NEWSPAPER ABSTRACTS FROM “THE CLEBURNE NEWS, Heflin, Cleburne County, Alabama

for JULY 1919

AGED WOMAN BURNED TO DEATH

News of the horrible death of Mrs. Brown, wife of W.Z. [William Zealous] Brown on Heflin, route 8, near Lecta on Monday was brought to town on Wednesday morning by Mr. W.J. Bell. According to the report, Mrs. Brown was in the act of starting a fire in the stove preparatory to cooking dinner and in pouring kerosene on the hot coals in the stove, the blaze ignited the oil in the can causing an explosion, enveloping the unfortunate woman in a solid mass of flame, all of her clothing being burned off with the exception of the waistband of her skirt. Although her entire body was burned to a solid crisp, Mrs. Brown strugged to the well not far away and poured dipperfull after dipperfull of water on her head and body.

At the time of the awful tragedy Mrs. Brown was alone, the rest of the family being away at work in the field. A neighbor woman gave an alarm and soon a large crowd of sympathetic friends had gathered and rendered what help possible to alleviate the suffering of this unfortunate woman but nothing that human hands could do gave any relief and at 5 o’clock that afternoon death came and ended her misery. Mrs. Brown was fifty-five or sixty years old and the mother of several children. The interment as at the Crumbley graveyard on Tuesday, the services being attended by a large number of neighbors and friends of the family.

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William Zealous (1866-1938) was brother to my G-G Grandfather, David S. Brown (1823-1956).