MOTHER AND CHILD DEAD; MRS. DION CARTER VICTIM OF EXPLOSION

HOUSE BURNED TO THE GROUND

Husband Away From Home When Accident Occurred

Baby Buried in Mother’s Arms

Mrs. Dion (could be Dine) Carter and six-months-old daughter were fatally burned on Tuesday morning from an explosion, while Mrs. Carter was kindling the fire to prepare breakfast.

Mr. Carter had recently rented a farm adjoining that of his brother, Claude, near Winnebago, and was up there doing some work preparatory to moving there next week, and Mrs. Carter and the children had been spending the nights at the home of relatives. On Tuesday morning she came home, started a fire in the kitchen range and it is thought that in order to hasten the process poured either coal oil or, by mistake, gasoline into the stove, or it may have been that a small gasoline stove which was in the room exploded. No one is able to tell just how the accident happened. In a second’s time she was enveloped in flames which at once spread to the baby who was sitting in her go-cart, still in her outdoor wraps. As only the innocent little face was exposed, it was a once horribly burned. The mother’s screams brought neighbors to her assistance and the fire alarm sounded. The fire company hastened to the scene but arrived too late to be of assistance and the house and furnishings were entirely destroyed.

The accident was one of the most terrible affairs that ever happened in Blair and the entire town was stricken when the facts became known of the death of mother and child, and many expressions of sympathy are heard on every hand for the young husband, and the motherless little boy as well as the parents and other relatives of the unfortunate woman.

Catherine King was twice married; her first marriage taking place at Tekamah, when she was seventeen years old, to G. E. Koeler and one child, the little boy, Guy, was born to this union, the father dying when Guy was one month old.

Mrs. Koeler was married a year later to Earl Dion Carter, at the Latter Day Saints’ parsonage in Logan, Iowa, and became the mother of two little girls, Sylvia Ann, who died when about one year old, and the baby Marjorie Etta, who, with the mother was burned to death on Tuesday.

Mr. Carter was summoned from Winnebago, from which place he started in an auto and was met enroute by his brother-in-law, J. P. Jensen in his car, and brought him to Blair, but the wife had passed away before he reached home; the baby lived until 10:30 that evening.

Funeral was held from the L. D. S. church, here on Thursday, Elder Paul Craig conducting the services. The baby was clasped in its mother’s arms in the casket and they were laid to rest in God’s acre, at Blair. The pallbearers were six cousins of Mr. Carter: John Compton Jr., John Boston Jr., Edward Stricklett, Marcus Bilyue, Malcom Boston, and Harry Ervery.

The heartfelt sympathy of the entire community is extended to the bereaved husband, the orphaned child, parents, sister, brothers and other relatives in this dark hour.

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~ FindaGrave Memorial #77623150 records that she is buried in the Blair, Nebraska Cemetery.

(There are also some other articles about this tragedy.)