In the early morning hours of Easter Sunday, 1928, near Woodside Station on the Lykens Valley Railroad, a young man died in a tree hut that he had constructed and decided to sleep in. Apparently, he was overcome from the gases of the briquets he burned in a crude stove he had constructed. When the hut caught fire his body burned. The tragic discovery was made by the boy’s father and two siblings.
From the Elizabethville Echo, April 12, 1928:
BOY BURNED TO DEATH IN HUT
FATHER RECOVERS SON’S BODY FROM SHACK IN TREES
When a small hut, built in trees caught fire, from a crude homemade stove, Lloyd Scheidler, aged 17 years of near Woodside Station, perished in the flames, early Easter Sunday morning.
Scheidler and a neighbor companion, Arthur Kieffer, had built a small hut about six feet square, in the tree about twelve feet from the ground, and according to the parents the young man had been accustomed to sleep in the shanty every night during the past two weeks. The young men had constructed a small stove to heat their hut with boiler plate and other bits of scrap iron, they were able to gather.
The boy had lived with his parents Mr. and Mrs. George Scheidler near Woodside Station, but sleeping in the hut, which was only three-hundred feet from the house. Shortly after midnight, the father who is employed in the electric plant of the Juniata Public Service Commission near Millersburg, was returning home when he discovered the hut a mass of flames. In passing the house he summoned two other sons, who succeeded in battering a hole in the floor and Lloyd’s charred body dropped through the floor of the cabin to the ground. The hut could be reached only by means of a wooden ladder.
It is believed that while sleeping that night, the young man became cold and started a fire of briquets in the crude stove, fell asleep again, when the hut was fired. It is further believed that the burning briquets caused gas in which the young man was overcome, and was burned. Funeral Director Minier of Millersburg was given charge of the body as a deputy coroner said that an inquest would not be necessary.
Funeral services were held at two o’clock Tuesday afternoon from the home with Rev. Stanley Baker, pastor of the Killinger Reformed Church, officiating and burial made in the adjoining cemetery. He is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Scheidler and the following brothers and sisters: Carl Scheidler, Woodrow Scheidler, Riland Scheidler, Jesse Scheidler, Eyla Scheidler, Catharine Scheidler, Emma Scheidler, and Elva Scheidler, all at home.
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Article from Newspapers.com.
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