Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 October 1909 — BOY BURNED UP IN BARN FIRE. [ARTICLE]

BOY BURNED UP IN BARN FIRE.

Eight-Ymr-Old Son of Bon Smith the Victim. PROBABLY STARTED THE FIRE And Then Hid In Manger, Where His Blackened Body Was Found After the Barn Was Burned to the Ground—Was Feeble-Minded Child and Not Responsible for His Acts. a feeble-minded child, met a terrible death Thursday afternoon in the burning of the barn at his father’s home at the extreme northeast corner of town, which occurred at about 4:30 p. m. Mr. Smith was not at home when the fire started and Mrs. Smith had stepped over to a neighbor’s, intending to get back home before the boy came from school. He got home first, however, and is supposed to have gone into the barn and been playing with matches and set it on fire. He then either hid in the manger or the fire got to burning so rapidly that he could not get out. X The ‘nre alarm sounded and the fire department made a run to the scene, but the building was then doomed and the nearest hydrant was probably 1,000 feet away, so that no water could be thrown on the Sarnes. The chemical extinguishers were used to keep the fire from spreading, and it was not known that anyone was in the building until Jill was over. Then the boy was missed, and, as no trace could be got of him, a search of the ruins was made and the charred and blackened trunk, with arms and legs burned completely off and only an unrecognizable bundle of cooked flesh that had little appearance of once having been a human being, was found. No outcry whatever was heard, and no doubt the bo/ was suffocated before the flames reached him. It is to be hoped so, at least. The funeral will be today at 2:30 p. m, at the M. E. church. There were several tons of hay in the barn, which was a cheaply built affair, and from the building the fencing and fruit trees and grape vines near by were set on fire and killed. Mr. Smith carried some insurance, but we are tinable to say how much.