Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1893-02-17
SIX CRUSHED TO DEATH.
A Great Mass of Marble Falls

In Quarry at West Rutland, Burying
Fifteen OF the Northumberland Not
Killed, but Badly injured.
The worst disaster in the history of mar
BILE auarrying in Vermont took place at
West Rutland, Saturday afternoon in a
quarry operated by the Vermont marble
company, with which Senator Proctor is
connected A great mass of stone fell into
the quarry and five men were instantly
killed and a number of Others injured, one
at least fatally. The men killed were
crushed so that the bodies could not be
recognized The victims were gang at
work channeling and taking away refuse,
and all were middle-aged men. The Yer
mont marble company called the roll OF
men at work in the quarry, and announced
the list of killed and injured as follows:
KILLED.
Alex Bumberg Swede, single; FleXis Bellare,
French married and had a large family. Frank
Sulig, Pole, single; William Lukas, Pole single
Edward Powers, Irish, married aud had atanily.
INJURED.
Peter Grenier French bad fracture of skull and
both legs crushed. probably fatal; James Do"lry,
Irish. leg broken at the ankle and may lose ms
foot John Dunn, Irish, slightly injured; charles
Andersen Swede, finger broken and head cut;
Fred Marachaud, French, right arm broken ana
head cut; Anton Roski, Pole, head cut; John Z.
Andersen Swede. back and ankle sprained Mi
chael Cupps Irish. slightly injured; John Meehan,
Irish head cut, not serious.
AS soon as the accident happened the
electric danger signal was rung in at the
company's office and the mills and work
everywhere was stopped at once. All the
doctors in West Rutland and Rutland were
called by telephone and responded quickly.
Scores of men were also sent down into the
quarry. People from Rutland and Pitts
ford began to arrive and by > O'Clock the
vicinity of the quarry was crowded. In
the crowd were many of the relatives of the
killed or injured men and they were frantic
with grief, the scenes being heartrending.
/ Many of the women tried to rush down in
/ to the quarry, but were prevented from
doing so by the more cool-headed people,
who took extra precautions to prevent ac-
/ cident.
The quarry is known as the Sheldon
covered quarry rquarry No. 3. 1t was
opened by Sheldon and Slausson in 1865,
and operated by the Sheldons until Jan. l,
1892. when it was leased by the Vermont
marble company, which has run 1t since
/ Depth and surface cOnslderd, 1t is the
largest quarry in the world. Its perpen-
dicular depth is over go feet and from this
! the quarry runs eastward ana uONllNdIu
under the hill 800 feet or more. The acct
dent was near the extreme end of the
quarry, far under the hill. The killed and
some of the injured were buried under tons
of rock, and the work of rescue was neces-
sarily difficult, but scores of men, in charge
of competent bosses, went at it with will,
and the bodies were recovered during the
afternoon.
+. X. Morse, treasurer of the marble
company, says that the cause OF the ACCT
dent is not certain, though the scale, OF
part of the roof that fell was probably
loosened by freezing. He said that the
company has always left large number
of supports to prevent accidents of thi;
kind and that this part of the quarry was
well protected in this respect. So far a;
known no one is TO blame. There wert
about 50 men at work in the quarry.
T. A. Mcclure, Herald mailing clerk
went to the scene of the disaster, undertook
to go into the quarry and fell 40 feet from
ladder, striking upon his head. He wa
taken up apparently dead and carried t.
his home. He was very badly bruised
about the head, but will probably recover
All the victims carried accident INSURANCE
with the Vermont marble company. TIL
. families of the dead will receive 500 eacl
in all cases, with one-half their yearl
wages, if the wages were over $1,000 year
: The injured men will receive one-half thei
! weekly wages and the amount of all doc
| tors bills,