Excerpts are from the Duluth Evening Herald evening edition, published Monday, September 3, 1894.
An Awful Sight.
In an indiscriminate heap lay more than ninety corpses - men, women and little children, some burned to a crisp, others only browned by heat, and none with a fragment of clothing larger than a man's hand to conceal their awful nakedness...
The force of men were quickly at work digging a shallow trench along the south end of the cemetery. The sandy soil was as hard as flint. It had been baked to a crust by weeks of drought and almost solidified by fire. The work progressed slowly.
Off in a corner of the clearing two smaller graves were being dug. One was for Mrs. William Grisinger and her two baby girls, Caroline (aged 6) and Mabel (aged 30. The husband and father recognized them in a grisly heap and was hard at work preparing for them a final resting place apart from the trench designed for the unidentified, his labors dulling for a time the acuteness of his anguish.
Ten of One Family Dead.
The other grave was for the Best family, whose numbers made their destruction notable even in this time of death. John Best, Jr., was digging the pit with the friendly assistance of two neighbors. Laid in a row decently covered were the bodies of John Best, Sr., Mrs. Best, Mrs. Fred Best (23), Bertha (17), Mrs. Annie Wiegel, married daughter and her 3-year-old daughter Minnie; Miss Annie Annie Frautman, of Diamond Bluff, Wis., a visitor (26) and Victor Best (8). Two other sons, George (23) and William (21) are missing and certainly are dead. Of this whole family of three generations, only the sorrowing gravedigger and his wife and child, who took refuge in a dugout, are left. They all lived together about two miles southeast of Hinckley. The only others of these ninety odd who were recognized were Charles Anderson, cashier of the bank; Mrs. William Ginder and her daughter Winnifride, aged 6. One or two others were imperfectly identified, but it is largely guesswork.
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Copyright 2008 by Melissa Warner
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