Gruesome Demise

Rather than put the "picture" of interest at the top of the post. I am going to do my musings first and let you decide if you want to read the article below. 

Based off recent successes in looking for digitized newspapers where there weren't any before, I decided to revisit a deceased ancestor of mine that met an early end and has an interesting story himself. Joseph Baker was actually born Joseph Chicken in 1847 England but after the Civil War, changed his surname to Chicken. I won't go into his details in this post other to say that he died in 1882 at the age of 35 years old. Young even by the standards of the day so I've always assumed it was due to an accident or something more sinister.

Years ago when searching, I found an article in 1882 for a Joseph Baker murdered near Chicago but couldn't pin in on my Joseph Baker. More years would go by before more newspapers were scanned and I learned that it was actually a Joseph Becker and not Baker and the article I had found was just a typo. I have located other Joseph Bakers in Illinois and Michigan but they aren't related and aren't in locations that I know my Joseph Chicken/Baker was in. 

So recently I threw his name into the search engines for a search to see what new articles if any would turn up in 1882 and one of the first I clicked on was the article below. It is about a gruesome sawmill accident that that happened at a sawmill owned by the Michigan Joseph Baker, not my Joseph Baker. It is such a weird death, I couldn't pass up acknowledgement of it. 

With no further pondering:


Comments

  1. Family Search sends me updates. I had once made an incorrect entry and didn’t know how to change it, and since I was on Ancestry anyway, I let it be. Somewhere along the line, I think somebody made a correction for me because it seems right now. And that one line no longer goes back to BC as far as I can tell. 🤓

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    1. I'm not positive about Family Search, but I think it is similar to Ancestry and that nobody is allowed to modify your tree except yourself and authorized users you've given permission too. Perhaps that is the case in this situation. That is one reason why I really like Wikitree because there is only one family tree and anyone can correct errors and provide evidence to support their changes.

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  2. Ugh. Can you imagine how awful it would have been for family to read this account? I'm sure the condition of the body was gruesome enough to make memories to last a life time, but for the whole town to be buzzing about it must have been heartbreaking.

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    1. For sure. Media has come a long ways since those times and still has a way to go in my opinion. But we are definitely moving in the right direction over time.

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    2. Johnny Cash's brother died as a result of a sawmill accident at the age of 12.

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    3. I did not know that fact though after googling, it sounds like it was a sawmill accident.

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  3. Yikes! Do you think our papers today would go into that kind of detail? (I keep going back to Debby's use of the word "buzzing" in her comment)

    It's good that with time you're finding more stuff digitalized that didn't use to be.

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    1. They wouldn't and I'm glad. A friend of mind died by being crushed with a piece of construction equipment but the newspaper only mentioned that he died in a construction accident. I think it is best for family to not have to ponder the details and those of us who aren't family, don't really need to know.

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    2. I'm pretty sure the last thing that went through his mind was the sawblade!

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    3. Dark humor, for sure, but that made me laugh, Ed.

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  4. That's WAY too much detail. What an awful way to die!

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    1. I'm guessing it was a quick death, or at least I hope so.

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  5. OMG! OMG! That is just awful!

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    1. Fortunately we have a lot more safety in mind these days to prevent such things from reoccuring.

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  6. Interesting that they put so much detail in the article. Nowadays, there often isn't a cause of death.

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    1. And I think rightfully so. I can't imagine what family went through knowing that everyone in town knew all the details.

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  7. We forget that, especially in the "olden" times', ordinary life had all sorts of additional risks we do not face today.

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  8. Yeesh. Sawmills were dangerous places. Sounds like it happened fast, at least.

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