SMITHSON & GOODLOW FAMILIES in FIRE in 1899
Can anyone identify the Samuel SMITHSON and HARRY GOODLOW families who perished in this fire?Where were they from in Iowa?
Los Angeles Times, October 27, 1899, pg. 2:
FAMILIES CREMATED -- Fourteen People Burned to Death While Sleeping.(Associated Press Report.)Mobile, (Alabama)Oct. 26. -- News was received today that fourteen people had been burned to death at Faires, Baldwin Co., about thirty miles northeast of Mobile.The information was brought to the city by Capt. Joseph E. Gordan, who resides in that locality.Some time during Monday night last fire destroyed the dwelling of Harry GOODLOW and Samuel SMITHSON, cremating all occupants of both houses.The Goodlow family consisted of father, mother and six children.
There were six persons residing in the Smithson home, the husband, wife, three children, and a sister of Mr. Smithson.The fire is believed to have been of accidental origin.The pine trees surrounding the house caught fire from the flames, and prevented any assistance reaching the persons in the house.The bodies were found in the rooms where the different members of the families had been accustomed to sleep, death having come while they were sleeping.They formed a part of a colony of emigrants who had settled in this region.These two families had come from Iowa.