The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-05-05
FUNERAL OF VICTIMS
WILL BE- HELD TODAY
Eight Bodies We're Buried Yesterday Amid Heart
rending and Tragic Scenes.
Total Number Of Dead is 253-Arrval Of Special Relief
Tran-StOreS Of Distress.
Especial to The Herald from stan Core
sDOndent)

Especial to The Herald from staf Core
sDondent)
Scofeld Utah May 4.-The most
peaceful work of all laying away the
dead. began this afternoon with the
burial of the Thomas family. Reluc-
family the caskets were placed in their
yawning receptacles. for, aside frSm
the sorrow that comes of the fact itself,
there was dismay on the part Of rela-
tives that the victims could not all be
buried at the same time.
They are too dazed to understand
that single burials would remove half
the horror They simply wall at every
new feature Of the catastrophe, 10
matter what it is
There We're two reasons for begin
ming the burial work today. One was
that the bodies are decomposing, or
were partially decomposed before be
ing rescued. They have been kept too
long already. Another was that all of
the available men in town was none
too many TO perform the work at hand.
AT $3.50 the remains Of Joseph Thomas
and Evan Thomas, Joseph Thomas, jr.,
and Freddie Thomas, being two fathers
and their two sons. were loaded into a
car at the charnal house, their relatives
partially filing a coach. The train
ran quickly down to Scofeld and onto
a switch at the side Of the road leading
TO the little cemetery.
Lumber wagons served as hearses
and grave diggers took the place of
white-gloved palI-bearers. The cas-
kets. with a few withered lilacs scat
tered over the covers Of each. We're
bundled into the waiting convevances.
which then moved on up to The mound
ed prairie on the hill
a MournfuI Procession.
The sight of that corteges viii never
be forgotten, A procession of wives
and sisters and mothers, blinded with
tears. nineteen small children among
them and I'VE babies in arms-heart-
rending falls far short Of being the
word to describe it, ana at the grave
side, two immense holes dug to receive
the bodies of father and son and father
and son, and mOurners shifting posi-
tons to peer first into one grave and
then into the other.
While the great clods of dirt We're
resounding on the coffin lids the im-
provised funeral carriages We're has
tening back to the cars for more bodies.
A Tragic Incident.
Miss Mary Jane Thomas, a daughter
of Evan Thomas, tainted while her
. fathers coffin was being lowered, and
almost toppled over into the grave. 1t
required two hours time to bring
her to.
A repetition of the Ditiful scenes oc-
CURED when william Samuels and his
step-son, Andrew Adamson, were laid
away. and after them Henry Wilson
and John Q. Davis. A loce widow and
two babies comprised the SamueIs
cortege, so far as that family was con-
cerned. Here is a case where there
are no relatives to bring comfort or re-
lief to the desolated home.
Those bodies buried today will be re-
membered in the services Of tomorrow.
Apostle Teasdale and David John. the
latter of Provo, were with the incon-
solable all day, while Mayor Earl su-
perintended the burial work
One Hundred and Fifty Graves.
one hundred and fifty men, seventy
five of the number being volunteers.
were at work in the cemetery by SIM
rise. and at O'Clock tonight their
work was finished. Each man had one
grave to dig, and enough had been
opened to receive all the dead recovered
to date, who are not to be sent else
where. c. W. Snow, surveyor for
the company. had direct charge Of the
grave digging.
The northwest quarter Of the Gene
terry is torn up, the graves being
scarcely three feet apart. There are
about 125 of them on a tract a little
over an acre in size. The remainder
have been made in various parts OF
the yard, being in the midst Of those OF
the same families who have gone be-
fore. In the Evans lot two brothers viii
be buried alongside their children, both
having lost four within the party.
Some Of the graves are double and
some viii hold three. They form a
gruesome spectacle.
Funerals Today.
Those experimenting the work have
prepared lists of those to be buried
but they are incomplete and great diff
ficulty is anticipated when it comes to
. asserting the baskets on the morrow
The bodies viii be brought down from
Winter Quarters in box cars and a big
train viii follow carrying the mourn
ers. The scenes Of anguish that viii
be witnessed in that over-flled Gene
terry are horrible to anticipate. It viii
be the burial Of whole families and
with the maddening cries OF frantic
women and frightened children, the
sobs and means Of strong men, a null
titude of broken hearts.
Lodges Are Active.
The lodges win take an important
part in the funeral, and IN the general
work of relief Representatives Of the
-@0re prominent orders are here. Many