Excerpts are from the Duluth Evening Herald evening edition, published Monday, September 3, 1894.
The Hinckley Sufferers.
Chester A. Congdon, of the firm of Billison, Congdon & Dickinson, reached home today via the Wisconsin Central as the result of the Hinckley disaster. He had been to the Twin Cities and got as far as Rush City on his way back but could get no further this way on the St. Paul & Duluth, so made the circuitous route. He said to a Herald reporter this afternoon:
"I talked with about twenty people who were in the fire or who visited the scenes. Up to within fifteen minutes of the time Hinckley burned, the people thought they had the town saved. All at once there was a loud explosion and the place was wrapped in roaring flames. Many rushed to a small stream near the town and lay in that. The cattle rushed in there and tramped on the fugitives. I saw one man whose back came near being broken by a cow tramping on him.
"Some who had teams started to escape with those but all such are supposed to have been lost. A rush was next made for the Eastern Minnesota depot where a train was standing. For some reason, the train could not wait, anyway it pulled out and left a lot. They made for the gravel pit and one man told me that he counted to 103 dead bodies in that depression between the tracks.
"A man named Kelly rushed for a pool of water when he saw the flames coming. He reached it and found a dead woman there. Tearing a piece off her dress, he put it over his face and kept splashing the water over it. Another man said, 'Kelly, I've got to go.' 'I'm going to hang on as long as I can,' replied Kelly. In a few minutes, the flames had passed. The man who had spoken and another man near him were dead. The piece of cloth from the dead woman's dress had saved one man's life."
People Who Want Relatives.
There are many missing people and their friends and relatives are becoming anxious.
Inez Gorman is wanted. When last seen she was with a man who carried her from the burning limited.
Mrs. McIver and four children and Mrs. Dunn, her mother, are at 520 West First street. Mrs. McIver wants to find her husband and brothers Frank, Thomas and Daniel Dunn, and her father's father Thomas Dunn. Will Mr. and Mrs. John McDonald, from Hinckley, find her at above address also?
Mrs. John Puttrud and one child are at 1722 Lester street, Lester Park. She wants to find her husband.
Mrs. Andrew Anderson, at 1722 Lester street, Lester Park, wants to find her husband.
Two boys, Ram, want to find their father and mother.
Young girl, named Johnson, wants her stepfather and mother, named Sherburg (central committee).
Turner hall can be used after tomorrow for the relief of the fire sufferers. It has been donated to the general committee.
Johnson & Moe, proprieters of the department store at 2104 West Superior street, will donate 3 per cent of their sales this week to the relief fund.
Other excerpts:
Copyright 2008 by Melissa Warner
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