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CHILD BURNED TO DEATH.A Mother Called Home to nee a I.ittle Hon In Torment—Clothes Fired by a Flash from the Stove—Child runs on the Railroad Track Enveloped in Flames—Engineer Pulls off the Burning Garments, and is Himself Badly Burned—Child Dies in Misery.Tressea Keougb, a poor, hard working woman, residing near the Erie Railroad in this village, a short distance east of Robertson Corwin’s lumber yard was bereaved of her oldest child on Tuesday last, under circumstances of great affliction.She left her humble home at 3 o’clock on Tuesday afternoon, to do some ironing for a family in the village, and twenty minutes later, while she was at her labor, a neighbor rushed to her in breathless haste, and told her that her son Edward had been seen on the railroad track wrapped in flames fed from his burnicg clothes. She sped home and there she found her child lying in torment. Scarcely any part of his skin was unscorched, and in picaes it was burned so badly as to he all crisp. Pitying men and women stood by the little sufferer’s bed, but could not give him the least relief. Dr. Ira S. Bradner was speedily called in, and ho did what medical skill and knowledge could enable a physician to do to assuage his agony ; and the Doctor’s daughter, who soon after arrived at the scene of misery, remained to act as an angel of mercy to mother and son. Nothing, however, oould be done for the boy that would save his life, and at about half-past nine in tho evening his anguish was at end forever.His mother thinks that but little of what he said after the burning, was said in a conscious frame of mind; but the statement he made of the way in which the accident happened, was that he was sitting by the ooal stove nursing the baby, when a flash came out from the stove against him and instantly his clothes were ablaze. She says that on leaving the house the fire in the stove was burning quite strongly, and to prevent too great heat in the room,*and to keep the fire till her return, she turned down the damper and pulled out the slide of the draught in front; and it was through the front opening that the fatal flash was driven.It seems that at once the poor little fellow was overcome with terror. He dashed from the house and went up the railroad track writhing and shrieking. Some small boys ran up to him, but in their fright they were able to do nothing to save him. Just then a freight train was nearing the place from the east. The engineer stopped the train, hastened to the boy, tore off the clothes that remained on him, and carried him back to his home. In tearingoff the blazing garments, the engineer’s hands were badly burned, and one was blistered from wrist to finger end.This unfortunate little boy was about eight years old. His mother has two other children, one six years, and the other one year old. Her husband Edward, left his family on the first of last March, for New York, to obtain employment at his trade, that of a mason. On the 16th of that month she received a letter from him from that city, in which he stated that he was going to work the next Monday, and that in two weeks thereafter he would send her $30. Since that time Bhe has not heard of him, and no money has come; and ever since he left she has been obliged to go out from her children day by day to wash and iron to eurn the means of their support. When poor little Edward’s clotheH were fired, he was taking the charge of the house and the little ones, which his mother had been ! obliged to place upon him many a day before.
Newspaper Details
Middletown Evening Press
Middletown, New York, US
Thu, Sep 21, 1871
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Middletown T.
NY, USA 13 Mar 2024
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