Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1893-07-22
SEEKING FOR The DEAD
Several Of the Chicago Fire Vic.
TINS Bodies Found.
Burned to a Crisp and Can't Be identified-.'
Anxious Relatives Plead With the
Rescuers for information.
Some Pathetic Scenes.

WORLDS FAIR GROUNDS, CHICAGO,
July l2.-Soon after ~daybreak
Tuesday a company of iremen from
truck No. 10. under command OF Mar
shall King, Twelfth battalion. went to
work on the black mass OF wooden
wreckage + o N the cold storage ware
house TO clear it way and commence
their search for their persisted comrades.
They knew where the remnants of the
bodies were TO be found, for they had
seen the victims leap from the north
side of the tower nearly 100 feet
through a lake of roaring fame. At
$50 o'clock the workers, begrimmed
and half dead with fatigue came upon
the cinder-like TRUNKS OF four human
beings. There was not enough left TO
ascertain IL the bodies were those of hre'
men, guards or workmen employed In
the building. The trunks were
found close together on h
first floor at the northeast end, show
ing that the victims had fallen partly
or wholly through the roof after leap
ing from the tower OF death and had
been roasted in the seething furnace
when the roof followed the tower into
the pit of fire. The blackened pieces
of bone aud flesh were taken in the
ambulances to the Emergency hospital
until the dead wagon came 70 take
them TO Hyde Park morgue. The fire.
men listlessly returned to Their labors
and pulled down all the standing walls
on the north side. At the Emergency
hospital there were heart rending
scenes this morning. Wives, mothers
and sisters of those who had gone down
in the sea OF flames calnc &c inquire y
there were not some mistake, If any OF
the missing had been heard from alive.
One of the most pitiful cases was
that of John A. Smith. driver OF engine
company No. 2, stationed at the service
building. Ills mother and sister cane
with tears of grief 10 learn II he was
among the dead as published this
morning. His comrades, the
guards and the hospital directors knew
that the body of Smith was beyond
Identification even, but they had not
the heart TO tell the women the worst
He was missing, that was all.
The rolls were called in the different
engine houses at 0 o'clock in the morn
ing. Ii was ascertained that eleven
firemen were missing and they were
given up rs dead by their comrades.
The list is as follows:
JANET CARNEY, captain OF Company
No. |.
BOTTOM e PAGE, captain of Engine
company No3.
JOHN A. SMITH, of Springfield, H.,
driver Of Engine company No. 2.
PAUL SCHROEDER, truckman OF Com
pany No. 3
PHIL BREEN, truckman of chemical
engine No. IA.
CHARLES PURvIs, truekman Com
pany No. s.
JOHN CAHILL, ~truckman Company
No. =.
In addition TO these, three unfortu-
mates died at the hospital last night.
They are:
JAMES FITZPATRICK. assistant chief
Of battalion and captain OF No, :.
WILLIAM DEFINING, pipeman OF
JOHN M'BRIDE, driver of engine,
company No s.
The bodies of six persons were recov-
cred Monday and four more Tues
day. All were burned beyond
Identification. Four Columbian guards
are still missing and it is thought that
their bodies are underneath the mass
of debris. This makes the total fatali-
ties seventeen, so far as known.
Louis j. Frank. fireman OF engine
company No. ., lies in the Emergency
hospital in a critical condition and the
doctors fear he may die. Should Fire
man Frank succumb to his burns, en-
CINE company No, 2. stationed at the
service building. will lose three of its
men, captain Fitzpatrick and John A.
Smith being already N the death list