The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1905-12-22
SIX BURNED TO DEATH
Series OF Fatal Accidents In Michigan
Result In Nine Deaths.
TWO coLpwATER LADS DROWN
Mother and Two Children Lose Thor
Lives In Fire at Charlevoix-Twins
of Alpena Parents Meet Tragic End
In Flames.

| Alpena, Mich.,. Dec. ia shock
| ing fatality occurred at Hiram, Mars
| tons farm, Long Rapids, 20 miles from
| here, Monday in which Russell and
! Royal, the 17-months-old twin sons of
Mr.. and Mrs. Joseph Danford, tenants
of the farm, were burned to death in
| their cradle.
The father got up before daylight,
started the kitchen fire and went to
| the barn to do the chores, leaving
| his wife still asleep in the bedroom,
and the children in the cradle in the
| kitchen.
The mother awoke shortly after
ward to find the room filled with
smoke and the bedclothes afire. She
jumped through the window in her
| night dress and rang the dinner bell.
| The father ran from the barn and
rushed into the burning house and
emerged an instant later with the
children in the cradle, both dead and
badly disfgured.
The mother suffered serious burns
on her hands and face. The father
Is in a serious condition. His eye
brows and eyelashes are burned off
and his face frightfully charred. His
eyesight is probably gone.
The house was entirely destroyed.
It was a small affair covered with tar
paper. The couple had been married
five years.
The parents will be brought here for
treatment. They are now at the home
of Supervisor Butler at Long Rapids
Charlevoix, Mich, Dec 19.-Burned
to death in their home near this vii
lage, the husband and father, unable,
because of locked doors, to rescue
them, was the fate of Mrs. William Os-
trum and her two children, one
years old and the other but months.
The mother was subject to apoplexy,
and it is supposed that she fell in
fit, upsetting her lamp and precipitat-
ing the holocaust.
Ostrum says it was but a few min.
utes after he had left the house that
he learned of the fire. He ran back
and frantically attempted to rescue
his family, but the whole interior of
the house was ablaze, and the locked
doors further hindered his efforts to
rescue.
When the fire had burned itself out,
the bodies of the three victims were
found in the cellar The mother and
the oldest child were found in the
remnants of the bed, and the body of
the babe beneath the place where it
usually lay in a chair.
Coldwater, Mich, Dec. 19-Clasped
in each others arms, the bodies of
Ralph and Ray Relyea, aged II and Is
years, respectively, were found in
Coldwater river Monday morning.
Sunday afternoon the two lads went
up the river to examine some traps,
taking their skates with them. Com
ing upon some tempting Ice and being
unable to resist, they put on their
skates and started off.
They had preceded but short dis
lance when the ice broke under their
weight. The boys struggled manfully
for their lives, but they were unequal
to the task of saving themselves, and
their cries for help were unheard until
it was too late.
Throwing their arms around each
others necks, they died together and
their corpses were tenderly lifted from
the icy river in that position.
Lapeer, Mich, Dec. 19.-Mrs. Jerry
Sullivan, aged rs, was run down and
killed Monday afternoon by a Grand
Trunk freight train. She was killed
at the crossing where the two White
brothers met their death a few years
ago.
One Of the trainmen tells q story
that Mrs. Sullivan threw herself in
front Of the engine, committing sui
eide. Those who know her say they
take little stock in this story.
Three daughters of the aged woman
survive her at Ionia. Metamora and
Lapeer.