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.
BURNED TO DEATH.
Terrible Fate of Mrs. Wynn of Toledo a Former Resident of this Community.
Mrs. Sarah Wynn was fatally burned on October 1 in the following manner. About 11 o’clock on Thursday while occupied in getting dinner for the family and some boarders, the hired girl took a 2 quart can and drew it full of gasoline from a tank in an out building then went to the kitchen to fill the tank on the gasoline stove, but just as she entered the house Mrs. Wynn asked her to come to the pantry and roll out some dough as she could not do it on account of a lame arm. The hired girl set the can on a small table and went to the pantry and rolled the dough, then came out to fill the gasoline tank but just as she took hold of the 2 quart can the handle broke loose and a quanity of the oil was spilled on the floor and as Mrs. Wynn was standing near the cook stove which was hot making catsup and being not more than 2 or 3 feet away it is supposed that some oil fell on her clothing also on the stove and as the gas had been escaping all this time ignited filling the room with flames. Mrs. Wynn had no means of escape and was frightfully burned. Some boarders who were upstairs at the time heard the cry of fire! fire! from the daughter who was out side doing some work and one of them leaped from a window to the relief of Mrs. Wynn, but destruction was so rapid that before aid could reach her, her clothing was nearly all burned from her, three-fourths of her body being burned but her face was not marred. She walked out of the house before her daughter and the boarders could reach her being covered with flames. Quick hands soon extinguished the flames but all to late. After intense suffering she lingered 24 hours when death relieved her. She was conscious and bore her terrible suffering patiently, but did not beg to be killed as reported. The hired girls apron caught fire but she extinguished the flames by rolling on the ground; she did not receive any burns. The inside of the kitchen was all in a blaze from the evaporated gasoline but was extinguished in time to save the the building. It is said by those that were there that it would be impossible to imagine the aweful scene with out being present. It was one of those accidents for which no one was directly responsible. Henry Hageman, Mrs. Jas. Miller and Isaac Wynn were all in attendance at the funeral, she being a sister of the former.
