OBIT: Irene GORSUCH, 1877, Tyrone, Blair County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Sharon Miller Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/blair/ _________________________________________ DISTRESSING AND FATAL ACCIDENT. - One of the most painful accidents that ever occurred in Tyrone, happened between three and four o'clock on Tuesday afternoon of this week, resulting in the death of a bright little girl some 18 months old, of Frank Gorsuch, who resides in the house in the house adjoining the residence of Mr. D. D. Wood. At the time above named, the little girl and her little brother about four years of age, were in a room alone. They had shoved a chair tip to a sink, and from the chair, the boy had climbed up on the sink, from which he could reach to a shelf above, where a small revolver was lying, the little girl only being able to follow him as far as the chair. The little boy, of course not knowing the danger of handling the weapon, which was loaded, took it from its place on the shelf and by some means, which is not known exactly, discharged one load front it, the ball pacing the left side of the face of the little girl, leaving a scar or burn on her cheek, and entering her left breast immediately below the collar bone, passing through the left lung and lodging just inside the skin below the lower rib and near the backbone. About seven o'clock in the evening Drs. Smith and Gemmill extracted the ball from its lodging place in the little sufferer. The child lived until about four o'clock Wednesday morning, when she died. Mrs. Gorsuch had her hand on the door knob, in the act of entering the room to look after her children, when she heard the report of the pistol, but, alas! too late, too late, the small pistol ball had passed through the little innocent's body like a flash, and it was on its way to its death ere she reached the chair on which it was still perched. While we sympathize, deeply and sincerely sympathize with the bereaved parents of the little child who has been so suddenly called from them, we cannot refrain from sounding another word of warning to persons who are in the habit of leaving children alone where dangerous weapons or fire are within their reach. Tyrone Herald, Tyrone, Pa., December 20, 1877 SAD AND FATAL ACCIDENT. - We are again called upon to record another painful accident from carelessness with firearms. On Tuesday afternoon, Irene, a little daughter of Frank Gorsuch, of this place, aged eighteen months, was fatally wounded by the accidental discharge of a revolver in the hands of her little brother, not yet four years old. It appears that Mr. Gorsuch has a revolver which his brother loaded and laid on the clock shelf above the sink, and on Wednesday while Mrs. Gorsuch was absent a few minutes in getting coal from the coal house at the rear end of the lot, the little boy climbed up upon the sink and got possession of [the] revolver. When the mother returned the fatal shot had been fired. He had doubtless been showing the weapon to his sister who was sitting on a chair, during which it was discharged, the ball entering the little girl's left breast, and passing clean through the body lodging under the skin in the back, from where it was taken by the surgeons called in - Drs. Smith and Gemmill, on Tuesday evening. The child died at 4 o'clock on Wednesday morning. - Tyrone Democrat, Friday 21st. Altoona Tribune, Altoona, Pa., Thursday, December 27, 1877, page 3