The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1876-04-13
The Awful Death of Mrs. Annie Pyle.

Mrs. Annie Pyle, wife of John Pyle,
was burned to death. The details are
indeed sickening and heart-rending.
John Pyle is an engineer on the tugboat
Magnolia, and has been married about
two years, his wife, who was then
Just seventeen, being a Miss O'Brien,
from Cincinnati. The couple have been
living at No. 81 Carter alley, which is
situated between Third and Fourth and
Main and Water streets, running paral-
lei with Fourth street. They occupied
one room on the second floor, and had
with them little brother of Pyle's wife.
Pyle was on the tug Magnolia when the
fatal accident occurred.
Martin Zom, a salOon-keeper on Third
street, and Martin Wathel, also saloon
keeper next door to the former, both of
whose places run back to Pyle's house,
noticed, while looking out of their rear
windows, smoke issuing from Pyle's
room. They both rushed out OF their
houses down into the alley as fast as they
could 60, and dashed up into the room
occupied by Pyle. The door was locked,
but bursting it open an awful scene burst
upon their sight. There lay Pyle's wife
on the bed, struggling in all the agonies
of torture, surrounded by flames, which
had communicated to the bed-clOthing
and were gradually burning up the poor
woman. They grasped hold of her and
carried her out into the hall, when her
little bother, who was almost frightened
out of his senses, managed finally to
bring a bucket of water, which was
throw over the dying woman, to whom
but q few moments of life were left.
When this had been done, she suddenly
staggered back into the room, fell on the
bed which had been on fire, and expired
The excitement that was Occasioned in
the alleys connected with Carter's alley,
and all around the neighborhood, was
tremendous. Everybody came rushing
into the place to gaze upon the dead
woman, and the fire, which had burned
some of the bed-clothing and one or two
stools, was with difficulty extinguished.
The sight presented by the corpse is
almost indescribablc. The flames had
crept over her from head to foot, leaving
no spot unmarked by their ravages. Her
hair was burned almost entirely off,
while her eyes popped out of their
bOChCbSy duu buC ldCC was budb vi a grin
ming, CHASTITY, charred skeleton. The
nose almost gone, the lips compressed
tightly together, the skin of the throat
and neck was rolled up, being cooked
dry; the breast and back were baked
brown, and her entire body was roasted.
The ignorant spectators seemed I'M
disturbed by the fearful spectacle, but
gazed on unmindful of the awful appear
ance of the body.
Explanations as to the cause of the
accident were various, but only one
seemed very probable. Until within the
past three months the dead woman was
subject to epileptic fits, but within the
last three months she had, it was thought,
been cured by medical attention, the fits
not having returned to her. The stove
used in the room occupied by her and
her husband is about two feet from the
bed. The supposition is that she was
suddenly seized with one of these fits,
fell upon the stove, and thence upon the
bed, when her clothes, which had caught
fire from from the stove, communicated
to the bed. Some supposed that, as she
was fond of smoking, the bed might have
caught fire from the pipe and then COM
municated to her clothes. This was not
very likely, as she was known to have
been a very careful woman. In a
pocketbook in her dress she had fifty
dollars. Pieces of the pocket-book were
afterward found with what remained of
her dress, but the fifty dollars was gone.
John Pyle returned from up the river
later in the day, and heard the sad news
of his wife's death as soon as he landed.