The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-09-05


IDENTIFY preferring deafh by drowning to
being roasted alive.
story OF the CntnstroPhe.
The story OF the catastrophe which
wiped out the material possessions that
had made Hinckley a busy. a prosperous
little city Is short one. The town was
built Of wood. The school house. erected
last year at a cost Of $4,000. and one
half the Duluth round house, We're the
only brick structures in the city. BY one
or those peculiar freaks for which there
Is no accounting the Eastern Minnesota
round-house and water tank, on the
southwestern edge of the town, almost in
tbe woods, escaped the fiames-a circum-
SSance the more remarkable from the
fact that II stood directly in the path Of
the Hames, which seem to have jumped
1t as clcanly as IL playing leap-frog.
All yesterday forenoon the townspeo-
pie We're apprehensive. The smoke roll
ing up from the south told a story un-
mistakably plain 10 those accustomed
to wooded country. The fire kept ad-
vancing. famed by the wind which was
blowing a gale. About IL o'clock the
IRE company got out their engine and
laid an eighteen-hundred-fOo line Of
hose TO the southern outskirts of the
town. The hose was all too short for
telegram was sent to Rush City for more.
Five hundred feet was sent, but 1t
never reached Hinckley. The main part
Of the village lies in the north fork
made by the crossing of the Duluth &
Eastern tracks, the latter to the east,
west side of the Duluth tracks were a
few small houses belonging TO the rail-
way employees. The firemen's attention
was mainly directed to keeping the fire
away from them, as the main business
part of the city was built in solidly just
across the track.
The Fire Jumped Into the Town.
About o'clock in the afternoon the
fire literally jumped into the town. Its
approach was not gradual. 1t did not
eat its way along, devouring everything
in its path, but came in huge leaps, as
if to overtake everything fleeing before
it, and then burned back at its leisure.
It is described by those who owitnessed
its onward progress at Hinckley and
elsewhere as If it were forced along by
cyclones Of its own generation.
The intense heat would develop a
vertable whirlwind OF flame that actually
twisted off poplar trees several inches in
thickness and carried huge blazing fire.
them forward for from forty to eighty
rods. there TO fail and begin the work
of devastation anew. The fire first
struck Hinckley on the east side of the
Duluth track and the brave tire-fighters
for the first time gave up the unequal
battle and already too late, in many in
stances, turned their attention to their
personal safety.
The Eastern Minnesota train from the
south had just come in and the people
of the panic-Strickcn city hOcked to it
for safety a number of box cars were
coupled on and filed and covered with
men, women and children. Some were
bareheaded. some were coatless, some
few clutched a pitiful bundle Of the more
precious Of their portablef possessions.
Families were separated. Children
joined the throng and left parents. In
all there was a motley crowd of about
4j0 or more people. The train pulled out
just ahead of the fire, and succeeded in
ultimately reaching Duluth. This cir
while fortunate in a degree
that cannot be estimated. has made the
confusion greater for ii is not known
who escaped in this way, and many peO-
pie are reported dead who may be in
safety. Had not this number of people,
largely women and children, left the
doomed city when they did, the loss Of
life would have increased in a geOmetrical
ratio. for their presence would have
added immeasurcably TO the subsequent
confusion.
Their Situation Desperate.
About the same hour the accommoda-
ton train on the Hinckley & st. Cloud
branch left for the latter place with
about twenty-five passengers. Its path
lay directly across the path of the fire
and their situation sbeedily became des-
We're warping and the trestles were
sagging under the train. The smoke had
so that the engineer was help
less. He could not see the train behind
him. Burning trees lay across the track
and We're being tossed aside by the en-
gine. Suddenly the track gave way and
the train tOppled off to one side. No
one was injured. and they pressed to
POkegama station, a few rods ahead.
But a few feet in front of the engine
was discovered a gorge sixty feet wide
and forty feet deep where the trestle
had been burned away. They succeeded
in reaching the clearing about the sta
ton and escaped with a few burns and
bruises. There We're burned along the
track, however. four or five people, in
cluding DR.. Kelcer of New Brighton.
who had come up TO look after his
brother.
The people who were left in the city
were in what seemed to be an almost
hopeless condition. EgTess by the only
means of transportation that could hope
to distance the swiftly advancing flames
was out of the question. The men had
been fighting the fire for hours and the
women and children were in a panic
stricken condition.
Many Of them were of the more ignor-
ant of the population, for a very large
percentage of the people who got out on
the Great Northern road were Of the
more intelligent class Horses were bar-
messed TO buggies and wagons. Women
and children were hurriedly loaded. In
some cases attempts were made to carry
off some household goods, but in most
instances the people had no thought for
ought but their lives.
Fleeing Before the Pursuing Demon.
Probably two hundred of them left
town on foot or in vehicles, plunging
into the woods to the north across the
Grindstone river, which skirts the town
on the north. They were literally fleeing
before the pursuing demon of fire. Over
the hill that rises beyond the Grind
stone is a swamp, and to this most of
the people with teams headed, but it
proved no protection. The fire gave
them no opportunity to go further. Some
abandoned their teams and ran into the
lower portions of the morass, but the
fire sought them out. Not one was left
to tell the tale, and there this morning
in a space Of little more than four or
hVe acres, were counted over one hun
dred and thirty corpses.
There were many families of five, six
and seven, and there they lay, the men
generally little in advance, the mother
surrounded by her little ones cut off by
the most horrible of deaths. Nearly all
the bodies were nude, the fire having