Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Harlan, Frank J. 1923 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Marilyn Ransom mransom311@gmail.com August 29, 2014, 7:38 pm The Belding Banner-News, Wednesday, June 20, 1923 Frank J. Harlan, aged 59 years, for many years a resident of this city and well known and highly esteemed confectioner doing business at 111 W. Main street, was instantly killed at a few minutes after ten o’clock Saturday night, when he went to the basement of his store. Death was caused by electric shock, which came from an ordinary electric light bulb or socket and which was attached to an extension cord. Mr. Harlan had been at work in the confectionery and found that one of the carbonated water tanks had run down, necessitating a change to a newly charged tank. He went to the basement and had completed the change, as the new tank was in place. While he was in the basement, Mrs. Harlan, who was waiting on customers in the store, heard something fall in the basement. This must have been the old tank, which was found lying on the floor near Mr. Harlan’s body. The ice cream supply was running low and Mrs. Harlan sent their daughter, Frances, to the basement, with instructions to tell her father to bring up a further supply. Frances went to the basement of the store and found her father’s body lying on the floor, near the tank which he had changed. Realizing that something dreadful had happened, Frances ran back up and told her mother that something had occurred. Ed. Reeves, a farmer living west and south of town, happened to be in the store at the time and he followed Mrs. Harlan down into the basement. Elwood Rockefeller and Art Strong were also there and they also went down. When Mrs. Harlan saw the sparks flying from her husband’s right hand, she went to pull him away from it, but Mr. Reeves restrained her and he carefully pulled the switch and shut off the current. Dr. Hollard was immediately called and reached the place within a few minutes, but he said that death was already complete. The body was removed from the store to the Brown-Hall undertaking rooms and on Monday morning at 9 o’clock Justice E. B. Lapham impaneled a jury to fix the cause of death. The jury consisted of N. P. Werner, William Wood, Bert Rummler, Ambrose Spencer, Will Ward and Edwy Webster. The jurors, sitting before the body of Mr. Harlan, questioned Edgar Stanton, of the Spencer Electric Light & Power Co., which concern furnished the current for the Harlan store, as to the voltage which the line carried. Mr. Stanton replied that together with Robert Odds and Ora Cahoon, the line had been tested out on Sunday and found to be carrying a voltage which ranged to a little better than 230. He also stated that they had found the light globe partially unscrewed from the socket, so that a part of the brass at the base of the light was allowed to come into contact with the hand. This, together with the fact that Mr. Harlan’s feet and hands were wet at the time and that the basement floor was also wet made a perfect ground through his body and while under ordinary conditions the voltage would not be high enough to kill, in this instance it might have been possible to do so. Elwood Rockefeller and Art Strong were summoned before the jury and their testimony corroborated the statements of Mrs. Harlan and her daughter. Dr. Hollard was sworn and stated that he could not definitely state that death had been caused by electrocution; that it might have been caused by heart disease, but that in all probably the electric current was responsible for the death. Following the session in the undertaking rooms, the jurors went to the basement of the Harland store where they examined the wiring, extension cord and globe. Later on they brought in their verdict, which was as follows: “That the said Frank J. Harlan came to his death in Belding on the 16th day of June at about 10 o’clock in the afternoon in the basement of the Spencer block, on Main street, while adjusting a gas tank, holding in his right hand an electric light bulb attached to an extension cord. That his death was caused by electrocution. We further find that said basement is damp; that from the shock he received from the current, his death was caused.” Funeral services were held from the home, Tuesday morning at ten o’clock, the Masonic fraternity, of which he was a member, having charge of the funeral and attending the same in a body. As a mark of respect to their fellow man, taken so suddenly from their midst, the business men of the city closed their places during the hour of the funeral. Burial was made in the old cemetery by the side of his first wife and a child, who died many years ago. Mr. Harlan was for years employed by the Belding-Hall Company in Factory B, as a band sawyer. He was well liked by every one of the men in the shop and built friendships there which have lasted down thru the years. A number of years ago he started a peanut and pop corn stand and in this he was very successful, his business growing so rapidly so that a year ago he purchased the Frank O’Bryon confectionery store, which he conducted up to the time of his death, which came as one of the greatest shocks not only to his family, but to the legion of friends whom he had in this community. Surviving are his wife, a daughter, Frances, and a son, Raymond. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/ionia/obits/h/harlan28050nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/mifiles/ File size: 5.8 Kb