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.
Tragic Death of John Miller, While Felling a Tree.
Last Saturday morning John Miller accompanied by Wentz Kripner went to the woods of Joseph Kreim about 1 mile south-west of this place for the purpose of cutting wood. They worked all forenoon and sat down to eat a lunch which was taken with them and immediately began work by cutting down a tree, the falling of which caused the accident resulting in Mr. Miller’s sudden and tragic death. When the tree began to fall Mr. Miller told his companion to get out of danger’s way and the next time Mr. Kripner saw him Mr. Miller was lying on the ground. Mr. Kripner hurried to him but all attempts to revive him proved futile. Mr. Kripner notified the Kreim family, who at once brought the news to this place. The remains were placed in charge of an undertaker and brought to the deceased’s home on the north-east corner of Main and Rossman streets. The limb that struck Mr. Miller was about six inches in diameter and eight feet in length. The skull was not broken but it is thought that death was instantaneous as a result of concussion of the brain–there being profuse bleeding at the mouth, nose and ears.
Deceased was a native of Washington county, Maryland, was 52 yrs., 4 mos., 6 das. old. For many years deceased resided at Lucas, Ohio, moving from that place to New Washington about six or seven years ago. He served in the late war and at the time of his death was on the pension roll. Deceased was married to Cecilia A. Douse in November, 1866, who survives him together with seven children and a host of relatives. Funeral services were held from St. Bernard’s church last Tuesday morning after which the remains were interred in the Catholic cemetery north of town. The grief stricken family has the sympathy of the entire community.