A SORROWFUL AFFAIR

Perhaps the most sorrowful event that has happened in this city within memory was the drowning yesterday morning, of Wallace, the two-year-old baby boy of Mr. and Mrs. G.W. Sellers.

About nine o’clock Mrs. Sellers crossed the street with the child to the residence of W.D. Gross. She entered the house leaving the child in the yard, where it was accustomed often to amuse itself among Mrs. Gross’ flowers.

After chatting some little time with Mrs. Gross, probably ten minutes or so, Mrs. Sellers sought the child to return home. A brief search did not discover its whereabouts and the two women went back to the alley thinking it might have gone out of the yard the back way. Not seeing it in the alley they came back to the house and then first discovered that a board over a hole leading into the cistern had been removed and the hole was open.

The cistern was nearly full of water, so that a glance in revealed to the horrified ladies the body of the child close to the opening. The screams of Mrs. Sellers brought John Holeton, who was working nearby, and he immediately tore the opening larger and lifted out the lifeless baby form. Four doctors were on the scene in a few moments and worked hard to resuscitate the lifeless form but it could not be. Life had fled and could not be brought back.

The case is peculiarly a sad one, not only because of its suddenness but this was the only child of an only daughter and the two families, Mr. and Mrs. Sellers and the grandparents Mr. and Mrs. H.W. McBride, were both more than commonly attached to it. It was a very bright, attractive child and well calculated to be the idol of its parents and grandparents. The suddenness of the affair and its shocking results have also prostrated Mrs. Gross who seems to be perhaps more visibly bowed down by it than the immediate relatives.

No sorrowful event ever occurred in this city that brought out more universal expressions of sympathy and regret. The funeral is appointed at 4 o’clock this afternoon, at the family residence.

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

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