Cremated Before Husband's Eyes

Mistakes Gasoline for Kerosene With Deadly Result—Body is Burned to a Crisp

R. E. Walker, funeral director and embalmer in the Overstad & Hoverson undertaking parlors, received a call from Wibaux last Sunday afternoon, urging that he hasten there at once.

On his arrival in Wibaux he was taken to the home of John Inman, where Mrs. Inman lay cold in death, having succumbed to burns received from the explosion of a gasoline can which she mistook for kerosene when lighting the fire at about 7:00 o'clock that morning.

At the time of the explosion Mr. Inman was in the next room and, on hearing the report and the agonizing screams for help, rushed to her assistance—but all too late, the body by this time being enveloped in flames and, with the exception of her feet, which were incased in shoes, the unfortunate woman was burned to a crisp before the flames could be extinguished.

Physicians were immediately called, but nothing could be done to prevent her untimely and tragic death. However, her suffering was relieved with opiates and, conscious all the while, she lived until 4:00 o'clock in the afternoon, when death claimed its own, forever relieving her of all earthly suffering.

She leaves to mourn her loss a husband and two small children, one two and the other three years old. The body was embalmed by Mr. Walker and shipped to Anoka, Minn., her former home, for burial.

Golden Valley Chronicle, 12/8/1911