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Thursday, December 21, 2023

Abegale Melton, 14, Dies After Clothing Caught Fire, Dec. 20, 1923

Albemarle Girl Burned to Death Saturday

Stanly News-Herald

A most dreadful tragedy was that which happened last Saturday when Miss Abegale Melton, the 14-year-old adopted daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Melton, of this place, burned so seriously that death resulted Sunday morning. No one was in the house with her when her clothing caught on fire, and the girl hardly knew herself how it all happened. She stated that she was sitting with her back to the fire reading, when all at once she found her clothing a mass of flames. She ran out of the house and her screams soon brought nearby persons to her rescue, but too late to save her. She was so badly burned that from the first little hope for her was entertained. Her suffering was awful, and though everything possible was done for her relief, her intense agony was only relieved by death Sunday morning.

|The body was carried to Mt. Zion Church in Union county, where the funeral will be held this afternoon. The horrible tragedy is deplored by the entire city over which its happening cast a gloom.

From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Thursday, Dec. 20, 1923

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