8 May 1891 - Republican Watchman (Monticello, New York)

From Twisted Roots
A SAD TRAGEDY - A YOUNG MAN BURNED TO DEATH

He Carried His Invalid Mother Out From the Burning Home, Returned Into the House and was Seen no More.

The residence of Paul Halliday, residing in Ulster County, just over the line, near Burlingham, was destroyed by fire on Monday morning last 9 [May 4], and his son John Halliday, a man aged about thirty-five years, perished in the burning building.

The circumstances as near as we can gather them are that the fire was rapidly demolishing the building when discovered, and Halliday carried his mother, who was sick in bed, out. He then returned into the house and was seen no more. All that was left of him after the first became extinct were a few charred bones.

He entered the house in opposition to the enreaties of his invalid mother and it is supposed was suffocated by the smoke, fell, and the crumbling timbers of the burning building fell upon him. Nothing can be learned as to the cause or origin of the fire. Nothing was saved. The father of the family was absent from the home at the time.