Warren County News Items

Accident—Falling in of the School House Roof

Contributor:	Transcription and image contributed by Judy Simpson 16 Jul 2004
Source:	The Western Star dated 2 November 1849 (obtained from Ohio Historical Society microfilm #19249
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We regret to state that on Wednesday morning last a serious accident occurred at the District School House now being erected in the upper part of town. The carpenters were all engaged at the roof—a part of them in shingling the half already framed, the rest in framing together the timbers of the other half—when the iron fastening which was intended to hold the heavy timbers of the roof together, gave way, and the whole frame of the incomplete part of the roof went down with a crash, carrying with it the joists and timbers of the second story, and lodging altogether below. Two of the men only happened to be engaged upon that part of the roof when the accident happened—Thomas Bonta and Thomas Sagerty—the former of whom went down with the roof and was almost killed, but the latter, after falling a few feet, caught hold with his hands to the only remaining joist, to which he hung suspended until Mr. Cowan, the contractor, could walk a distance of fifteen or twenty yards on the wall of the building and draw him up! Mr. Bonta, after the dust had settled sufficiently to see him, was released from the fallen timber, and conveyed home. His legs were found to be broken, and other parts of his body badly injured, but with good care and attention his physicians believe he will recover. The loss we understand is not over two hundred dollars, and the delay to the completion of the building only a few days. The badness of the iron, we are informed, was no doubt the cause of the accident.

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