Coroner Lindsay

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Old Print Article: Mishaps With Gasoline, Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1889-1901)

April 29, 2011 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Mrs. R.W. Huston was the victim of a gasoline explosion yesterday and was literally roasted to death."

In the late nineteenth century, seemingly no one in the country knew how to behave while in close proximity to gasoline, as this quintet of stories printed in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle demonstrate.

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“The Stove Polish Was Fatal” (November 13, 1901): “Rome, New York--Mrs. Anna Ferguson was fatally burned at the California House, four miles west of this city to-night. She mixed gasoline with stove polish and then started to polish a hot stove. In an instant she was enveloped in flames.”

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“Careless Use Of Gasoline” (September 20, 1890) “Bloomington, Illinois–Conductor Lowrie and Brakemen Brockmiller, of the Chicago and Alton, at Venice yesterday were endeavoring to rid their caboose of vermin by using gasoline. The gasoline caught fire from a cigar in the mouth of one of the men, an explosion followed and Lowrie was fatally burned and Brockmiller very badly injured, being burned about the head and the hands.”

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“Fatal Explosion Of Gasoline” (June 4, 1892): “Eldon, Iowa–Mrs. R.W. Huston was the victim of a gasoline explosion yesterday and was literally roasted to death. A servant was carrying an open vessel of gasoline when it became ignited  from a stove. Mrs. Huston, the servant and two children were frightfully burned. The former lived three hours, suffering untold agonies. The other victims are still alive, but in a most pitiable condition.”

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"The town is lighted at night with gasoline."

“Peculiar Explosion Of Gasoline” (October 4, 1890) “Cheviot, Ohio–“A peculiar accident occurred here last night. The town is lighted at night with gasoline. Edward Connor, one of the lighters, had just started on his trip on a light cart drawn by one horse. At the first lamp one of the cans became lighted. The whole lot exploded. Horse and man caught the burning fluid. The man, badly burned, was thrown from the wagon, while the horse on fire ran through the streets screaming in its awful agony until it dropped dead.”

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“Fell Into A Vat Of Gasoline” (August 15, 1889): “William McBride, aged 22 years, of 146 Kent avenue, fell into a vat of gasoline yesterday afternoon while at the dye works of Greene street, Seventeenth Ward. The body was removed to his home by permission of Coroner Lindsay, who will hold an inquest.”

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Old Print Article: “A Great Acrobat Who Once Owned A Celebrated Trick Pony,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1887)

January 30, 2011 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"An hour after his demise the body was placed in an ice coffin."

Along with his brothers Louis and Willie, acrobat Rudolph Mette was part of a high-flying nineteenth-century circus act, but he was brought low by drink and found dead in a Brooklyn stable one summer evening in 1887. The July 3 Brooklyn Daily Eagle provided a brief postmortem of the trapeze man. An excerpt:

“Rudolph Mette, aged 41, one of the celebrated Mette Brothers, acrobats, was found dead at 11:30 o’clock last evening in the hay loft of Henry Hamilton’s stable, on Bedford avenue and North Fifth street.

It was rumored that he had died from alcoholism, but Mr. Hamilton says that the cause of his death was congestive chills.

An hour after his demise the body was placed in an ice coffin and Coroner Lindsay was notified. Mette has a sister residing on Graham avenue and another living in New York. Should either of them refuse to bury him Mr. Hamilton will defray the funeral expenses.

The Mette brothers were among the most noted acrobats of this century, having been connected with Barnum’s, Forepaugh’s and other circuses. The deceased was the owner of a trick pony at one time, for which, it is said, Barnum offered him $7,000.”

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