Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1894-09-05
NINETY IN ONE GRAVE.
Heartrending Scene in the Little
Village Cemetery at Hinck-
lev, Mimi.

~
Pine City, Mimi, Sept. 3.-At Hinck-
ley the visible situation did not material
ly improve over night. Thirty or forty
caskets and boxes, with their gruesome
contents, lay alongside the track where
they were placed last night. No attempt
had been made to dress or embalm the
bodies, and this morning they were grow
ing very offensive. Fortunately the day
was cool and cloudy and grateful show
ers fell at intervals during the forenoon.
The remains of the dead, however, were
in such a horribly blistered and burned
condition that decomposition rapidly set
in. Undertaken j. G.. DOnnelly of st.
Paul was on the ground, and he advised
that the bodies be put under mother earth
as rapidly as possible. Every attempt
at Identification had been exhausted.
From these bodies by the track the Off
Gals Of the Duluth road had removed
and carefully preserved every trinket and
article of jeWelry, and even shoes and
scraps of clothing, placing those from each
body in a receptacle numbered Identical
ly with the casket, so hat possibly when
relatives return they may recognize them
and know whether their friends have
been inferred.
Out in the little cemetery q mile east of
town was a scene which words are abso-
lutely powerless to describe. At best the
little spot would be as dreary as could
well be imagined. 1t is on top of Il rough
sandy knoll, where Nature is seen at
her worst n absolutely no attempt to-
ward artificial establishment has ever
been made. There were only Il few little
81 nHV 1VpSndAn1 DDnnnHS hafnra Now
with the blackened, tire-scarred stumps
and fallen trunks of trees all about, it pre-
sented an appearance of desOiatiCu hard
to describe. But in the center of the open
was the browning horror. In an indis-
criminate heap lay more han ninety
corpSes, men, women and little children
some burned crisp, others only Drowned
by the heat, and none with a fragment of
clothing larger than a mans hand to con-
ceal their awful n~akedneSS. Some were
mere trunks, the eXtremities having been
burned Off. Some were blOated until the
abdomen had cracked open and the in
t~estines were p~rOtruding. Skulls were
burned open, the brains escaping, and all
were twisted and cramped in the exquis-
ite agony of the death that had over
taken them.
A force Of men was quickly at work
digging a shallow trench along the south
end of the cemetery. The sandy soil
was hard as flint. 1t had been baked to
u crust by weeks of drouth and almost
solidified by the fire. The work pro-
crossed slowly. Off in the corner of the
clearing W. smaller graves were being
dug. One was for Mrs. William Grising-
er and her two baby girls, Caroline. aged
6, and Mabel, aged 3. The husband and
father had recognized them in the grisly
heap and was hard at work preparing
for them Il final resting place apart from
the trench designed for the unidentified,
his labOrs duiling for a time the acute
ness of his anguish. The other grave
was for the Best family whose numbers
make their destruction notable even i'll
this time of death John Best, Jr., was
digging the pit with the friendly assist
ance of two neighbors. Laid in a row
decently covered We're the bodies OF
John Best, ST., Mrs. Best, Fred Best,
aged %; Bertha, aged II; Mrs. Anne T..
WiegeI, a married daughter, and her 3
Truttman Of Diamond Bluff, Wis, Il
visitor, aged %, and Voctor Best aged
s Two other sons George, aged p,
and Willie, aged D. are missing and are
certainly dead. And of this whole fami-
Iy of three generations only the sorrowing
grave digger and his wife and child, who
took refuge III 4 dugout, are left They
all lived together about two miles south
east of Hinckley. The only others of
these ninety odd who were recognized
were Charles Anderson, cashier of the
bank, Mrs. William Ginder and her
daughter Winnifred, aged 8. One or two
others were imperfectly identified, but it
was largely guess work. Enough rude
collins were knocked together from rough
boards to contain most of these bodies
and they were rapidly laid away under
the sand, but not before other bodies be-
gan to come in.
In the swamp across the Grindstone
where these corpses were found yesterday
were about thirty-five others which were
brought in this morning, making d total
of upwards 40 lead in this little space
of four or five acres. Down near he river
was found the body of Thomas Dunn,
the Duluth & South Shore operator at
Hinekley. Dunn was born and reared
here and was a universal flvorite- He.
stuck to his key until the depot was
burning over his head The delay in To-
eating his body led his friends to- hope
that he might have escaped, but this
morning the finding of his blackened
corpses put an end to all uncertainty.
Up the st. Paul & Duluth right-of-way
were found three more bodies. Among
those who persisted north of town was
e. Ricketson of 1918 Polk street north
east. Minneapolis, who was visiting his
son. He went out in a wagon with Dave
Kane of Rock Greek, also a visitor here,
and both persisted, though the horses came