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Archiver > ARIZARD > 2000-08 > 0965817685


From: Jean Mayfield Cuevas <>
Subject: RE: [ARIZARD-L] WIDOW MELTON-or grass widow?
Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2000 05:41:25 -0500
In-Reply-To: <F91sh4AsK6ExU8raUMT000058c8@hotmail.com>


Dwight,

It could very well be a fact. I have heard of more than one woman who
caught fire by their clothing. I have a MAYFIELD who died that way in
Baxter County:

Amanda Augusta Mayfield, b. March 6, 1884, d. April 7, 1896. Her father
was burning the fields after a harvest, and she ran to meet him, but go her
clothing too close and they caught fire. She died a couple of days
later. The tragedy took such a toll on her father that he and the family
sold out and moved to OK.

My mother's nightgown caught fire when she was about 7, trying to get the
wood stove going, to surprise her father. Due to his quick thinking, he
rolled her on the floor, and smothered out the flames but she was left with
scars over much of her body.

I think we women are most likely all glad that we don't have to deal with
those cumbersome long clothes anymore!

Jean

At 08:32 PM 8/7/00 -0600, you wrote:
> I read in L.M. Boyd's Column a few weeks back that fireplace accidents
> was one of the top causes of womens death in the 1800s. I don't know if
> I would take his little collection of "facts" as fact but with the daily
> use of kerosene and the long flowing dresses it is believable. Just a thought.
>Dwight Lane

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