The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-09-04
BURYING THE DEAD.
SOrrowful and sickening Scenes In
the EInckened Town.


PINE CITY, Mimi, Sept. 3.-The night
was a gloomy one here The hospital
patients demanded the attention OF the
physicians all night, and the only druggist
in Pine City was kept busy until daylight
filling prescriptions and supplying lotions,
for most of the injuries were burns more or
less serious. By morning all were IN a
state of comparative comfort, and there
were none whose hurts were deemed fatal
Among the good citizens of Pine City who
had opened their homes and public build
ings to their stricken neighbors all was
hustle and activity. The town hall was
kept open all night and provisions served
to all comers. The schoolhouse- and many
a private home was thrown open. Every
blanket in town was called into service.
The women and children were given the
better quarters.
Before daylight the town was astir. Ar
rangements for relief OF the destitute
further up the line. where hundreds OF
men, women and children were not only
homeless, but absolutely without scrap
of food or bedding or extra clothing, were
taken up where they were dropped at
night The appointed committees met and
got their work We'll in hand. Before 2
O'Clock in the morning the construction
repair of the bridge across GrinGstone
river at Hinckley, came up from Rush
City. A couple hundred loaves OF bread
and other light provisions were placed on
board in charge of Judge j. c. Nathemy,
of saltwater, representing the relief COM
mittee A party of laborers to dig graves
and inter the bodies was collected ana the
train proceeded into the burned country.
At Hinckley the provisions were loaded on
a hand car manned by Judge Nathemy
and a volunteer crew and a start was
made across the shaky bridge to Miller
one mile further north, where aid was
given the needy. About IL O'Clock the
bridge was sufficiently repaired to admit
the passage Of a train, and an engine,
freight car and caboose, with plentiful
supply of food and a meagre store OF cof-
fins, in charge of undertaken o OHaiioran,
Of ST. Paul, was sent north.
At Hinckley the visible situation had not
materially changed nor improved over
night. The thirty or forty caskets ard
boxes with their gruesome contents still
lay alongside the track where they were
placed last night. No attempt had been
made to dress or embalm the bodies and
they were already growing very offensive.
Fortunately the day was cool and cloudy
and grateful showers fell at intervals dur
ing the forenoon. The remains of the dead.
however, were in such horribly blistered
and burned condition that decomposition
rapidly set in. Undertaken j. G. Donnelly.
of ST. Paul, was on the ground and he ad-
vised that the bodies be buried as rapidly
as possible. Every attempt at Identification
had been exhausted. From the bodies by the
track the officials of the st. Paul & Du-
haJ o,d a-xf, ,,rl flrt.-
served every trlnket and article of jewelry
and even shreds and scraps of clothing,
placing those from each bodies into a re-
ceptacle numbered like the casket. so that,
if possible, when the relatives return they
may recognize and know whether their
friends have been inferred.
IN THE LITTLE CEMETERY.
Out in the little cemetery a mile east OF
town was a scene which words are power
less to describe. At best the little spot
would be as dreary as could well be i'm
agined. 1t is on top of a rough. sandy
knoll, where nature is seen at her worst.
and absolutely attempt toward artificial
embellishments has ever been made. There
were only a few little sandy unsodden
mounds before. Now with the blackened,
fire-scoured stumps and fallen trunks OF
trees all about, it presented appearance
of desolation hard TO describe. But in the
center of the opening was the crowning
| horror. In an indiscriminate heap lay more
| than ninety corpses. men, women and chill
| dren. Some burned to crisp others only
Drowned by the heat, and none with a
| fragment of clothing larger than mans
| hand to conceal it's awful nakedness. Some
| were mere trunks. the extremities having
| been burned off. Some were bloated until
| the abdomen had cracked OPEN Skulls
| were burned open and brains exposed and
| all were twisted and cramped in the agony
| of the death that had overtaken them.
force of men was quickly at work dig
ging a shallow trench along the south end
| Of the cemetery. The sandy soil was hard
as flint. 1t had been baked to a crust by
weeks of drought, and almost solidified by
| the fire. The work progressed slowly. Of
| in the corner of the clearing two smaller
graves were being dug. One was for Mrs.
| William Grisinger and her two baby girls
| Caroline aged six, and Mabel. aged three.
| The husband and father had recognized
| them in the heap and was hard at work
| preparing for them a finai resting place
| apart from the trench designed for the un-
| identified, his labors dulIing for a time the
/ acuteness of his anguish. The other grave
1 make their destruction notable even In this
| time of death. John Best, jr., vas digging
the pit, with the friendly assistance of two
neighbors. Laid in row, recently COW
ered were the bodies of John Best, ST.,
| Mrs. Best, Fred Best, aged twenty-tfiree;
/, Bertha, aged seventeen; Mrs. Annie Vie
| gel, a married daughter. and her three
| year-old daughter Minnie; Miss Annie
| Truttman. of Diamond Bluff. Wis, a Wis
| itor aged twenty-sx, and Victor Best, aged
| eight. Two other sons George. aged TWEEN
| ty-fve. and Willie, aged twepty-one, are
| missing and are certainly dead. And OF
this whole family of three generations only
| the sorrowing grave-digger and his wife
| and child are alive. The only others OF
| these ninety odd VINO were recognized were
| Charles Anderson, cashier of the bank,
| Mrs William Ginder and her daughter,
| Winifred. aged six. One or two others were
| imperfectly identified, but 1t largely
| guesswork. Enough rude boxes were
| knocked together from rough boards "a
1 contain most of these bodies. and they
were rapidly laid away under the sand,
but not before other bodies began to come
| in.
In the swamp across the Grindstone,
where these corpses We're found yesterday.
were about thirty others. which were
brought in this morning, making a total
of l3o dead in this little space of four or