Thursday, April 20, 2023

Fort Wayne, Indiana Obituary Lesson: Anything-- from Murder, Splinter, Hot Water, Street Car Riot or Fire... [1917]

To day if ye will hear his voice  
harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. 
Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. 
For what is your life
It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away 
 Hebrews 3:15/James 4:14
 
"A Year of Violent Deaths Eighty-Four Lives Snuffed out Suddenly
during
1917 Fifteen Suicides and Two Murders Mark Year- both Murders Escape Law
The 1917, according to the complete, report of Dr. J. E. McArdle was a productive one for violent deaths. Eighty four lives were snuffed out by violent means, there being sixty six accidental deaths fifteen suicides two murder and one due to alcoholism. 
In the list of accidental deaths the railroads have a big lead having caused twenty deaths. Falls come next claiming eight victims, and automobiles and motorcycles together claimed nine. 
Of these nine, six were stuck and three were in cars or on machines. 
During the Year the water claimed five victims, electricity and shotguns each claimed two and two men died from accidents in local shops. 
Four children were suffocated in bed and one choked to death, while still another lad was crushed beneath the wheels of a farm machine. 
Hot water, steam and hot grease claimed four victims, while fire took toll of one life. One man was killed by ammonia fumes, one by lightning one in a sewer cave-in and one in an explosion, One man as killed while inhaling chloroform to ease pain. A woman was killed in a street car riot
Small accidents claimed one life when a case of tetanus developed from a slight injury caused by a splinter piercing a man's finger. 
Alcohol took only one victim directly, one man going to his death from acute alcoholism
Two Murders 
The first case investigated by the coroner in 1917 was that of Joe Parrant shot to death in the Catty grocery on January 31. The man who fired the shot has not yet been apprehended although a number of suspects were held and later released. 
Dorothy Quann, negress was shot to death in a house on the jail flats by George Cooper, negro, who then turned the gun on himself and ended his life being the second murder of the year to escape the action of the law
Date: Tuesday, January 15, 1918 Paper: Fort Wayne News Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Indiana) Page: 13 Transcribed and submitted by Friends for Free Genealogy."