The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1908-01-16
DOYERTOWA'S DEAD
NUMBER ABOUT no
BODIES OF 167 VICTIMS ALREADY
TAKEN FROM RUINS.
THE TOWN DAzED BY GRIEF
Several Families Entirely Wiped Out
Reading Railway Gives Time
ly Help in Recovery
Of Corpses.

covering the dead from the ruins Of
The Rhoades opera house, where Mon
day nights holocaust occurred, the Of
fetal roll of victims numbered 1877.
Whether any more bodies are burned
beneath the ruins cannot be positive
ly stated, but it is the belief OF those
who had charge OF the gruesome work
that about all of the dead have been
removed and that the total list Of vic.
tins will not go above no.
The ratio OF women and girls to
and boys is about nine to one ~
work of Identification was not begun
until Wednesday.
The inhabitants Of the little borough
In the Berks county hills are stupefied
by grief. The calamity is especially
terrible when it is realized that the
population OF the place is only about
$500, and has paralyzed the town and
the people are going about dazed.
They do not realize what has hap
pened and cannot believe that the
loved one, friends, or acquaintances
we're lost In the awful panic and fire.
1t is safe to say that everybody in the
place either lost one or more f6la-
tives, or was intimately acquainted
with some who died in the fire. In
several cases whole families were
wiped out. If ever community was
truly in mourning it is the substantial
town of Boyertown.
Taking Out the Bodies.
1t was almost daylight Tuesday
morning before the flames were ex-
tinguished and rescuers were able to
enter the ruins to remove the dead.
The morning was bitter cold and by
the time the benumbed and exhausted
firemen began the task of disentan-
Cling the mass Of burned beams and
twisted iron, the entire ruins were
coated with ice ana there was danger
Of the walls falling. The work went
slowly at first and 1t was seven o'clock
before the first body was removed
Coroner Strasser of Reading, who
reached the scene shortly after mid
night, had detail of men ready to
tag the bodies and keep a record Of
the description of every corpse re-
moved. The bodies were so badly
burned, however, that there was lit
tie to describe them by, and 1t is safe
to say that not half of the victims
will ever be identified.
The second victim was taken out
about an hour after the first and the
work Of recovery moved more rapidly.
BY noon the rescuers became thor
oughly exhausted from the cold and
hard work and for time the work
came almost to a standstill.
Railway Company Helps.
Fortunately the Philadelphia G.
Reading company sent w. H. Keffer,
superintendent of the Reading d.
vision, to see what the company could
do and he offered the company's as
sistance to Coroner Strasser. Chief
Burgess Kohler was unable to furnish
men to help and Coroner Strasser i'm
mediately availed himself of the rail-
roads proffer.
Within an hour the company had
two carloads of laborers and carpen-
ters on the ground and the work of
recovering bodies moved so rapidly
that victims were being taken from
the ruins at the rate of two every five
minutes.
There were many different stories
as to the exact cause of the panic and
fire and there were several rumors of
arrests, but the borough officials and
Coroner Strasser denied that any ac.
tion whatever had been taken.
Owner of Show loses Sister.
Wilkesbarre, Pa, Jan. 15.--Mrs. II.
f. Monroe Of Washington, owner OF
the Inflated show which was pro.
| duced at Boyertown Monday night,
was in this city Tuesday making
preparation to produce the play here
under the auspices of one of the
churches. When reporter told her
that her sister. Mrs. Della Meyers,
who she left in charge of the COM
pany, was dead, she tainted in the
newspaper mans arm. She valued
her property at $4,000. Mrs. Monroe
left for Boyertown at once.
An Awful Ordeal.
At nine this morning the mos
CHASTITY and sickening spectacle o
the disaster was enacted in the pub
lie school house. During the nign
three undertakers with their assistant.
sorted out the charred bodies anC
II
bones. and by daylight placed the sep
arate bodies, with their clothing Of
other means of identification, on sep
arate planks upon the school desks
When the doors opened the people
came in in single file and viewed th'
dead. More than one hundred bodies
We're thus laid out. AS fast as CRY
OF anguish announced the identitica
| ton Of the dead the body was hornl