The Ouachita Telegraph - Mrs. Gonsoulin Dies in Fire
Submitted by: Lora Peppers <lpeppers@ouachita.lib.la.us>
Date: Oct. 2000


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The Ouachita Telegraph
Friday, January 10, 1879
Page 2, Column 4

New Iberia.
On Christmas even, about 10 o’clock p.m., upon his return home,
Mr. Gonsoulin discovered his wife dead.  Mrs. Gonsoulin was burned to death.
Her remains were so charred and blackened by the action of the fire, that
she could be scarcely recognized.  Mrs. Gonsoulin had been for many years
affected with fainting spells, and a species of epileptic fits.  She was
alone in their home, near the lower limits of town, at the time of the
burning, her husband being up town.  It is not known in what manner she
caught fire, nor whether while sufferring (sic) from one of her spells or
not.  There are reasons for believing that she had been dead some time
when her husband came and found a corpse instead of a living wife whom he had
left in the evening.  The fire in the chimney place was burnt out except a
few coals, there were no coverlets left of the bed, a pile of ashes on the
floor indicated that the poor woman may have wrapped herself in the
bed-clothing in order to extinguish the fire. - Sugar Bowl.

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