Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 100, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1920 — LOST IN FOG; AVIATOR KILLED [ARTICLE]

LOST IN FOG; AVIATOR KILLED

Mail Airplane Strikes Tree and Burns Near Goshen. Goshen, Meh. 11. —Indiana's first fatality in the United States aerial mail service occurred yesterday when a flyer, identified by names on his clothing as Lieutenant Clayton Stoner, was burned to death near New Paris, in this county. The Chicago-Cleveland air mail route goes over New Paris and Stoner, it is believed, became lost in a fog, sought to find the Wabash railroad and swept so low that his plane hit some trees in a woods, causing his machine to crash to the ground and bury him under the wreckage. The gas tank exploded, causing a fire which ended his life and destroyed the plane. Stoner mlade several friends here three or four weeks ago, when he made a forced landing near this city. He called at the local postoffice and invited J. A. Bean, postmaster for Goshen, to accdmpany him to Cleveland, but the latter declined. At the time of the accident today he was on his way from Chicago to Cleveland and was unaccompanied.