DEATH OF JOHN BAIR in Florence Siefert Scrapbook

This post was contributed to the Crawford County Chapter of OGS by Kristina Stearley as part of the Florence Siefert Scrapbook in 2010.

The scrapbook is compiled from undated, unidentified newspaper clippings involving events in the lives of Crawford County citizens living in or having connections to New Washington, Tiro, Shelby, Sulphur Springs, Chatfield, Bucyrus, Ashland, Mansfield, and other areas. Only minimal spelling or punctuation corrections were made. Unreadable areas are shown by underlines, dots &/or question marks. This collection has been scanned, “optical character recognized” (OCR’d), proofed, then coded for HTML by volunteers of the Crawford County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society. Since the copies are not of the best quality errors may have been made. Please contact us if you find corrections needing to be made or can verify any missing dates which could be added.

Dr. Chesney had a startling experience Saturday evening at the home of John Bair, residing one mile north of Olentangy, in Whetstone township. For a long time Mr. Bair had been taking treatment from Galion physicians for heart trouble, but on Saturday he evidently desired a change for he sent a messenger to Bucyrus for Dr. Chesney. The latter drove to the Bair home about 6 o’clock Saturday evening and was met at the door by the patient, who as regarded outward appearances was not ill. He conducted the doctor to a seat and took one himself in the corner of the room after which the two engaged to a conversation. Perhaps three minutes passed when the doctor asked him how long he had been ailing. He responded, “a long time,” and without a word of warning stiffened out and expired. The death was a decided shock not only to the doctor, but to Mr. Bair’s daughter, Mrs. Lawrence McMichael, who was in the room at the time. Seeing that the patient was beyond all earthly help Dr. Chesney returned home and notified a Galion undertaker by telephone to take charge of the remains. The deceased was born and reared in Pennsylvania and came to Crawford county when but a young man. He located in Whetstone township and resided there up to the time of his death. He was married to Rachel, daughter of John Shearer. She died some years ago leaving a family of five children. Mr. Bair continued to reside on the homestead with his son-in-law, Lawrence McMichael, managing the farm. The deceased was a prosperous farmer and was highly respected by all who knew him. He was about sixty-three years of age.