OBIT: John DODSON, 1876, Blair County, PA

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TERRIBLE ACCIDENT

  An old man, named John Dodson, who for a long time has been an inmate 
of the Alms House, met with a terrible accident on Wednesday night of 
last week.  It happened somewhat in this wise.  He had come to town and 
was at the new patent coke ovens, of the Blair Iron & Coal Co., on the 
Gaysport shore of the river, and had gone to the top of them and had 
lain down on one of the large iron plates, which are made to open, so 
that the coal, can be dropped down into the ovens.  When he first laid 
down the plates just comfortably warm, but as the coal below began to 
burn the plate grew hotter, and the gas ascending from the coal 
rendered the poor unfortunate unconscious, and the plates becoming red 
hot, he was frightfully burned.  The way his situation was discovered, 
a workman at the Big Furnace, on this side of the river, and some 
distance away from the coke ovens, smelled something burning and 
tracing it up, found it proceeded from some place near the patent 
ovens.  He crossed the river, and wakened the man at that place (this 
was about half past ten o'clock, p.m.) and together they searched for 
the cause of the stench.  Happening to pass the ovens they heard a 
groan, coming from the top of them.  They immediately proceeded to the 
top and found the man and a great part of his flesh completely roasted. 
Dr. Geo. Snyder was summoned and did all he could to relieve the 
sufferer.  He was conveyed to the Poor House, on Thursday, and died on 
Saturday.

The Register, Hollidaysburg, Pa., Wednesday, April 5, 1876