HARTBAUER, Mathilda 1868-1874

HARTBAUER, HARTFORD, BARTHELL, BARTEL

Posted By: S. Ferrall - IAGenWeb volunteer
Date: 10/13/2022 at 15:16:20

A Terrible Clamidy - A Little Child Burned to Death in this City
Our citizens were horrified to learn, last Monday evening about 4 o'clock, that a little girl, six years old, daughter of Mrs. Hartbauer, on Front street, had been burned to death. The particulars, as given us by the mother, are as follows.

The child had been to school and came home as usual earlier than the other children. Mrs. Hartbauer was away from home at the time, having about fifteen minutes before the accident, stepped into the Union House, just next door. The child not finding any one in the house attempted to light a fire in the stove for the purpose of making some molasses candy, as her sisters frequently did.

Her clothes caught fire, and in a very short time the poor little thing was burned to a crisp, every stitch of clothing, except her shoes and the feet of her stockings, having been burned off from her.

One of the other children having come home noticed the smoke coming out of the room and ran and told her mother, who immediately went into the house, saw the child lying on the floor and several articles about the room on fire. She seized a pail of water and dashed in on the child and the burning places in the room, and by this time assistance arrived.

The child was so horribly disfigured that the mother took it to be one of her neighbor's children, and did not know the difference until she saw the shoes and stockings still remaining on its little feet. It presented an awful looking sight, it's hands were charred and drawn out of shape, the skin dropped from its face and other parts of its person, and there was a look of terrible agony in its features.

The child must have run about the room after its clothes took fire, for fire was scattered around and the lounge was also burning. It lay near the door and was probably trying to get out when the flames suffocated it and put it out of its agony.

The funeral took place yesterday.

~North Iowa Journal, Wednesday, May 6, 1874; pg 3

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From Lansing, Special correspondence of the Dubuque Times, May 8 - A little child of Mrs. Hartbauer, residing over Dignan's saloon on Front street, was burned to death on Monday. The mother had gone for a moment to a neighbor's house, when the girl came home from the infant school, and tried to make a fire. Smoke issuing from the house alarmed the mother, who hastened back to find the child on the floor, dead and the flames starting in the woodwork. They were extinguished without damage to the property.

~Dubuque Daily Times, Saturday morning, May 9, 1874 pg 1

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Notes: This little girl was named Mathilda. The 'Woodmansee' cemetery book recorded her as Hartford, ? 1868-5/4/1874 and the Paul Moritz Oak Hill records as Hartbauer, ? with the same dates as Woodmansee, also indicating no gravestone. The 'Barthell Family Album' contributed by Sean Ryan, includes a daughter of John & Dina 'Anna' (Barthell) Hartbauer named Matilda, born 1868 with no DOD. Finally - the 1870 US census, City of Lansing, Lansing twp., Allamakee county, pg 8, 6/6/1870 enumerates the family of
Lena Bartel, HOH, age 33, saloon keeper, born Bayonne France [may be an indexing error], can not read or write
Bartel, Anna, 12, born IA
Bartel, Aletia, 10, born IA
Bartel, John, 8, born IA
Bartel, Caroline, 7, born IA
Bartel, Matilda, 2, born IA
Bartel, Lovina, 67, boarding, born [illegible]