- NO TOMBSTONE

THE BROOKFIELD GAZETTE, Brookfield, Missouri, Saturday, Jan. 15, 1910
EXPLOSION CAUSES HORRIBLE AND FATAL ACCIDENT
-YOUNG WOMAN WAS BURNED TO DEATH
Another horrible and fatal accident caused by the use of inflammable and explosive substances in kindling fires was added to the long list of such accidents already recorded, at the farm home of Manley Strickland, on the farm formerly owned by the late E. Bradshaw, three miles north of Brookfield, early Friday morning of last week, which resulted in the death of Miss Florence Ella Allen, 18-year-old daughter of Mr. & Mrs. I.J. Allen of near Indian Grove, Chariton County.
Mr. Strickland started a fire in the kitchen stove and went to the barn to feed his stock, after which Miss Allen came in to get breakfast, and probably finding the fire burning somewhat slowly, took a can of what had been bought for coal oil and started to pour some of the contents on the fire. An explosion immediately followed with such force that it blew a hole in the roof of the kitchen. The family, alarmed by the noise of the explosion, rushed in to find the poor girl wrapped in flames. With much presence of mind they succeeded in wrapping her in bed, covering they had seized, but it was too late to avail and she was so badly burned that notwithstanding the fact that everything possible was done for the relief of the suffering girl, her death occurred in a few hours.
The remains were taken to the home of her parents in Chariton County Saturday and interred in Powell Cemetery, near Indian Grove.
The explosive fluid, which we understand was bought for coal oil, would not burn in a lamp and it is thought it was gasoline.

CHARITON COURIER, Keytesville, Missouri, Friday, Jan. 21, 1910
A young woman by the name of Florence Allen, cook at the home of Manley Strickland in Laclede, was terribly burned Saturday by attempting to start a fire with gasoline which she thought was kerosene. The can was blown through the ceiling of the room by the explosion. She died four hours after the accident. Her clothing was all burned from her body and her eyesight destroyed, beside internal injuries. Deceased's parents live near Mendon.