The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1894-09-04
AWFUL SCENES
OF Death and Desoiation-rsrrIbie Stu.
alton ut uincLley.

/
| OF Death and Dosolation-Tsrrible SItu.
ntion ut uinckioy.
PINE Cry, MINS., Sept 3.-Aiter the
deluge what2 Tho reaction has come
at Hinckley. The excitement that has
buoyed up go many Of the survivors,
even In tho face Of tho fact that 60 many
relatives aud friends perishod In the
fiery flood, has passed away and dull
lothargis grief has takou Its place. The
uninIured refugees arc at Pine City,
and thore are several hundred OF them
standing about the street corners in lit
tie knots discussing the incidents Of the
catastrophe in awe-struck tonus.
The hospital patients demanded the
! and the only druggist in Pine City waO
kept busy until daylight filling prescrip.
tions and supplying lotions, for most OF
the injuries were burns moro or less
serious. By morning oil were in a state
OF comparative comfort and there were
mono whose hurts werc deemed fatal.
Among the good citizens Of Pine City
who had opened their hearts, their
homes and their public buildings to
their stricken neighbors. all was hustle
and activity. The women and children
were given better quarters and the men
| atrotched out in rows on the floors Of
the two public buildings named.
WORK OF RELIEF.
Before daylight the town was astir.
! The arrangements for the relief OF the
destitute further up the line, where
hundreds of men, women and children
wore not only homeless, but absolutely
without scrap OF food or bedding or
extra clothing, were taken up whore
they were dropped at midnight The
appointed committees mot and got
their work we'll In hand. Before Z
o'clock in tho morning tho construction
train, loaded with bridge material for
tho repair Of tho bridge across tho
Grindstone river, at Hinckley, came up
from Rush City. A party Of laborers TO
dig graves and inter the bodies was col
lectcd and the train proceeded into the
burned country.
At Hinckloy the provisions were
loaded onto hand car manned by
Judge Nethaway and volunteer crew,
aud start was made across the shaky
bridge to Miller, nine miles further
north, where thore were reported q
dozen or more dead and three timed as
many hungry and homeless. From Mil
ler they expect to work east to Sand
stone, about five miles across the coun-
try, on tho Eastern Minnesota railroad,
| where there arc between forty and for
ty-fye dead and q couple Of hundred
| living who were saved in Kettle river
and In the great Sandstone quarries.
At Hinckley the visible situation had
not materially changed nor improved
over night. The thirty or forty caskets
and boxes with their grueaome contents
still lay alongside tho track, where they
werc placed last night No attompt
had been made to dress or embalm
them and thcy wero already growing
vcry offensive.
| AWFUL SCENES.
Every attempt at Identification had
been exhausted. From those bodies by
the track tho officials Of tho St. Paul &
Duluth road had removed and carefully
preserved every trinkot and article OF
ieyolry aud evon scraps OF clothing,
placing those from each body In re-
coptaclo numbered idcntically With tho
casket.
out in the little cemetery mile east
Of town was a scene which words are
powerlesa to describe. AT best tho
little spo. would be as dreary as could
vol be imagined. It Is on top OF q
rough sandy knoll. wherc nature is seen
ut her worst and absolutely no attempt
toward artificial embellishments has
ever been made. Thore wore only few
littlo sandy unsodded mounds before:
| Now with tho blackoned, hro-scarrcd
stumps and fallen trunks Of treos all
about, II presented au appearance oil
dosolation hard to describe. But in the
contor OF tho opening was the crowning
horror, In an indiscriminate heap lay
moro than ninety corpscs, men, women
ond little children. Some burned coisp |;
others only Drowned by the heat, and
memo with fragment OF clothing larger
than mans hand TO conceal their
awful nakodnoss. Some were mere
trunks, tho cxtremities having boon
burned oil.
a t0rce OIL tuCu WeEU lulShi{ ~ W. :"
digging n shallow trench along tho
gouth end OF tho cemotory. Tho sandy
soil was hard as flint. II had been
bakod to crisp by woeks OF drought
and almost solidifed by the fire. The
work progressed slowly. on in ono
corner OF the clearing two smaller graves
were being dug. Ono 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 grIsly heap,
and was hard at work preparing for
them a final resting place apart from
tho tronch destined for tho unidentified,
Ills labors dulling for timc the acute
ness Of his anguish. The other grave
was for ton OF the Best family, whose
numbers make thoir destruction notable
even In this time Of death. John Beat,
| IT,, was digging the pit With tho friendly
assistance Of two nciRhbors.
ALL THAT REMAINED
Of this whole family Of three genera.
,ions. only tho Borrowing grave digger
and bis wifo and child, who took refuge
In a dus.out, are loft. They all liycd
together about two miles southeast OF
iItnckloy Tho only othcrs OF these
ninety.old who woro rocogni2ed, were
Charles Anderson, cashier Of tho bank ;
Mira. William Gindor and her daughter