Omaha daily bee., 1899-03-01
MEET DEATH In A DIRT BANK
Two Men, Black and Kroner, Are Buried
Beneath Tons of Dirt,
o. P. READ sUsTAINs SERIOUS INJURIES
Jury Called in by the Coroner Re-
turns "A verdict Finding No Per-
son Was 90 blame for
the Accident.

At Council Bluffs at II o'clock yesterday
forenoon two men were instantly killed and
another seriously injured at the dirt bank
OF Wickham Brothers, on the Roher prop
erty at the north end of Eighth street.
The dead men are:
j. B. BLACK, Council Bluffs.
FRANK KRONER, Kansas.
Injured
c. p. Read, leg broken and badly bruised;
possibly internally injured.
without warning several tons OF dirt
which had become loosened by the action of
the frost, came tumbling down from
height Of about twenty-five feet. Black
Read and Kroner were working directly
underneath from where the mass of earth
fell and had not time to get out of the way
before it crashed down on them.
The bodies of Black and Kroner
were crushed and mangled in ter
rible shape. Read, who was standing
a little distance from the other two.
was struck by smaller section of the
falling mass and escaped with a broken leg
and severe bruises. Several of the other
men were struck by pieces of the frozen
mass that rebounded after it struck the
ground but only received slight bruises.
panic seized the other mon for
time and it was several minutes before
any of them started to extrcate their com
rades who had been buried in the avalanche.
When this was done both Black and
Kroner were found to be dead, and from
the crushed and mangled condition of their
bodies 1t was evident that they never knew
what struck them. Their heads were badly
crushed and the blood from their WOUNDS
had dyed the yellow clay deep
crimson. The bodies were removed to an
undertaker's rooms and the coroner notified
Read was taken as soon possible to st.
Bernard's hospital.
Black was a married man, living with his
family at 11s East Pierce street. He leaves
a wife and three children.
An Inquest is Held.
Frank Kroner was an Austrian by orth'
He was evidently 40 years OF age ana II
man Of fine physique. II Is thought tnat
he came here either from Leavenworth or
Atchison, Kan. The men with whom he
was working knew him only by the name
of Frank
Examination of the bodies OF the dead
men at the morgue showed that Black hau
a hole in the top Of his head ana was
crushed about the shoulders and chest, while
Kroner had deep cash in the back OF the
head and his face was crushed in. He had
washed and prepared for burial at the un~
dertaker's it presented a gruesome spectacle
The inuuest was held yesterday. afternoon
nv Coroner Treynor, the following being i'm
paneled as a jury: f. 7. Waterman, ). II.
Shuart and w. f. Duncan.
J. j. Wickham, who was in charge of the
gang shoveing at the bank. was the hrst
witness examined. He testified that the
men killed belonged to what was known as
the head gang" and that they were SHOW
cling directly in front of the bank. The
bank was not considered dangerous and no
blasting had been done at the place where
the accident occurred since last Saturday.
Some blasting had been done about 100 feet
from the place Monday morning. Witness
was about 100 feet away at the time the
earth fell The men killed were shovel
ing the dirt into wagon at the time
and he believed that when they were struck
the force of the falling earth threw them
against the wagon. Kroner was bleeding
profusey when extricated and his head
was against the hub of the wagon. Both
men were, he believed, killed instantly and
that neither of them spoke after being
dug out.
Verdict of Accidental Death.
B. p. Wickham, a member of the firm
testified that all precautions necessary to
guard the men working at the pit from
danger had been taken. They had not
looked for any dirt falling from the top
of the bank as in blasting the top, dyna-
mite had been used, ordinary powder hav-
ing been found not strong enough owing
to the dirt being so thoroughly frozen
There were no indications of anv split or
breaking away in the top of the bank
which only overhung very slightly. They
had tried to break Off the dirt from the
top of the bank Saturday afternoon with
crowbars, but 1t had resisted all their ef-
forts.
Ed Klotz, Henry Marshall Michael Nc
Garland and w. d. Head all of whom
were shoveing dirt at the time were placed
on the witness stand. They described the
accident and their testimony, was to the
effect that no danger had beeh anticipated
AT the place where the men met theii
death. Mcfarland had a narrow escape
as he was standing close to Black vher
the earth fell. He said they had been
working there about half an hour when the
bank came tumbling down without a second S
warning. Their testimony showed that the
mass of earth fell in two large chunks, one
of which struck Black and the other Kroner
/ and Read. The men who were killed were
! standing between the wagon and the bank
/ hehu saiu ne lhousht the pHhh prohe pdcH
about three feet deep and came tumblng
! down in two large sections.
! The jury brought in a verdict to the
| effect that the death of the two men was
! the result of the accidental falling OF dir
! from the bank and that the accident was
/ unavoidable.
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