The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-09-05
NONE GOT OUT ALIVE
The Mill Pond at Hinckley Was
a Death Trap.
It. is Full of Yet Unrecovered
Dead Bodies.
BURIED In A TRENCH.
UnrecOgnizable Bodies Put in
One Long Grave.

PINE Crrx, MINI, Sept. s-Ths
Hinckley horror Is dawniDg in it's
awful magnitude. There are now 1y-
ing IN the desolate cemetery, under q
shallow covering Of sand or in the
rude, rough boxes which take the
place OF caskets, Gle bodies T. J.
Weber Of Pine City, who has had en-
tire charge Of the interment, has had
his work well in hand and has kept
most accurate account Of the bodies.
These figures are his, and include
those buried by their friends. Four
trenches in all have been opened, sep
Rrated by about four feet Commenc-
ing on the south in the north trench
are 1orty-dva unlocked corpses- In
the trench No. 2 are twenty boxes,
many containing from two to Eve
bodies This trench is not yet closed
In the third are twenty-seven boxes
like the others. The fourth trench is
not yet in use, but there are piled up
nineteen boxes which will be put in
to-day
The foreman of the Duluth con-
ntruction train reported to Coroner
Couan that on the hill at the north
end Of the bridge across the Grind
stone were nine bodies completely IN
ciuerated, so that the sex could not
where the Duluth depot stood was
found the body Of woman To this
must be added the few bodies shipped
out, the two buried by Jim Hunts
parties Of cruisers, and four Inferred
by another explorer, making the total
Of about FPS accounted for IN Hinck-
ley and vicinity. Amazing estimates
are being made, but there is no fOun-
dalton for them. There were I'M
d0ubtedly settlers and men in the
fA~r ftrara rnEav rroev nren m nj
discovered a. search for them will
be prosecuted with vigOr. and they
viii be buried where they lie
There is an unknown number of
dead in the mill pond 1t is as yet
unprecedented The bank was COW
cred with sawdust and edgingss and
not far away was the Brennan mill
and lum Der yard. A number of per-
sons were seen to 60 TO the mill pond.
NO one came out alive, and hardly a
glimpse Of the south bank. where the
people were, can be obtained on &C
count Of the smoke still rolling up in
dense columns. 1t may be a day or
two before this pool OF death can be
examined. II is full of logs. and the
work of recovery will be q matter of
q good deal of difficulty unless the
dam il cut and the water drawn of,
an expedient which may be adopted
At Pokegama the dead have been
nearly all accounted for and will not
run over twenty five. at Miller were
buried twelve and al Sandstone sixty
seven These figures, with esti-
mate showing those not yet found,
bring the total up to s79. The latter
estimates may be too low, but it is q
matter OF absolute conjecture and it
IL here that the widely different to-
tails are found. Some think that at
least 200 settlers in camps are yet to
be found The dead number 57s, a.
follows:
Buried at Hinclzley and vicinity, 29s.
At Sandstone, 81.
At Pokegamas %.
AT Miller, ~.
Estimate OF dead not found, so.
a party of i've experienced timber
cruisers and seven assistan IS started
ont along the government road to the
east "A similar party Of seventeen
was sent up the Eastern Minnesota
railroad toward Sandstone. These
parties win bring in no bodies If any
are found They are equipped with
the necessary tools and will bury the
bodies where they And them. These
parties were sent into q tract of
country from which no reports have
been received, and the possible re-
suits of their labors can only be con-
iectured. During the day other par
ties were started in other directions.
but no definite reports will be re-
ceived for many hours
The work at the cemetery met one
peculiarly sad interruption. Lee
Webster, the mayor Of HincLley,
thought he recognized his wife in
the horrid heap Of dead During his
temporary absence the body he hoped
to claim for a more formal and sa-
cred burial WAS thrown into the pile
and covered up. When he learned Of
it he was half crazed with grief, and
upon assistance a portion Of the
trench where some men remembered
to have placed the body was opened.
and he descended into it to try again
to find his loved one. Either the body
lie sought was not the one uncovered
Oh the handling it had received had
destroyed the scanty marks of identi-
dcation, and Webster was forced to
admit the shapeless corpse was prob
ably not that OF mis- wife. and the
loose sand was AGAIN thrown &c the