The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-09-18
CRUSHED AND BURNED
FATE OF wORKMEN IN A WASHING
TON MATTRESS FACTORY.
Five Dead, Others Seriously Injured
and Four Missing - wild Leaps
from n Burning Building.


fire of recent years in Washington was the
burning of the mattress factory of Stumph
& Bro. to-day Four bodies are at the
morgue, charred and crushed beyond reccg-
milton. one is dead at the hospital: three
injured men are at the hospital, and there
may be others buried under the ruins, as
several OF the wcrkmen are unaccounted
for. Two of the dead at the morgue are
now known to be william II. Tennyscn, an
old man employed in the factory. and Will
lie Ashe, a boy of thirteen years, and
James F. Vaughn, a clerk. died at the
hospital Four others who are missing are
Henry Fowler. Philip Acksrman, Robert
Retzel and an old man who had been en-
ployed in the factory but a few days and
whose name is not remembered by his en-
ployer. Those at the hospital are: A. j.
Haske both legs broken and may die; Ar
thur C.. Bevins. internal injuries and frac-
tured wrist; Harry Bacon. internal in
juries.
The factory. which is owned by Claude
N. and Edward B. Stumph, stood at the
intersection Of Seventh and X streets and
Massachusetts, avenue. a ive-story struc-
ture, with thin brick walls, windows onlys
at the back and front, and no fire escape
1t was stored with fea theirs, shAvings and
other infamrnable materials, and twenty
five persons were at work in IL, six of
whom were young women. Fifteen min
utes before noon fire was discovered in the
picking room, at the front of the second
floor Almost before the alarm could be
given to the worlornen it had spread
through the second story and burst up the
elevator shaft. The escape of those on the
upper floors was cut OFF. and they stood in
<ba ;o1n CHI fi,,o hotr -vxrhif hun
dreds on the streets, unable to give them
assistance, yelled to them to wait for the
hook and ladder. Three men were soon on
the roof two OF them gesticulating fran
tically while the other leaned calmly
against chimney waiting. Policeman Phil
Brown found ladder, and, with the help
OF two stalwart men, dragged mattress
to the roof Of blacksmith shop beneath
the caves of the factory. While these
preparations were under way Haske
jumped from the roof, whirling and
over in the air and striking on his side.
Bevns jumped to the roof and was caught
on the mattress held by policeman Brown
and others. Vaughn leaped headlong, so
that in the force of his fall he tore through
the mattress as though II had been blan-
ket Bacon jumped from third-story
window, and landed on his stomach across a,
barrel twenty-five feet below. Other men
chung to the narrow projections outside the
windows until pile of mattresses had
been heaped on the sidewalk. and jumped
off without sustaining severe injuries.
Twenty minutes after the fire had been
discovered the east wall fell. crushing the
blacksmith shop, Peters's oyster house and
the Horse and Cattle-feed Company's build
ing. A cloud of burning feathers rose one
hundred feet over tn. building, and, drift
ing down, set fire to several awnings in
front of Seventh-street stores making live
ly work for volunteer firemeR with water
pals. Shortly after the other walls tot
tered and came down, crushing the rwo-
story brick building of the Woodruff File
holder Company, George j. Benefits mar
BILE shop and Hall & Cammack's furniture
store. a frame building One fireman and
several spectators were hurt by falling
bricks.
The cause Of the fire is unknown. The
factory building was valued at $1,000 and
it's contents at $4,000. Fifteen thousand
dollars of insurance was carried in several
local companies. The adjoining buildings
which were crushed were of small value.
Part of a Town Burned.
NORTH ENID. o. T., Sept. 17.-Fire de-
stroyed, last night, almost all that has been
accomplished in this town in the past year
What was the most substantial part OF
North Enid is to-day black, charred
mass of ruins and several business men
are without a dollar in the world. several
of the largest buildings in the town, in
Guiding the Arlington Hotel. just COM
pleted at a cost of $4,000. were burned
There is little insurance. That tae origin
of the fire was incendiafy there Is no
doubt. Rev. Pritchett. living in the xouth-
ern part of the city, rushed TO his door
when the first alarm was sounded and he
saw three horsemen riding rapidly south
ward along an unused street, but before
he could get down town they were olt OF
view Iae fire is q terrible blow to the
ptopie, and unless the railroad does some
thing TO encourage them X will be impossi-
BILE to keep them here