The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1903-01-07
THE EARTH YAWNED
And Swallowed Up Two Hotels a2G
Several Houses.
phant, Pa. Wr..ch is Built
Over an Abandoned

Abardoned workings OF the Eddy
Creek colliery Of the Delaware and
Hudson company, beneath the very
heart Of the town Of Olyphaut. cared
in Friday evening and engulfed four
frame buildings covering an aggregate
ground space OF six. thousand square
feet.
The settling was gradual and people
in the affected territory escaped with
out being Immediately endangered. y
gang Of men and boys who were at
work in the mine beyond the fall en-
counterea flooded dip" or depres-
sion in vein in making their way
out by a circuitouS route and had TO
swim from one rise to the other. No
one either above or below ground,
however, sustained any injury.
At 3 o'clock the settling began. At
SS30 it was no longer perceptible. in
the intervening half nour. ORrien,s
three story hotel. Miss Ann Evans
double dwelling, Mrs. Jane Ackerly,s
double store building and one-Story
barber shop were mound Of debris in
the yawniDg pit with the uppermost
part of,thc mound 70 feet below the
surface. O'Rrien's hotel, which
plunged first into the opening, has en-
tirely disappeared. \ few houses are
projecting over the edge OF the pit.
The vein that caveG in is ll5 feet be-
low the surface.
The settling started in the street
just in front of the hotel property.
The brick Street pavement was seen
TO be working and the telegraph poles
and trees along the euro were noticed
to be wobbling. The cause WIS at
once apparent and the alarm given to
all the neighborbood. Two sick
guests were removed from the hotel
and taken two blocks away to q pri-
vate house. Some attempt was made
at saving the contents Of the build
ings, but the rapidly Increasing size OF
the opening in the street put a stop
to this and everyone fed from the
neighborhooG.
Twenty minutes after the disturb
ance was frStnoticed the opening had
widened uatil it reached all the way
across the street and half way beneath
the O'Brien hotel Then with ter
rife crash, the hotel pitched for
ward, turned completely about and
land on it's roof in the bottom OF the
abyss. a moment later the adjoining
double dwelling Of Mrs. Evans fell
over the edge and demolished itself on
the ruins of the hotel. The Ackerly
double store building and the Evans
barbershop property Slid into the
chasm about the same time, and piled
themselves, broken and twisted on the
other debris.
1t is confidently believed there will
be no further settling but no one went
to bee Friday night in any building
within fifty yards of the disturbed
.erea. The property damage is esti-
mated at 1000. District Superin-
tendent Bennett, of the Delaware
and Hudson company went into the
mine and with a party of other 9TH
cials, made an examination about >
O'Clock. They came out and reported
that the settling had ceased. The
workings which had settled were IN
the unpermost Of the worked veins.
The timbers, it is explained by the
company officials, supported thin
roof Of rock, which in turn supported
stratas of quicksand and gravel ex-
i tending to the surface. The timbers
rotted, the root gave way and all
s~above then sunk into the pit. Up to
8 midnight no further disturbance had
Abeen reported.