Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-11-15
NOBLE SACRIFICE OF A TEACHER

She Might Have Escaped From the Burn
 ing schoolhOuse, but Ran Back Into tho
 Flames Alter a Little Hoy, and Both Per
 ished-HsIPsd All the Rest to Get Out.
 NUNDA, \. Y, Nov. i5.-Heroine May
 Porter, the daughter of a widow, paid the penalty of bravery with her life in the lit tie country schoolhouse at Cooperville, two miles from here. Her blackened, charred remains now lie in her aunt's house. Little Willard Johnson, son of Conrad Johnson of Cooperville, is a mass Of blackehed flesh-arms, head and leg
 gone. He was left in the teachers care by
 his father, who was going away for the
 day. The Cooperville schoOlhOuse shelters
 each day about 30 pupils of all sizes and all
 degrees, sons and daughters of farmers and
 railroad men who live near by.
 It was built 5n years ago and is a one
 story frame structure, with three windows ] on each side. Built out from the only en. trance is woOdshed, in which are stored oak logs for the stove in the schoolrOom. The ashes piled outside the woodshed were
 added to by a boy who built the fire Miss Porter noticed smoke floating by one of the windows and sent a small boy to open l the door into tue wOodShed to see what the matter was.
 As he did 50 the flames. which had en- veloped the she'd rushed out into the
 schoolroom, driving the boy, the other pupils and the teacher into the farther cor
 ner. Two older boys, Melvin and Charles Cham bers, stationed themselves at the
 window and passed the smaller children I through
 Back Into the Flames 1 Miss Porter aided in handing up her pu- | pills, the flames meanwhile rolling through
 the room above their heads. All the chil- 1 dren had been passed out except little Wil- | lard Johnson, and when he was sent up he did not understand the situation and ran back into the flames The teacher darted back after him, and the clothing of both caught fire, while the flames began to lap ] the window where the Chambers boys were aiding in the rescue They made one heroic { effort to pull the teacher through, then jumped through themselves.
 Outside they could see the teacher strug- gling to save the child by pulling him tu the window, but the roaring caldron was too hot, and they stood hack just as the two succumbed and fell into the flames { embrace.
 ! The fire soon burned itself out in the dry, seasoned timbers. Then the bodies Were l taken out. Miss Porter's clothing was completely gone. She was almost uureC- ! ognizable, while the boy had no semblance left to human being.
 Miss Porter's father and stepmother | lived in Wisconsin. She lived with her
 aunt, Mrs. Green, in Nunda. She was 2l | years old, pretty and popular among her
 associates. She had been here about a tear.
 The whole thing was over so quickly that | people could hardly believe it. No fire ! company could get there from Nunda be { cause the fire lasted only a few minutes | Very few people arrived on the scene until
 all was over, and these were helpless. l Miss Porter made no sound, but unfiinch- ingly stuck to her duty until her awful death came. The Johnson boy was not a regular pupil of the school. He was not old enough. He was only left temporarily in the teachers care.