Man While Afire Falls to Death

Middlesborough, Massachusetts, 1914

Took Fatal Drop when he was Pulled from Stove. Friend, Weighing Two Hundred Pounds, then Fell upon him.

Frank Taylor, sixty three years old, of Middleborough, Mass., employed at the Thomasville Stone and Lime company's plant, below Abbottstown, died in the York hospital at 2:30 o'clock Sunday afternoon from hemorrhage of the brain and fracture of the skull, sustained on Friday at 5 p. m., when with Charles Able, who was pulling him away from a stove to prevent his clothes from igniting, he fell through a door, on the second story of a shack at Thomasville, to the ground, a distance of ten feet.

The Thomasville plant had been closed for Christmas and it is said that Taylor and Able had been celebrating the day. About 5 o'clock in the afternoon they went to their room on the second story of one of the company's shacks. Taylor sat beside the stove which was red hot, and fell asleep. Able suddenly noticed Taylor's coat smoking and tried to pull him away from the stove. As he did so he tripped and both men fell through an unlocked door. There was no balcony or railing and the men fell to the ground.

Able, who weighs 220 pounds, fell upon Taylor, Taylor was rendered unconscious and remained in that state until his death. He was removed to the first floor of the shack and Dr. E. S. Stambaugh was summoned.

On examination the physician found that Taylor had sustained a fracture at the base of the skull. He was taken to the York hospital in an automobile by Dr. Stambaugh and Charles Whitman. Able sprained his right shoulder in the accident.

Taylor had been employed about the plant at different times during the last eight years. Efforts are being made to find whether he has any relatives.

—Adams County News, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, January 2, 1915, page 6.