The herald., 1897-01-17
DISPOSITION OF ORPHANS.
Solved by Managers Of a Texas
Asylum
FIFTEENl CHILDREN DEAD
As a Result Of the Orphans Home
Conflagration
The Victims Were Not Even Missed, but
Search in the Ruins Revealed
Their Charred Bodies
Associated Press Special Wire

Associated Press Special Wire
DALLAS, Tex, Jan. 16.-Fifteen girls
and boys are dead as a result of last
nights fire at the Buckner orphans
home and nine others are seriously
burned and crushed. Three of the in
jured, it is thought. cannot recover. The
awfulness of the holocaust was not fully
realized until today.
The fire, which commenced about 10
o'clock Friday night and ragged until the
boys dormitory was destroyed, did not
cool enough for a search for bodies in
the ashes until this morning. At that
time it was thought only five children
had been burned to death. When the
ashes had cooled enough to admit of a
search, scores of sympathizing friends
ard neighbors began the sad task of
finding the bodies OF the five whom it
was known had perished. The search
had been hardly instituted when the ter
rible truth that there were more than
five boies in the ashes was revealed. The
search continued until dawn, when fif-
Teen bodies had been found. The dead:
Oscar johnson, aged Is.
Bird Britton, aged 13.
Marion Britton and Milton Britton,
twins, aged 10, all of Dallas county.
Carlos Jones, aged 5, of Hunt county.
Willie Richards, aged 5, of Collins
county.
Grover Cleveland Marlborough, aged
IS, of Smith county.
Preston Cribbs, aged Is, of Fannin
county.
William Miller. aged T. oS Lamar
county.
Eugene Black, aged 8, of Callahan
county.
Virgil Nelson. aged 10. of Marion
county.
Arthur Edwards, aged 10, of Wise
county.
Oscar Howard, aged 5, of Cherokee
county.
Ray King, aged Q, of the Indian terri
tory.
Thomas O'Brannon, aged 6, died at
o'clock today from his burns.
The seriously injured are:
Dan Grace. aged 8, fatally burned.
Earl Doodle, aged 6, badly burned on
back.
Charles Boyd Friend, aged 10, serious
ly and probably fatally burned on face,
head, hands and arms and injured on
head from jumping from second-story
window.
Richard Zurmwaldt, aged IL. seriously
burned on head, face and neck.
Sadie Britton, aged II. hands burned
and ankle sprained from a jump from
the second story.
Walter Blockington Marlborough, aged
s, both hands burned.
Bennie Ware, aged 10, burned on both
legs.
Samuel Henderson. aged 10, burned
about the face. hands and arms.
When the fire was discovered the
alarm spread through the dormitories,
and 800 children rushed hither and thith-
er in the wildness of fright and panic
stricken confusion. The halls, porches
and stairway landings were thick with
the scorching smoke. The building had
stood for a number of years and was as
dry as kindling and burned with fearful
rapidity. The wind was blowing from
the southeast which drove the fire into
the building. 1t was eating it's way to
the three principal stairways when dis
covered, and the little fellows on the
second floor of the west wing were cut
off from any avenue of escape except the
windows. There were about ITO boys, be-
tween the ages of and IA. asleep in
these dormitories, many of them being
up stairs but they were the larger ones,
the smallest children being quartered on
the lower floor, with view to such an
emergency Even with this precaution,
some of the smaller ones were burned
to death, not being awakened by the
alarm or in such demoralized state
from childish terror that they did not
Know now 10 Ildhc tIelT way Oul. IHOSe
with most presence of mind followed the
larger ones, who jumped through the
windows. A few had the presence of
mind to save enough of their clothes to
dress themselves, but most of them es-
capped in night garments. The panic
stricken little ones did not stop even
after they were out of the burning build
ing, but fed in their wild terror as If
some nameless horror We're pursuing
them across mud and fields in every di-
rection. Some went to neighbors' houses
as far as half mile away and others
were found staggering along the lanes
in their scant nighties, crying as if their
hearts would break.
The people from the neighborhood
found the little fellows who had not
reached shelter by their cries and
brought them back to the home.
The loss on the building and Contents
is light, about $4,000, with insurance. The
n or,1e will he rphIlj1t