Hemingray Glass Company - Muncie, Indiana

FROM ANOTHER SOURCE.

THE L. E. & W. SWITCHING CREW DENY THE CHARGES.

They Say the Fire First Started in the

Warehouse and Was Not Caused by a Spark

From the Engine.

Interesting Notes of Big Blaze.

A Times man was among the hundreds of people who visited the scene of Saturday's great conflagration which destroyed the Hemingray and Over glass factories. In the crowd present was Charley Yeager, a well-known citizen residing on Seymour street and for many years employed in the L. E. & W. switching yards. Charley is under the instructions of yardmaster Charley Weis of the belt crew who was at work near the burned factories when the fire started. In talking to the Times man, Mr. Yeager emphatically denied the general report that a spark from the engine started the fire. He said that he was one of the first to discover the fire and it was then raging in the Hemingray ware room. They had just set some cars on the Hemingray siding and noticing the danger of the cars, an effort was made to get them out but when the engine was shifted on the track, the fire had spread to the cars and they could not be attached. The cars were on an incline and the blocks of wood were knocked out from under the wheels but a single break held them and the seven cars were burned. All were L. E. & W. cars but one, L. S. & M. S. One car was loaded with lime for Over but had not yet been delivered and the company is the loser. Another car was loaded with insulators and was ready for shipment to Chicago by the Hemingrays. A car load of sand for Mack Bros., brick manufacturers, was also in the bunch.

But one or possibly two of the Over ovens were saved, the others will have to be rebuilt.

Photographer Arrowsmith was on hand yesterday and photographed the ruins at the request of several of the employees.

Mr. Over states that the reporter for another paper was in error in stating that $2,000 had been stolen from the office safe.

Much of the molten glass at Over can be used as "cullet" which is very necessary in glazing new pots and a great deal of it an be worked over.

Harry Dwyer, employed at the Hemingray factory lost a coat that some person took by mistake. Leave the garment at the Hemingray office.

The swing hole and cave and the pots in the furnace at Over were not damaged and probably two car loads of glass was saved.

Jake Gillenwater was at work at the Hemingray factory yesterday keeping the big furnace heated up. The furnace represents several thousand dollars and is uninjured.

The nerve of some people was demonstrated during the fire. One of Hemingray's employees approached treasurer Robert Hemingray and demanded his money. He got it.

Martin, son of Leroy Carey, a small carry-out boy, aged twelve, employed at Hemingray had a close call from being cremated. The lad had gone in the shed and lay asleep near where the first fire started. Some men remembered seeing the boy and dragged him out just in time.

After the fire had worked destruction the rain came which prevented Hemingray from starting work this evening as they had expected to. The half dozen ovens were not injured until the rain fell on them and caused a general collapse of five out of the six and work will not be commenced to-day, but Mr. Hemingray has notified his patrons that the factory will be rebuilt and in full blast within sixty days.