Sunday's Obituary: Sarah Martha "Mattie" Teel Barnette

Sunday's Obituary is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers where bloggers share old obituaries and other information about ancestors. 

        

Sarah Martha "Mattie" Teel (born 26 
Aug 1852-Rockbridge, VA, died 16
Jan 1905-Eminence, Shannon Co. MO).

      BURNED TO DEATH. 
   Mrs. J. C. Barnette Fatally Injured By
         Explosion of Coal Oil Lamp

   Our little city was aroused Monday

morning about seven o'clock by cries

of "fire," and it was soon ascertained

that a lamp exploded at the Barnette

Hotel, and that Mrs. Barnette was

badly burned. The house was slight-

ly damaged, but the fire was soon ex-

tinguished. Dr. Hyde was promptly

summoned and on examination of

Mrs. Barnette he declared her condi-

tion very serious, and about 1 p.m.

she died of her injuries. From what

we learn she was taking down a wall

lamp that had been burning during

breakfast, and it was very hot and

she started to put it on the table when

it exploded, and the burning oil flew

all over her, saturating her clothing

and she was instantly a mass of flame.

Her daughter Bertha immediately

gave the alarm, and her son Curry

who was near came to her help and

seized some bedding and wrapped her

up to smother the flame. But her

clothing being soaked with the oil

smouldered and burned still and had

to be torn from her body. On

examination her body was found to be

severely burned from her head to her

feet, but the most serious burns were

on the breast and stomach. Her

hands were also badly burned. She

was conscious until near her death,

and bravely bore her suffering. This

sudden and horrible has cast

a gloom over our little city, and it is

hard to realize that so active and so

useful a life has been blotted out so

suddenly and so cruelly. Mrs. Bar-

nette, as hostess of Hotel Barnette, was

probably better known than any other

woman in Shannon county, and her

good nature and uniform courtesy to

all endeared her to everyone. She

was an industrious and capable mana-

ger, and the success of the Barnette

Hotel was due to her personality.

She leaves a husband, John C. Bar-

nette, a Confederate veteran, four

sons, Curry, John, Otho and Fred, and

daughters Bertie and Bessie, in her

family at home, and all were present

at her bedside. One married daugh-

ter, Mrs. Minnie James, is in Lufkin,

Texas. Her son Curry was the first

to reach the mother after the acci-

dent and severely burned his hands in

fighting out the flames. It was a sad

picture to see the heartbroken family

gathered around the stricken mother,

each willing to share her pain and

praying for her recovery and relief.

And now that her busy hands are fold-

ed, and her great mother-love gone

from them, they will realize, as thou-

sands have done before, that no one

can take a mother’s place. To the

bereaved family, the husband and

companion of years whose heart is

widowed in his grief, to the sons,

whose earliest steps were guided by

mother, and whose whole lives were

watched over with loving care, to the

daughters, whose refuge from infan-

cy to girlhood was on mother’s breast,

shielded from all troubles and soothed

from every heartache by mother’s

gentle voice, we extend our sympathy,

realizing that it cannot lessen their grief,

for time alone can do that, but

in the spirit that a mother’s love

draws us all together, a mother’s

death brings us together in our grief.

And with all the sympathy and kind-

ness that can be shown, the cry will

still arise in the heart of each loved one,

"Oh, for the touch of a vanished hand,

And the sound of a voice that is still."

“Burned to Death.,” Current Wave, Eminence, MO.,  19 January 1905, page 8, col. 2.

-Revis