Family Group Sheet
NameAdella Prather
Birth16 Jan 1890, Rowan Co., Kentucky
Death16 Sep 1898, Rowan Co., Kentucky
FatherEli Franklin “Frank” Prayther [Prather] (?1847-1936)
MotherGeorgia Ann Donohue (1853-1916)
Notes for Adella Prather
The Hartford [Ky] Herald newspaper of 21 Sep 1898 reported on p. 2, column 7:
“Strangled to Death
MOREHEAD, KY., Sept 17, 1898 [Special]
-- The ten-year-old child of Frank Pratcher (sic, sp.), here, last evening went to stay over the night with her sister, who lived near by. The child had to pass the school-house where she had been at school that day. She had left her books at the school-house and climbed in at a window after them. She piled some blocks up so that she could reach the window from the outside, and as she climbed up the blocks gave way and the window fell on her neck and strangled her. The parents found the body at daylight this morning.”127
(Thank you to Carol Costa of Modesto, CA for alerting me to this newspaper report.)
In the Prather-Stamper Cemetery on Slab Camp Road is a gravestone with the inscription "Adella, Daughter of E. F. & G. A. Prather, Born Jan 16, 1890 Died Sep 16, 1898".
The birth date on the stone conflicts somewhat with her age as reported in the newspaper article. (It is frustrating that the 1890 census, which would have been able to resolve this discrepancy, was destroyed.)
The sister with whom Adella was spending the night must have been Millie, wife of my great-great uncle Albert David Hall, because none of the other daughters of Frank Prather and Georgia Ann Donohue were yet married in 1898.
“Strangled to Death
MOREHEAD, KY., Sept 17, 1898 [Special]
-- The ten-year-old child of Frank Pratcher (sic, sp.), here, last evening went to stay over the night with her sister, who lived near by. The child had to pass the school-house where she had been at school that day. She had left her books at the school-house and climbed in at a window after them. She piled some blocks up so that she could reach the window from the outside, and as she climbed up the blocks gave way and the window fell on her neck and strangled her. The parents found the body at daylight this morning.”127
(Thank you to Carol Costa of Modesto, CA for alerting me to this newspaper report.)
In the Prather-Stamper Cemetery on Slab Camp Road is a gravestone with the inscription "Adella, Daughter of E. F. & G. A. Prather, Born Jan 16, 1890 Died Sep 16, 1898".
The birth date on the stone conflicts somewhat with her age as reported in the newspaper article. (It is frustrating that the 1890 census, which would have been able to resolve this discrepancy, was destroyed.)
The sister with whom Adella was spending the night must have been Millie, wife of my great-great uncle Albert David Hall, because none of the other daughters of Frank Prather and Georgia Ann Donohue were yet married in 1898.
