Donald E. Kuhns

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Husband Donald E. Kuhns

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           Born: 1933
     Christened: 
           Died: 28 Dec 1938 - Rockland Twp, Venango Co, PA
         Buried:  - Rockland Cemetery, Rockland Twp, Venango Co, PA 1

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         Father: Benjamin Harrison Kuhns (1888-1972) 2
         Mother: Alice Louise Bell (1914-1999)

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Wife

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

       Marriage: 

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Children

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General Notes: Husband - Donald E. Kuhns

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The Venango Citizen-Press, Franklin, PA
Dec 28, 1938; pg 1, col 1
LAMP IGNITES CRIB; BOY DIES NEAR ROCKLAND
Marjoe Nugent, 10-months-Old, Dies in Accident at Home Near Bullion Harvest Grounds.
DAVIS' CORNERS HOUSE BURNS
Two children were burned to death in rural Venango County homes, one on Sunday evening near Pearl and the other this morning when a dwelling was destroyed by flames at Davis' Corners, Rockland Township.
The Victims were:
Marjoe Eleanor Nugent, 10-months-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Mark Nugent, of Polk R. D. 2.
Donald Kuhns, 5-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Kuhns, of Rockland Township.
Tragedy in Rockland Home.
The tragedy in the Rockland Township home occurred at 8:30 o'clock this morning. The mother of Donald Kuhns suffered severe burns on the chest, hands and face, and other children and Mrs. Kuhns sister, Mrs. Rowland Haniwalt, suffered less severe burns.
Mrs. Kuhns and Mrs. Haniwalt were preparing to wash this morning at the Kuhns home, an eight-room frame structure on the Rockland road at the outskirts of Davis Corners. Mr. and Mrs. Haniwalt, who reside on the Rockland-St. George road, had arrived earlier in the morning after Mr. Kuhns had come to Franklin to work at the Joy Manufacturing Company plant.
The two women, the three Kuhns children, Donald, 5, Curt, 7, and Pauline, 2, and Mrs. Haniwalt's 3-year-old daughter, Ruby Louise, were alone in the house, Mr. Haniwalt having gone to a gasoline service station a short distance away.
Fumes Blown Across Stove.
The women were using a gasoline-motored washing machine and had just filled the tank, placing a jug of the fuel on the porch outside the kitchen. Mrs. Haniwalt said the kitchen door was open and the fierce gale that was sweeping the country-side apparently blew the fumes of the gasoline into contact with the kitchen stove.
The flames flared up in the kitchen and soon the room was a blazing furnace.
The women immediately began gathering the children together to escape, but Donald apparently dashed out of the kitchen into an adjoining bedroom. The mother ran about looking for him, and unable to find him readily, she dashed out of the blazing kitchen with the other three children and Mrs. Haniwalt, intending to take the others to safety and then attempt to look for the 5-year-old son.
Within seconds the high wind had whipped the blaze into an inferno, and the flames spread in a twinkling throughout the frame building.
Unable to Re-enter House.
After escaping to the outside, the women were unable to re-enter the house, and in the brief interval while Mrs. Kuhns was gathering the other children together, she was seared by the flames. The hair on Curt's head was singed and little Ruby Louise Hanniwalt's left arm was scorched.
By the time Mr. Hanniwalt and other men reached the scene, the house was an inferno, whipped to white heat by the strongest wind of the winter in this district. A water well was located directly behind the house, but the heat of the fire kept the men from it and nothing could be done toward saving the dwelling. In a few minutes it was tumbling into ruins.
The two women and the three children who escaped were removed to the home of a neighbor and as soon as the embers of the fire had cooled sufficiently to permit the men to approach the blazing pit that was the cellar, a search for the missing child's body was begun.
So intense was the fire, fanned by the wind, every timber of the house was reduced to ashes, and all the contents were in ruins in the cellar.
Body Found At 1:15 p. m.
The body of Donald Kuhns was not found until about 1:15 o'clock this aftternoon. Badly charred and dismembered, it was discovered in the ruins in the rear part of the house, bearing out the belief of his mother and aunt that he had fled from the kitchen into the adjoining bedroom, there hiding himself beyond his mother's reach in her frantic search for him.
Dr. P. E. Cunningham, of Franklin, deputy coroner, went to the scene shortly after the report of the fire and of the child's death was received here and conducted a search of the ruins for the body. Mr. Kuhns also was notified of the tragedy and left work at the Joy Manufacturing Company plant to return home.
It was the second disastrous fire within the recent experience of the Kuhns family. They formerly resided at Salina, and their home there was destroyed by flames about three years ago. As in the case of the fire today, all the contents of their house were destroyed.
After the removal of the charred body of the child from the ruins, it was taken to the Osenider Funeral Home in Oil City and funeral arrangements were to be made later.

1 Venango County Historical Society, Venango County Pennsylvania Cemetery Records and Early Church Histories, Vol. 5, Rockland Township (Franklin, PA: Venango County Historical Society, 1997), Pg 90.

2 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 345.