St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-09-30
FELL TO HIS DEATH.
Jacob Merkley. Assistant En-
gineer o. the Gsrmania
Bank Building,
DROPPED DOWN THE SHAFT
Of the Freight Elevator, and
Found Dead Three Hours
AfterWard.
DROPPED DOWN THE SHAFT
HOW 1T HAPPENED UNKNOWN
Probably Stepped in the
Shalt, Supposing the Ele-
vatOr Was There.

Jacob Merkley. the assistant engineer
in the Germania Bank building, was
found at 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon.
lying Oh his back at the bottom of the
freight elevator shaft, stone dead.
Coroner WhItcomb was summoned
Immediately. and after an examination
of the body, decided that death was due
to fall. But the accident. il accident
it was. was attended by peculiar circum-
stances.
Merkley was engaged yesterday in
painting some fixtures on the second
floor, which is three stories above the
basement, where his body was disc0v-
cred. About 2 O'Clock in the afternoon
Chief Engineer Morgan saw Merkley
step into the freight elevator ON the
basement floor. or engine room, pull the
rope and ascend. Three hours later
Mr.. Morgan walked over to the elevator
shaft to call Merkley down stairs. as he
was wanted in the engine room. Just
as Morgan stepped toward the shaft he
started back. There. lying face up
wards. was the body of thu assistant
engineer. The face was white and I'M
bruised, but
Blood Was Tricklfng
from both ears. aud had formed pool
about the head. Engineer Morgan at
once notified President Bickel. of the
the Germania bank, who sent men up
stairs to examine the elevator doors.
particularly that on the second floor,
where Merkley had been work. ng.
Strange to say, this door. as we'll as all
the others. was locked. The exact po-
sition of the elevator nobody seems to
know. beyond the fact that it was some
where above the second floor. The
question at once arose. how could
Merkley have fallen into the shaft when
the doors were all locked, and could not
be opened except from the inside-that
is by whoever was running the ele-
vatU.-
Another circumstance occurred which
seemed somewhat peculiar. The porter
is kown to have used the elevator at a
time subsequent to that at which the
accident must have occurred. He had
occasion to take some rolls of paper
down to the engine room, and did take
them on the elevator. At the time he
ran the elevator down, Merkley's
Body Was Lying at the Bottom
of the shaft, but as it bore no signs of
bruise OIL the face, it is not likely that
the elevator touched it.
After Coroner Whitcomb had viewed
the body, it was removed at his direction
to the undertaking rooms of Mccarthy
IL DOnneliy. The examination showed
that the right thigh adj been broken,
the arms badly bruised, and the skull
fractured. as evidenced by the blood
that had flowed from the ears. DR..
Whitc0mb said that the body was
chilled when he first saw II, and that
death had probably occurred before 4 d.
H., though rigor mOrtis had not set IN,
| owing to the heat In this engine room.
MerkIey Was about forty years old.
He had worked in the GermanIa Bank
building for two years, and was re.
| garded by President Blckel as thor
oughly competent and reli BILE man.
He lived at 1877 Midway avenue with
his family. consisting of a wife and
| four children.
| There are two ways in which the
locked doors of the elevator are ex-
planned. Either Merkley stepped from
the elevator upon the second floor with
out having brought the car to a dead
stop and then walked into the empty
shaft, thinking the elevator was still on
a level with the floor, and, in falling,
clutched the door i'll such manner as
TO shut it, Or. what is more likely,
somebody noticing the door open
| closed IT,