Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Albany Fire Victim Found.

April 1, 1911, The Oelwein [Iowa] Daily Register, Page 1, ALBANY FIRE VICTIM FOUND, Salvage Corps Is Searching Debris at Capitol for Valuable Manuscripts.

Albany, N.Y., April 1.—The body of Samuel J. Abbott, night watchman and the one victim of the state capitol fire was found on the fourth floor in the southwest corner of the building, where the flames raged most fiercely. The body was charred beyond recognition, but identified by means of a watch.

A volunteer salvage corps, including officers of the state library, and headed by Library Inspector James R. Wyer, Jr., and N. H. Stokes-Phelps of New York, continued to search the debris for valuable manuscripts.

Mr. Phelps, a man of wealth and leisure, who has specialized in the salvage of manuscripts, reclaimed many old manuscripts from the wreak of the burned Turin library in Italy.

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