Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-01-24
GROWS IN HORROR.
The Terrible Coal Oil Disaster
at Wann.
DEATH ROLL MAY REACH FORTY.

Twenty-One Are Already Numbered and
for Sixteen There Is no Hope-List of
Later Deaths and of Those Who Cannot
Live-BurIals of Several of the Victims
The Coroner Hard at Work, but no
Blame Fixed.
ALTON. Ills, Jan. 24-It is quite certain
that before the end of the week the death
list due to Saturdays explosion will in
clude at .east thirty-five names. The ply
sicians say that all of those seriously
burned will probably die. The full out
burst of sorrow is just beginning to be
manifested, as the people realize at the
graves of the loved relatives and friends
the awful significance of their bereave-
ment. Five more deaths We're announced
yesterday as follows: Assessor j. n. Muir
ray, Upper Alton; Charles Halter Alton
junction; Thomas Houlihan, East St
Louis; Henry Weigant, Wann, and W :
lam Edwards, Alton. The total is now
twenty-one.
Sixteen Whose Doom Is Sealed.
Victims of the Wann explosion not yet
dead, but sure to die: James Herman, Jr
(boy), Alton; William Richardson and Da-
vid Richardson, Alton junction; Herman
J,
John FretZ, Edwardsviile Crossing; A. f.
Frazier, tramp; Hamilton Valentine, AL
ton Junction; Otto Hagaman, Alton, boy;
John Burks, Fostersburg; John Henry,
Jr., John Philbrick, and son of Charles
Herman, Wann; Thomas Williams, Upper
Alton; J. w: Montgomery, Atlanta, Ills.
George Rolotf, Upper Alton.
Burials of the Dead.
Coroner Kinder was busy with two juries
impanelled and as fast as verdicts were
rendered the bodies were turned over for
burial. The remains of II. A. Cornelius
were sent to his home in Iowa, and those
of Ed Maupin to his home at St. Charles
and the body of William Shattuck, the
other Shurtleff student, were shipped last
evening to Chesterfield. The long process
sion of funerals was begun yesterday
morning, the remains of Henry Penning,
John Lock, Edward Miller, Willie Nc
earthly and Charles UT being laid to rest
in the local cemeteries. A number of
those whose injuries were at first reported
slight are developing alarming features.
resulting from lack of prompt medic;I
treatment when all the doctors were busy
with the more severely stricken.
No Responsibility Fixed Yet.
Coroner Kinder has so far held fifteen
inquests and, with his two juries, is WON
out with the arduous work. The verdicts
in all the cases are practically the same,
purely perfunctory and attributing the
cause of death simply to the explosion of
oil tanks at Wann. The man Gatten, 10
is directly charged by his fellow employees
with having left the switch open, has come
back and denies the responsibility of tne
affair
Another Person Missing.
1t is said that man named Dumas is
missing. His family has not seen him
since Saturday and fears that he was ut
Wann. The opinion still. prevails that
other bodies might be found as a result of
an organized search of the country around
Wann, but no such effort has yet been
made. 1t now appears certain that many
of the victims who still survive inhaled the
flames which surrounded them and in con-
sequence will die Their calls for water
are constant and pitiful in the extreme.
students All Accounted For.
Col Willis Brown, of the Western Mill
|. itary academy, formerly Wyman insti-
tute, denies an authorized statement to the
effect that number OF Students of the
academy were injured and that several
were yet to be heard from. He states that
at the time Of the accident and explosion
not one of the students was within three
miles of the scene and that all were safe
and sound al the school.