The record-union., 1894-09-03

ioiloWlng: Sandy Henderson, 10 years:
John Henderson, II years; - Hanson;
Mars Hanson; five Hanson children;
Ihomas Jones; Chambers: Alex
Hanson and wife, Emily Hanson, IS
years; Charlie Hanson, 19 years; James
Anderson, 20 years; two Anderson chill
dren; Hans Mattison. 20 years; Mrs.
William Ginder. Dennis Riley. yard
watchman; Jim Bean, foreman Brennan
Labor Company; John Best, wife and
1our children; John Anderson, John
Anderson and wife, William C. Nesbitt
Henry Hanson, L. Turgon, - Lamb
and son, Mrs. Martinez and four chill
dren, drowned; Mrs. Blanchard and two
children, DR.. c. Fl. Kelsey of New
brighton; L. Blanchard, Louis Nelson.
employe of the Eastern Minnesota Rail-
way; Peter, Nels and Mary Robertson,
- Robertson child, - Hoffman and
wife, Emma Doian. Belle o. Brien, Annie
wallace. Mrs. Costigan and three chill
oren, William Pinnor, Patrick Murphy,
Orville Cox, Thomas Dunn, wife and
four children.
he walls of the schoolhouse, the iron
fence about the town hall property, the
bank vault and one absolutely uninjured
clubhouse is all that is left to mark the site
of Hinckley, where yesterday stood a
score of business buildings and a dozen
times as many dwellings.
STORY OF THE CATAsTRoPHE.
The story of the catastrophe is a short
one. The town was built of wood. The
schoolhouse, erected last year at cost of
$1,000. and one-half of the Eastern Mime
sofa Railroad rodndhouse. were the oply
brick structures in the city. By one of
those peculiar freaks, for which there is
no accounting, the roundhouse and water
tank on the southwestern edge of the
town, almost in the woods, escaped the
flames, a circumstance the more remark
able from the fact that it stood directly in
the path OF the flames, which seemed to
have jumped it as cleanly as if playing
leap frog. All yesterday forenoon the
townspeople were apprehensive. The
ire kept advancing, famed by the wind,
which was blowing gale. About IL
O'Clock the fire company got out their
engine and laid an 1,S00-foot hose to the
southern outskirts or the town. The hose
was too short for the measure of protec-
ton desired, and a telegram was sent to
Rush City for more. One hundred feet
was sent, but it never reached Hinckley.
About 3 o'clock in the afternoon the
fire literally jumped into the city. 1t did
not eat its way along, devouring every
thing in its path, but came in huge leaps,
as if to take everything before it. It ap-
peared as if it was being forced along by
a cyclone of it's own generation. The fire
first struck Hinckley on the east side of
the Duluth track ,and the brave fighters for
the first time gave up the unequal battle,
and, already too late in many instances,
turned their attention to their personal
safety.
The Eastern Minnesota train from the
south had just come in, and the panic
stricken city flocked to it for safety. A
mum ber of box cars were coupled Oh and
filled and covered with men, women and
children, some of them bareheaded and
coatless. Some of them clutched a bundle
of the more precious of their possessions.
Families were separated, and in all this
there was a motley crowd of 400 or 500
people. This circumstance, while fortu-
had made the confusion greater, for it is
not known who escaped in this way, and
many 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 been increased, for their
presence would have added immeasur-
ably to the subsequent confusion.
HEROIC ACT OF AN ENGINEER.
About the same hour an accommoda-
ton train on the Hinckley and st. Cloud
twenty-five passengers. Its path lay di-
rectly across the path of the fire, and their
situation speedily became desperate.
The ties were burning. and the rails were
sagging. The smoke had increased so
the ngineer was helpless. He could not
see the train behind him. Burning trees
lay across the track and were being
tossed aside by the engine. Suddenly
the track gave way, and the train toppled
off to one side. No one was injured, and
they pressed on 10 Pokegama station.
But few feet ahead of the engine was
discovered gorge sixty feet wide where
the trestle had been burned away. They
succeeded in reaching the clearing about
the station and escaped with few burns
and bruises. There we're burned along
the track, however, four or five people.
The people who were left in the city
were in what seemed to be an almost
helpless condition. Egress by the only
means of transportation that could hope
to distance the rapidly 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. Horses were har-
messed TO buggies and wagons. Women
and children were hurriedly loaded;
probably 200 of them left town on foot or
in vehicles. plunging into the woods
north, across the Grindstone River, which
skirts the river on the north. They were
literally fleeing before the pursuing
demon. Some of them abandoned their
teams and ran into the lower portions of
the swamp, but the fire sought them out.
None were left to tell the tale, and this
morning, in space of a little more than
five acres, were counted over l30 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
burned every vestige of their clothing
and charred many of the corpses, render
ing many of them unrecognizable.
Those who tled to the north on foot fol-
lowed the Duluth track, and SO rapid was
the progress of the flames that many of
them were actually burned as they fled,
falling on the right of way for distance
OF three miles or more. Nearly thirty
bodies were recovered along here, some
of the foremost children escaping.
Citizens met the Duluth train coming
in from the north. 1t was due at Hinckley