blind woman, aged forty
five; Mrs. Jessie Hunt, wife of A.
G.. Hunt. aged twenty-one. VINO was
visiting her mother, Mrs. Somers
Percy Hunt, daughter of Mrs. Hunt,
aged one year; Mrs. .G. SOmers, seventy
years, tepmother-in-law of Mrs.
Emma SOmers. The injured are Mrs.
f. l.. Clifford and Mrs. j. ii. Miller, who
were badly bruised by jumping from
second story windows. 1t seems ineon-
ceivable that a fire at such time and
place could have been attended by any
loss of life. The Morgan was, however,
Sc constructed that the fire had clean
sweep. Each floor had a long hallway.
winding through from front 10 rear, with
single stairwayS leading from floor TO
floor. The fire {
Started in tIae Basements
Just how is not known, and it swept up
through tue halls, cutting off all means
of escape. The women who persisted
ran to the windows. but before anything
could be done to assist them they were
driven back by the smoke and flames
and persisted. Those on the lower floors
rushed to the street, and one woman be-
side Mrs. Miller jumped from second
story window. She was Mrs. f. L. Gift
ford, and he was caught in a rubber
coat held by two of the spectators,
escaping without injury. The dead
bodies were found on the third
floor. The corpses were burned
to a crisp and were horribly
bIackened and disfgured. AS quickly
as possible the bodies were taken to the
morgue, and there it was learned that
five, instead of three women, as at first
supposed, had lost their lives. The two
upper floors of the building are Quilted,
and the contents of the house are
ruined. The Morgan is owned by W.
j. Morgan, the photographer. 1t COST
$4,000, and was insured. The contents
were owned by Mrs. Ii. M. Hanna, and
leased to the Misses McFadden, who
kept the place. Mrs. Hanna estimates
her loss at $12, 900, with no insurance.