Tallmon, Ada M. 1865-1877

TALLMON

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 5/2/2012 at 09:43:16

The Grinnell (IA) Herald; Aug. 16, 1877

--Last Friday afternoon, one of those ever-recurring and sickening accidents from the explosion of kerosene oil happened in this place at the residence of Mr. G.W. Tallmon, but which his daughter Ada, a girl about twelve years of age, was so badly burned that she died in a few hours. As near as can be learned the child had been pouring oil upon some fuel or shavings in the stove for the purpose of building a fire. Some fire must have been smouldering in the stove. The explosion blew the bottom out of the oil can and scattered the oil about the room and on the clothing of the little girl. Mrs. Tallmon was at work in an adjoining room. Hearing the explosion she rushed out and first rescued the baby who was near and then extinguished the flames about Ada, tearing off the skirt of her own dress for this purpose. Ada was horribly burned and died about 6 o'clock in the evening--three hours after the accident. She was a girl very much beloved, and her sudden and terrible death came like a thrill of horror to all who knew her.