A terrible accident occurred to Jeremiah Miner, a former Blair resident, and family at his home up near Ponca, Neb. Sunday forenoon. Mr. and Mrs. Miner and five children were sitting around the stove when a five gallon pot of tar exploded and the mother and five children, aged 13, 10, 5, 3 and 5 months old, were burned to death in the building. The father threw one little girl, 8 years old, out the window and then ran to the river and jumped in to quench the flames that enveloped him. Charles, aged 21, was on the bank of the river when his father jumped in and helped get him out else he would have drowned from the collapse. He was badly burned and died Tuesday. The boy then rushed to the house and found his little sister, who had been thrown out the window, but could not enter the burning building in which is mother and the other members of the family were being incinerated. One other member of the family survives, Bertha, the oldest daughter, who was visiting at Elk Point, S.D. Mr. Miner had a small farm and also ran a ferry boat across the river. He was probably going to fix the boat with the tar. The family lived next door to Mrs. J. P. Stricklett in North Blair a few months, having come here from over near Modale, Ia.

~~~Obituaries courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair, Nebraska Public Library~~~

Find a Grave Memorial #14004116