A TERRIBLE ACCIDENT.
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Seven Men Buried Alive Beneath a Mass of Brick.
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THE FRIGHTFUL OCCURRENCE AT AU SABLE.
On Monday afternoon the citizens of AuSable and Oscoda were suddenly thrown into a state of excitement and terror, by the announcement of a horrible accident which had occurred at Gram's mill burner, by which five persons lost their lives, seven in all being victims to the terrible calamity. The particulars of the sad occurrence we glean from the Saturday Night extra of Wednesday, as follows:
"There were seven men at work in the burner at Gram's mill. They were Joseph W. Biddle, Thomas Mitchell, George Fulton, John Hardwick, William Miner, George Santerneau, George Gordon. The men were engaged in taking down the brick wall of one of the refuse burners of Gram's mill. A scaffolding had been built inside the burner, and upon the scaffolding the men worked and upon it the brick was also laid as they were taken from the wall. The men began taking the wall down from the top. They had been working in the burner about a week and had the walls about half down. The brick from the part of the wall already taken down were of course lying on the platforms of the scaffolding above the heads of the workmen. While the men were engaged at work, continuing the tearing down of the wall--with about 20,000 brick, or from 40 to 50 ton's weight, above them, the scaffolding gave way, and in an instant the seven men were buried beneath this immense amount of brick and the lumber and timber of which the scaffolding was made. The alarm was given by Michael Gerrard, who was working but a few feet from the burner. Before an hour had passed there were from 1000 to 1500 men collected at the scene of the accident. The task of uncovering the men was begun as soon as possible after the accident occurred, but under the circumstances it was a very slow job. The bricks, and lumber composing the scaffolding, had all to be thrown out through two small openings--two feet by two and one half--and of course only a small number of them could work at a time. The scaffolding fell about half past four o'clock. At half past seven the first body was reached and taken out. It proved to be that of Joseph Biddle. A short time after young Gordon was taken out alive and seemingly not fatally injured, though at this writing his recovery is doubtful. A few minutes later Fulton and Santerneau were taken out, the former alive and the latter dead. Then the bodies of Mitchell, Miner, and Hardwick were taken out in the order named, it being about nine o'clock, or four and one-half hours after the accident, when the last body was removed. When the scaffolding fell some of the scantlings happened to wedge in such a position that they kept the principal weight of the brick off from Gordon, and he was able to converse at intervals with the men who were removing the brick. The men could also hear groans from one of the other imprisoned victims--probably Fulton, he was the only other one taken out alive. Five of the victims--Biddle, Fulton, Miner, Santerneau and Hardwick--were married men with families.Mr. Hardwick, familiarly called "Happy Jack," leaves a wife and six children, the oldest a daughter of seventeen. Mr. Biddle leaves a wife and two children, Mr. Miner the same. Mr. Fulton has a wife and three children, and Mr. Santerneau leaves a wife and baby.
Later.--Fulton died Wednesday evening.