McClain County, Oklahoma
Obituaries
O. N. Skinner
Submitted by: Karen Mazzola
Purcell Register
Saturday, December 24, 1887
A Sudden Death
From M. N. WHITTLE who came in from Criner Ranch,
last Sunday we learn the particulars of the death of an old man named
O. N. SKINNER who died suddenly and alone at the Criner Ranch, a few
miles above Beef Creek post office on Sunday morning.
It appears that the old gentleman has been cooking
for the force of carpenters who are at work on the new house at that
place, and on Sunday morning cooked breakfast and began to prepare
dinner seemingly a lively and as spry as ever. No one having occasion
to go into the kitchen, no attention was paid to that part of the house
until a smell of burning cloth caused an investigation. The old
gentleman was found lying in front of the cook stove, stone dead and
his clothing on his left leg on fire caused by a stick of wood falling
from the stove. Had his body not been discovered in time it would,
without doubt, have been burnt up. He had no relatives so far as is
known. His age was about 80 years.