The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1900-08-07
TERRIBLE ACCIDENT
Two rlen Crushed to Death atWest
Liberty.

To the REPUBLICAN.
West Liberty, O., Aug. 6.-The 'hoo-
doc" which seems to have attached
itself to the new school building from
the beginning, developed in an appall-
ing calamity Saturday at noon, wiping
out two lives in an instant, in q most
horrible manner and spreading another
mantle of gloom over our little city.
Just at l o'clock the men were orderd
to go to work in the trenches which
are being excavated for the foundation
of the big stone school building.
Del Grimes, Aldo Spellman and Mack
McCune entered the east trench, which
was about Is feet deep, with high
bank of dirt piled above the top.
Grimes and Spellman had just reached
the bottom, and McCune had stepped
upon the scaffold used to throw the dirt
up on from the bottom, when without q
moments warning the east wall of the
trench gave way and buried two of the
poor fellows beneath the tons of clay.
McCune managed to escape, by some
strange fortune, more dead than alive
from fright. The alarm spread like q
prairie fire and in ten minutes half the
town was hurrying to the i'll fated spot
with shovels and set to work in des-
perate effort to release the entOmbed
men, hoping against hope and reason,
to save them, but one look at the trench
es which were nearly full and the men
at the bottom, was sufficient to make
all despair, but still men worked des-
perately and many were nearly over
come with the intense heat and excite
ment. Women wept, and men were
grave and silent.
1t was just one o'clock when the &C
cident occurred and with the most des-
perate kind of work it was one hour
and forty minutes before the body Of
Spellman was lifted from the trench
and two hours and ten minutes before
Grimes was taken out.
The faces of both men were badly
discolored and Grimes and was bleeding
at the nose and mouth; the latter when
found was standing erect pressed
against the west wall of the trench,
his broken shovel handle in his hands,
while Spellman was several feet away
and lay doubled up, crushed to the bot
tom, by the terrible weight, and nearly
every bone in him broken. The cor
oner was notified by telephone and both
bodies removed to Troyer's undertak.
ing rooms.
The walls of the trenches had been
examined just before noon and looked
safe on that side, but there had been a
small cave in at the northwest corner
in the forenoon.
After the letting of the contract for
the building, it was decided that to
make q secure and firm foundation, it
should go down to gravel and as this
was not part of the. contractors work,
Frank Ellis was made superintendent
and placed in charge of the work OF
bringing this part of the work up to
where the contractors work begun. 1t
proved to be long way to gravel and
necessitated the excavating Of trenches
20 feet deep. The trench in which the
accident occurred was about completed.
There seems to be difference of opin-
ion as to how the dirt came in; some
claim it started at the bottom Of the
trench and slid over, while others think
it was cavein from above. The awful
results are the same, however.
Aldo Spellman was 26 years old,
single, and lived with his parents or
the hill near Glover College. Del
Grimes was about IS years old ani
leaves family poorly prepared to bat
tie for an existence. Both were power
full young men. Grimes had insurance
which is good for S122.50.
The funeral of Aldo Spellman wa
held at the residence Sunday at th'
3 p. m. conducted by the Junior Order
of which he was q member. That o
Dell Grimes was held Monday at 4p. m
At this writing the verdict OF tn
coroner has not reached here.