New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-28
FOUR OF FAMILY
OF GEN. PERSHING
PERISH In FIRE
Wife and Children of Com
mander at Ell Paso Trap
ped in San Francisco.

San Francisco Aug. 27.-W Warren
Pershing, five years old. will be the
only member Of Brigadier General
John J. Pershing's family to welcome
the officer when he returns here from
FL PasO. Mrs. Pershing and the three
other children-Mary Margaret, six
years old; Anne, seven, and Helen,
eight-perished in a fire, which early
to-day destroyed their quarters at the
Preside of San Francisco.
General Pershing, who is command
ing troops on the Mexican border, left
II Paso when infored Of the fire. He
will arrive here Su iday. United States
Senator Francis +. Warren. of Wyom-
ing, father of Mrs. Pershing, will come
from Cheyenne.
Warren was being cared for tonight
by nurses at the Letterman General
Hospital at the Preside. He was taken
there when he was picked up uncon-
scious on the floor Of his bedroom by
rescuers, who crawled through the
burning house searching for Mrs.
Pershing and her four children. The
boy revived quickly. The others were
dead when the rescuers reached them,
sufocated, and their heads. hands and
feet were burned.
One Family Saved.
Mrs. Walter o. Boswell, a relative,
wife of Lieutenant Boswell. 21st In
fantry, and her maid leaped from the
porch roof to the ground after throw
ing Mrs. Boswell's two children down
to officers and men, VINO had been
aroused by her cries and the noise of
cracking wood.
IL is believed the fire was caused by
a night lamp. A burst of flame from
the roof of the generals big two story
frame house, which stands on the pa
rade ground, directly in front of the
headquarters fagpole, was the first in
timation Of the fire.
Mrs. Boswell was the first Of those
in the house to discover the fire. She
was aroused by the smoke. She awak-
ened her children and called to Mrs.
Pershing. Then she opened the door
to the hall. A gust of smoke drove her
back, and she saw flames in the hall
way. She took her children TO the
stairway, but found it cut off by fire,
and retreated through her room TO the
roof of the front porch.
The noise of the flames by this time
had aroused Lieutenant Eugene SAINTS
CHEF, 21st Infantry; Private c. ]. Haz-
lit and another soldier, who broke in
doors in the house. but were forced
back by the flames.
Children Thrown from Porch.
Then Mrs. Boswell, from the porch
roof, threw her two children, Philip
and James. three and six years old. to
the men below, still calling to Mrs.
Pershing. and jumped herself. Her
maid previously had jumped and had
been caught. Mrs. Boswell fell in
flower bed. wrenching her back She
was taken to the Preside Hospital
Warren Pershing was found uncon-
scious on the floor of his room by
Johnson, the Pershings' aged negro
servant, who led rescue party into
the house
The rescuers found Mrs. Pershing
dead on the floor with her arms across
one of the children. who was on the
bed The other two children were dead
on the floor.
Apparently the fire started in the
dining room, on the first floor. 1t de-
stroyed one corner of the house. burned
to the roof and caused it to collapse.
Investigation Is Made.
Major Henry II. Whitney. command
ing. the Preside, Immediately appoint
ed board of inquiry to investigate the
tire. The board found that two CRATE
fires had been burning in the house
last night. The course of the fire was