Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-11-23

er needed, crawled, half fainting, down
! the stairs to the fresh air
| Martin Brophy, the janitor of Edge
wood academy in the employ of Con
tractor Divine who was putting I'D
the new building, was the net witness.
He lives at Edgewood and was present
at the fire. He thought the fire started
little before O'Clock. He first saw
| the IRE in the upper floor in the hall
way. He was attending TO stoves in
the cellar. A sister came running
down stairs yelling: Mr. Brophy.
Mr.. Brophy, there's Il fire." loud as
could be. He thought she meant the
fire was N the barn and he started to
! run to the barn. The sister yelled to
him that the fire was in the main
building. He had never been in the
old building where the sisters live eX-
cept TO accommodate them by building
| the fires in the cellar once in a while.
| He went with the sister to the top
floor and found the fire in the closet
The fire was near the chimney but he
did not know that the chimney was in
use. He thought it most likely that
someone lit a match in the closet or
carried i lighted lamp into it and that
the fire started from a spark left after
her. This, however, he concluded
from what he heard sisters say during
the day, during an examination by IN
+ Insurance agent. At the request of
fatal room but became so choked with
smoke that he could not enter and,
as he said, tlmbled down stairs. He
went to get a lantern and after Sc
curing it went back to the upper floor,
but his light went out and he again
gave up the attempt to get to THE
room. Mr. Brophy admitted that he
was very much excited, with the sis
terS telling him to do one thing and
another. He ran to the ground floor
again and lit another lamp. This light
went out and he Lit another. He was
about to ascend the stairs again when
a sister called to him to help her carry
out a piano. He said he took a look
at the upper part of the house and
saw that the flames had made such
progress that the structure was DOOM
|
work of saving goods.
Two Of the jurymen having been eX
cuSed for urgent reasons, the meeting
was adjourned from 3:20 to ) O'clock.
The full jury met at 5 o'clock and
rendered 4 verdict, finding that Mag
gle Stack and Margery Rice came to
their deaths on the evening of Novem-
Der 16, 1893 1t the hour of $50 o'clock
p. n., at Edgewood academy in the
town of Madison, Dane county, Wis,
by being accidentally suffocated by
sn oEe in said building which was con-
sumed by fire.
Tho jurors We're T. C. Purcell
Charles O. Coyne, Henry Showers,
G. =. Whe1an, A. J. Gatterdam and
W. w. Young.
Sister Bertha, who suffered extreme
ly in rescuing one of her charges, is
getting along nicely, and is entirely
out of danger. She was so weak
yesterday, however, that it was with
difficulty that she reached the coroner's
Office.
Sister Mary Edmund, superioress
who was i'll at the time of the fire,
and suffered severely from shock is
very much better.
The report that the sisters of Edge
wood had a deposit of $4,000 in the
Mitchell bank of Milwaukee is without
! the least foundation.
Little Margery Rice of Stevens Point,
who met her death soon after the
fire. had no mother and her father is
afflicted with paralysis.
The Chicago girl, Maggie Stack, had
father but no mother.
Mr. Stack, father of the late Maggie,
arrived last might, and took charge OF
the remains. He will start for Chicago
! this morning.
! 1t is expected that some friend of
the late Margery Rice will arrive from
Stevens Point this morning and take
! the remains home for burial.
| Last night the remains of the three
little nnocents-AIargery Rice, Mag
gle Stack and Frances Hennebery-
were laid side by side in snow-whitt
burial baskets in the st Regina acade-
my, corner of West Washington avenue
and South Henry street.
Yesterday Mother Superior emily,
of Sinsinawa Mounds, the head of the
Dominican order of Wisconsin. ar
rived at the st. Regina academy. The
terrible calamity falls heavily upon
her.
The insurance on the Edgewood
i buildings was given n round numbers
in the Democrat of yesterday. This
insurance is held in the following conn
panies represented by H. B. Hobbins,
of this city:
Old building-Westc $500,
Germania $4,000.
] New building Northwestern National
| s. 900, milwaukee, Mechanics $500,
Delaware $500, Rockford $500, Buff
| falo German $500 Total, $4,000.
The insurance was taken out by the
sisters and they will obtain it and
also suffer d loss. 1t has been re
! ported that the contractors had not
! turned over the structure as yet, and
that they held the insurance, but such
! is not the fact The insurance policy
was issued to the Dominican order
: Nov. 8, it is said and they has as
sJImed control Of the building. The
new academy would have been ready
for occupancy in a few days.
| The matter of rebuilding is in doubt,