A Child Lost in Endicott
A two-year-old boy drowns in a farm watering trough, devastating his family and community.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A sad accident darkened the lives of Frank E. and Nella V. Stanfield of near Endicott Thursday evening, January 18. Their little son, Audrey Elwood, aged two years, three months and 24 days, was drowned in a watering trough. The little fellow strayed from the house to the trough at the windmill and in some manner climbed upon it and fell in. He had been absent from the house but 15 or 20 minutes when he was missed by his mother, who went in search and found him lifeless. In running to the fields for the father, the mother sustained serious injuries and was carried back to the house in a precarious condition. A large circle of friends attended the funeral services, and the Woodmen of the World took charge of the burial at the Endicott cemetery.
“Audrey was a golden haired little boy, beautiful of face and form, of rare intellectual brightness and of cheerful and happy disposition.”
This tragic report underscores the hazards of rural domestic life in the early 20th century. While modern safety standards and awareness have reduced such domestic accidents, the emotional weight of such community-wide grief remains a constant in rural life.
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