1875 Burglary Attempt Thwarted

While I was looking for information about my second great grand uncle, Reuben B. Lowell, I came across the following news story in the Portland, Maine Daily Press from October 12, 1875, at GenealogyBank.com:

Washington County [Maine]

  A few evenings since an attempt was made

to enter the residence of Mr. Reuben Lowell of

Milltown, while he was absent at Calais. His

wife, daughter and servant were the only ones

at home, and seeing the shadow of the burglar

upon the curtain, they armed themselves with

any available weapons, Mrs. Lowell taking her

husband's revolver, the daughter a carving

knife and the servant was sent up stairs to

blow a dinner horn to attract the neighbors.

The man fortunately decided not to break in,

and made his exit not knowing what was in

store for him.

This is Reuben B. Lowell who went to California in 1849. At the time of this attempted burglary, his wife, Elizabeth was about 42 years old and his two daughters were 11 and 18.

Thriller Thursday ~ Hit by Auto

Death certificates for Cook County, Illinois (for the years 1878-1922) can be found at FamilySearch. [Update: only the index is at FamilySearch; originals have to be obtained from Cook County.] Some time ago, I found the death certificate for my grandmother's maiden aunt Carrie Adsit, who died on May 6, 1922.

Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1878-1922 (index and images, FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org, from Illinois Department of Public Health, Division of Vital Records, Springfield, Illinois, accessed May 2011), www.familysearch.org, Carrie J. Adsit, died 6 May 1922. Citing Death Records, FHL microfilm 1,378,964.

Of course, I always look at the cause of death. Since she was over the age of 70, I figured it could be any number of illnesses, but I was surprised to see: "Shock + Injuries; Struck by Automobile; Manslaughter."

Detail from Death Certificate of Carrie Adsit

Although I can find a death notice for her from the May 9, 1922, Chicago Tribune in the Historical Newspapers database on Ancestry.com,

I wanted to know if there was a news article. Today I discovered that Fold3 has full issues of the Chicago Tribune covering the years 1849 - 1923.

Thriller Thursday ~ Passenger Car Jumps the Track

I knew that my third great grandfather, George Lysle, died on January 13, 1877, but only recently found out the circumstances behind his death.

I love looking through old newspapers. Imagine my surprise when searching for the surname "Lyle" (which I often try when trying to find my Lysle ancestors) at the Chronicling America website, I find the following in the (Friday), January 12, 1877 issue of the Daily Inter Ocean, a Chicago, Illinois, newspaper that was published from 1865 to 1914.

January 12, 1877, p. 5, Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois)
online image from Chronicling America

It was the middle of the night and the two sleeping cars left the train track, ran down the embankment, turning over several times, and injured a number of the passengers, three seriously, including George Lyle, of Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. What is chilling is the description from one of the passengers that the car was so completely demolished "that there was not a piece left which could not have been put in a flour barrel."