Iowa Old Press
Hawarden Independent, July 22, 1926
MET TRAGIC DEATH TUESDAY
Mrs. J. W. La Grone Victim of Gasoline Explosion
Lived Several Hours After Accident.—Son Badly Burned in Attempt to Save His Mother
A gasoline explosion in the home of Rev. J. W. LaGrone about 4:30 Tuesday afternoon resulted in fatal burns to Mrs. LaGrone and very serious burns to her 16-year-old son, Hiram, which he suffered in his attempt to beat out the flames which enveloped his mother following the explosion. Both were immediately rushed to the Hawarden hospital where Mrs. LaGrone passed away at 5:30 that evening. Hiram is still at the hospital where he is suffering from burns on his hands and arms about half way to his elbows, and also as a result of inhaling gas fumes. He also received slight burns on his face and ears. He was resting easy this morning and expects to be able to return home Friday.
Mrs. LaGrone was engaged in cleaning clothes with gasoline in the basement of her home when the explosion occurred, while her son was assisting her in the work of hanging out the clothes. Always before when she had cleaned clothing with gasoline, she had done the work out of doors, but owing to the extreme heat on Tuesday she decided to carry on the work in the basement. She had about five gallons of gasoline poured out into a number of open vessels in the south end of the basement. There had been a fire in the laundry stove in the north end of the basement and it is believed that some sparks from this stove were carried across the basement and ignited this gasoline, causing a terrific explosion and completely filling the basement with gas fumes and instantly enveloping Mrs. LaGrone in fire.
Hiram LaGrone was just at the head of the stairway leading to the basement when the explosion occurred. Realizing the critical situation, he rushed to his mother’s rescue and attempted to beat out the flames with his hands but making little headway in this attempt he began stripping her clothing from her body and removed all her garments except her shoes and stockings. Rev. LaGrone, who had left the basement just a minute before the explosion and was upstairs in the house, attempted to reach the basement but found the flames had reached the door and prevented his entrance down the stairway. He called to Hiram to take Mrs. LaGrone to a basement window. The glass was broken and Mrs. LaGrone was lifted up through the basement window. She was wrapped in a blanker and immediately conveyed to the hospital.
Mrs. LaGrone was momentarily stunned from the force of the explosion and did not immediately realize what had transpired and she was in a daze until her rescue was effected. She was fully conscious from then, however, until 7 o’clock and she breathed her last about three hours later. Her entire body, except her abdomen and lower chest and the bottoms of her feet, was deeply burned and the physicians who attended her estimate that fully five-sixths of the body surface was seared with the flames. She realized from the first that her burns were fatal and asked that telephone messages be sent to Rev. Maurice P. Arrasmith of Sheldon, Dr. F. E. Mossman of Morningside College and Dr. R. L. Stuart of Newton asking for their prayers.
After Mrs. LeGrone had been removed from the basement, Hiram LaGrone, under the mistaken impression that his 6-year-old brother, John, was still in the basement, again dashed into the gas filled, blazing basement when he suffered additional burns. He was taken to the hospital along with his mother.
Following the explosion a fire alarm was turned in and the firemen succeeded in extinguishing the blaze in the basement without extensive damage by use of the chemicals. A second fire broke out in the LaGrone home about 6 o’clock when flames were carried up a cold air shaft into the dining room but this also was extinguished with slight damage.
Rev. LaGrone and family came to Hawarden in October of last year when he assumed the pastorate of the local M.E. church. They came here from Sheldon where he had served as the M.E. pastor for several years. They had also lived at Estherville, Kingsley and other points in northwest Iowa where Rev. LaGrone has held pastorates. Besides her husband, Mrs. LaGrone is survived by two daughters, Julia, aged 20, and Dellora, aged 16, and two sons, Hiram, aged 19, and John, aged 6. Miss Julia, who is a Sophomore at Morningside College, has been working this summer at Grand Lake Lodge, Colo., and is expected to reach home tonight. The other children are at home. Mrs. LaGrone’s parents reside in Texas.
Few catastrophes in the history of this city have plunged our citizens into deeper sorrow than the tragic death of Mrs. LaGrone. While her residence here has been but of short duration, yet during the few short months of her association with Hawarden people she won the highest admiration, love and esteem of all those with whom she came in contact. She was profoundly sincere in her practice of everyday Christianity and shared actively with her husband the burdens, responsibilities and labor of love in the conduct of his pastorate. Only the day before the terrible accident which snuffed out her life, she had returned from the Epworth League Institute at Lake Okoboji where she had mothered a party of young people in attendance at the sessions.
It is difficult to reconcile so terrible a fate as befell Mrs. LaGrone, yet realizing that death was at hand she maintained peace of mind in recognition that through some non-understandable reason the will of God was being performed. There are hundreds of heavy hearts in the community as the result of her tragic death and hands are outstretched in sympathy to the members of her family who have been ruthlessly deprived of one who embodied the most sacred ideals of wife and mother.
Funeral services will be held at the Methodist church in this city at 10:30 Saturday morning. The services will be in charge of Rev. Maurice P. Arrasmith of Sheldon, with Dr. F. E. Mossman, president of Morningside College, delivering the funeral sermon. Interment will be made in Grace Hill cemetery.
Hawarden Independent, Hawarden, Sioux, Iowa, USA July 29, 1926
PASTOR’S WIFE LAID TO REST
Funeral of Mrs. J. W. LaGrone Saturday Morning Largely Attended
Sallie Toler, second child in a family of five children, three girls and two boys, was born on a farm near Kosiusco, Miss., on December 3, 1885. Her father died when she was only five years old and her mother when she was not yet seven. Then the children lived for five or six years with an aunt near the old home place after which the three girls went to live with an uncle at Crowley, La.
While living at Crowley she met the Rev. J. W. LaGrone, a young Methodist minister, and they were united in marriage on February 22, 1905, to which union were born four children, Julia Elaine, now 20 years old, Hiram Clarke, 19, Dellora Gates, 15, and John Warne, 6. After closing the Crowley pastorate the LaGrones were moved to Port Arthur, Texas, where Mrs. LaGrone was the faithful co-laborer during five years. Then with her husband she came to Iowa where during the four years from the fall of 1913 to October, 1917, they served the church at Kingsley, then two years at Clarion, four years at Estherville, two years at Sheldon and during October of 1925 came to Hawarden where they have been engaged since in a most happy administration of the Methodist church activities.
As a mere child Mrs. LaGrone was converted and together with other members of her family united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. At an early age she became a Sunday School teacher and a leader in Epworth League activities in her denomination. She has always loved her church and has never hesitated to make any sacrifice of her own personal comforts and desires if thereby she saw an opportunity to promote the church and the Kingdom of God. Having become the wife of a minister she counted it her highest privilege to give him her utmost co-operation in the promotion of every program projected.
Mrs. LaGrone was educated in the public schools and the city high school of Crowley, La., also a privately conducted seminary known as the Crowley University School of Science, and besides her church activities she has been an active worker in Woman’s Club and the Eastern Star. In fact no cause vital to the best interests of the community in which she lived long went without her active support and championship. She was a Sunday School teacher of marked ability and usually built up a strong class wherever she taught. At Estherville she took over an organized class and taught it for some time with great profit to herself as well as the class. At Sheldon she had a wonderful class of more than one hundred members and at Hawarden she had built up a class which she loved very dearly. This large ability as a Sunday School teacher and general church worker made her especially effective as a minister’s wife.
Her health had not been the best for the past three months so she sought a little rest when she went to the Lakes on July 9th for a few days quietness but true to her usual self while there she mothered a company of Epworth League young ladies and was very happy in so doing. The Institute over, she returned to her home on Monday, the 19th, and early Tuesday was about the affairs of the family and the home. She was so engaged when shortly before five o’clock in the afternoon an accident, caused by the explosion of some gasoline, brought her life to an unexpected end.
After the explosion she was hurried to the hospital where she received the attention of several doctors and nurses but the injuries had been too severe for her to withstand and after a few short hours at 9:50 o’clock she fell asleep very quietly leaving to mourn her going besides her husband and four children, two sisters, Mrs. E. L. Jones of Kosiusco, Miss., and Mrs. Charles Kimbrough of Ida Bell, Okla.; two brothers, John Toler and Victor Toler, both of Port Arthur, Texas; several uncles and the aunt with whom she lived as a child.
Funeral services were held from the Methodist Episcopal Church Saturday morning, July 24th, at 10:30 o’clock with the Rev. Dr. M. P. Arrasmith, Superintendent of the Sheldon District in charge. He was assisted by the Rev. Dr. Stuart of Newton, Iowa, and Dr. Frank E. Mossman, President of Morningside College, who preached the sermon. Music was furnished by the regular church choir and ushers and pall bearers were selected from among the members of the official board of the church. More than a dozen ministers, together with their wives, were present. About two hundred men and women came from the churches formerly served by the Rev. Mr. LaGrone where Mrs. LaGrone had made many substantial friends. The floral offerings were many and of beautiful design. The local church did all within the power of men and women to lessen the sorrows of the family and to make possible the bearing of so heavy a blow. The whole community in fact was deep in sorrow and instant in the expression of sympathy. The body was buried in Grace Hill cemetery.
Fred Hatton Dies Suddenly
Fred Hatton, who was born and raised near Ireton, in Washington township,
but
who had resided in LeMars for the past ten months, died very suddenly in a
hospital there Sunday morning, (July 25, 1926). The exact cause of his death
is not known and the attending physicians held a post mortem and his vital
organs were forwarded to Iowa City to a pathologist who will make an
examination and report the cause of his death. When he doctor arrived Mr.
Hatton was bleeding from his nose and he lived only a very short time after
he
reached the hospital. Mrs. Hatton stated that her husband, who had been
working on a farm of late, spent last week at home as he was complaining of
illness. She stated that she wished to call a doctor during the week, but he
refused as he thought he would soon be all right again. Sunday morning he
remained in bed late while Mrs. Hatton was about the house doing up the work
and about eleven o'clock he suffered a severe attack of bleeding from the
nose
and she attended to his wants and called for a doctor.
Fred Hatton was born near Ireton July 11, 1886, and so was 40 years old at
the
time of his death. He was united in marriage with Miss Ethel Coon November
30,
1907, and this union was blessed with four children who survive him. The
children are Lura, age 17, Wayne, age 14, Iris, aged 10, and Ella, age 11.
He
is also survived by two brothers, Thomas of Hawarden and Albert of Sioux
City.
Most of his life was spent on a farm but on September 1, 1925, he moved with
his family to LeMars, where Mrs. Hatton has been employed in a store, while
he
worked on a farm near LeMars. Prior to his moving to LeMars he was employed
in
the J. P. Riter Implement house at Craig.
Funeral services were held at the Baptist church at LeMars at 2 o'clock
Tuesday afternoon (July 27) and interment was made in the Ireton cemetery.