The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1878-07-18
Four Children Burned 10 Death and
ImpaIed-Thelr Father IA.
tally Burned In Trying
10 save Them.

Parties arriving in the city broug hit
the particulars of horrible catsstrO-
phe which beiel q farmers family on
Friday night. About three miles
east Of Ricker's prairie lives John
Leonard, with his wife, married
daughter, and five younger children.
The house was q substantial log
structure, with an attic overhead and
summer kitchen on the south side,
the roof being so made as to connect
the house with the kitchen, which
stood the width Of hallway distant
from the main house. A pair OF
stairs in this hallway led up the attic,
from which there was no other egress.
On Friday night the five children
went to sleep in the attic, the older
people sleeping in the room below.
During the night, from some unex-
pIaiped cause, the kitchen caught
| fire, and before the danger was dis
covered the staircase leading to the
attic was in flames. The people on
the first floor had little difficulty in
escaping, for though the only door
was exposed to the intense heat there
was q window from which they easily
rained places of safety. But for the
children in the attic there seemed to
be no hope. The oldest was q boy OF
sixteen, and when the alarm reached
him his youth and inexperience were
not proof against the excitement oil
such an occasion. The solid walls Oi
logs imprisoned the children, and
the flames ragged and rOared at the
doorway, There was 3 little window
at the north end Of the attic, barely
large enough for a person 10 crawI
\ through, and it would seem thai
with proper management thli
might have become the means OF saw
ing all. But the father, in his frantic
efforts to reach the attic by the stairs
had got his clothing on fire and wa
so badly burned that he was entirely
disabled. There was no one TO diree
or manage for the children, and d
nally the oldest boy, having torn on
sash from the window, threw himsel
ont. leaving the four children to thei
} miserable fate. Their four corpse
were found the next morning charre'
to cinders.
But as though this was not enough
OF horror, still another tragedy has Il
, be chronieled in connection with tn
AuhlTs w Btu LILO DOg luhpCu lAOu
J the window he had only q shor
= twelve feet to fall and might easil.
, have expected to have got off wit
; but q few bruises; but as it happene,
q picket fence ran along under tn
, window about two feet distant from
3 the house. The palings were OF hAr
1 wood, split thin, and sharpened to lon
/ tspering points. In his terror th
3 boy had blIndIy east himself upo
: this bristIIng fence. The sharp point
o pierced his unprotected sides and i'm
r psIed him. The mother and sistG
3 lifted him from his fixed position, bU
!. life had forsskon him. The father
o injuries are so severe that there is iii
p tie expectation of his recovery. /
4 fact, be was reported dying Saturds
and before this time
a probably out OF his misery. Tt
VI Calamity is one OF the most extraO
e dInary and appalling that It is posa
Is bic to conceive as happening TO
II family living in small, low buildin
Il In the city In lofty tensments there
.t often danger that families will be C.
J. of, but il is almost an unparalleled
D. occurrence under circumstances Ill
n this.