The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-04-09
A TERRIBLE FATE.
AN OLD GOLOReD WOMAN BURNED
WITH A HOUSE YESTERDAY.
She was Said to have been 100 Year
Old-Saw the British When they were
Captors OF Wilmington in the War OF
1919.

hannah Richardson. an old colored
woman. said to have been 100 years
old. met a horrible fate yesterday after
noon by being burned to death along
with the house in which she resided
with her daughter. at 1907 Loves alley,
between Nixon and Taylor and Fifth
and Sixth streets.
The old woman's daughter. Luna S.
Kelley. owned the house and adjoining
it she keeps a little cook shop. She had
left the old woman alone in the kitch-
in the cook shop when persons in the
neighborhood discovered that the house
was on fire. They ran over and gave
the alarm, and the Kelley woman
states that her first thought was of her
poor old mother. All the doors of the
house had been left open and the draft
going through mad caused the fire to
burn SO rapidly hat when she got to
.he front door the house was roaring
with flames and was full of smoke. She
tried to go in at the front door. but
the flames n smoke drove her back.
She -frantically "a around to the side
OF the kitchen with the hope of pulling
her mother out through a window, but
the fire had started in the kitchen and
there was no hope. In h meantime
a big crowd had gathered, and with ter
rible shrieks from the colored ONE
dozens of colored men also tried to get
the old woman out. but found it utter
ly impossible to approach the house
much less enter it.
An alarm of fire had been turned in
from box II. the time being 2:35 p. m.
and the firemen were promptly at the
scene. The house, however, burned like
a light-wood pile and was a seething
mass of flames when they cached the
scene. Streams OF water were thrown
had done their work so effectively that
only a few charred upright pieces OF
timber were left standing.
When the flames died wv SO the
kitchen could be approached, the charr-
ed remains OF the old woman We're
raked out. The lower limbs and one
arm had been burned off, n the
trunk was merely a smouldering harr-
ed heap that could not be recognized as
the remains Of a human body.
A Messenger representative had
known of the old woman for a num-
Der of years. and mention was made
nine years g that she was ~purpOrted
to have reached the hundredth yea of
her age. Her daughter was examining
the debris of the burned house yester-
day afternoon with the hope of getting
the remains of a Bible in which the
date of her mothers birth was record
ed. She did not remember the day OF
the month, but said the year was 1892
That would make her 100 ear old.
Whether the age of the old womar
is authentic or not is not known, but
she was a very old woman. Mr.. S. H
Terry says he new her Oldest son in
1866 and that then he a passed thu
age for exemption from poll tax. II
he was fifty years old then he would be
about eighty-five years OF age now
She has about forty children, gram
children, great grand children n great
great grand children. Her children
| say she has often told them about see,
ing the British soldiers in Wilmington
when this city was captured in the wal
of 1912. She also told them about hel
having seer many of the men who were
famous in the revolutionary period
She was able to walk about the room
but for a number of ear has been like
a child. For several years her mind
has been SO impaired that she did no
know n of her children, several o
\ whom live here in the CITY.
The house which was burned was in
sured for 200 with Messrs. J.. H. Boat
wright & son.. Underwriters. There wa:
no insurance on the contents and moth
ing was saved.