MYERS, Verna Stockdale - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

Mrs. Homer Myers, aged 22, met with a very tragic accident at their home about two miles west of Alamo, in the southeast corner of this county, at five o'clock Sunday morning.   Her death followed eleven hours of awful suffering which followed the premature explosion of the oil can, at five o'clock Sunday morning. The couple were preparing to go to Rockville in their machine to attend the Chautauqua that day.   She was lighting a fire in the kitchen stove and was using a can of coal oil to make the fire burn when the can suddenly exploded, throwing the blazing oil over the young woman's clothing.  Her clothing caught fire and in a moment she was in a mass of flames.  Mr. Myers, who was in the barn milking at the time, was seriously burned about the hands and arms in trying to save his young wife.  The blazing clothing were finally town from Mrs. Myers, but she had already been fatally burned and the death came as a result in the evening.  The husband was aprised of his wife's peril by her piercing screams following the explosion.  He ran at top speed to the house and saw his wife's clothing on fire and ran to get a horse blanket to wrap around her. In the meantime, spurred by the terrible pain, the young mother ran to the yard where she rolled over on the green grass in the hope of extinguishing the blaze which was consuming her.   Not until the husband reached her side and tore the clothing from her body did it cease to burn.   Her lower extremities and her body suffered most and in the last hours of her life it was these parts of her body which gave her so much pain that relatives were shocked by her great agony.  Three physicians were called and everything which medical skill could do was done to ease her suffering and save her life. Mrs. Myers had been married a little more than a year.  A bright little son, George Roy Myers, four months old, survives besides the husband.   Prior to her marriage, she was Miss Verna Stockdale, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Stockdale, of near Hillsboro. The funeral took place at 10:30 on Tuesday at the Lutheran church near Wallace.  The services were conducted by Rev. McGaughey of Veedersburg, interment being made in the cemetery in the nearby churchyard. The death of Mrs. Myers recalls the demise of Mr. and Mrs. George V. Myers, parents of Homer Myers.  They were the victims of a virulent attack of measels about two years ago and both died in the prime of life, the husband first and the wife three days afterward.  The fire which was started by the oil explosion set the linoleum in front of the range and behind it on fire beside some of the woodwork and casings in the kitchen. The blaze was so hot before it was put out by the use of several buckets of water by the half frantic husband that the windows were broken out by the intense heat.