Franklin Repository

--On the evening of the 9th inst., a man named Jacob Reed, aged about 65 years, a resident of Horse Valley, this county, was burned to death. The circumstances connected with his melancholy affair, as they have been detailed to us, are as follows:

On the evening named, Reed procured half a gallon of whiskey at the Horse Valley Tavern, and proceeded towards his home, distant some 4 miles. On the way, he must have taken frequent potations, and become deeply intoxicated, as in this condition he called at a neighbor's, on the road, and requested permission to remain for the night, which was refused.--He proceeded further and came to an unoccupied shanty, on the premises owned by Mr. Jacob S. Trostle, of this place, located in an unfrequented, out-of-the-way place, in that mountainous district, and into it, it is supposed, Reed entered to spend the night. In the shanty was a cooking-stove, without a pipe, and in the corner of the room was a large pile of shavings. The supposition is, that he undertook to build a fire in the stove; in doing so, he set fire to the entire pile of shavings. In his efforts to extinguish it, the fire was communicated to his clothing; and being helpless from the effects of the liquor, he fell a victim to the flames. The fire from the shavings soon enveloped the shanty, and not before the Saturday following, (the 12th inst.,) was it discovered that it had been burned.--He was missed by his family, but as he was in the habit of being away for a day or two at a time, his absence occasioned no uneasiness; but the discovery of the shanty having been burned, caused and examination to be made, and sad to say, among the embers were found a small portion of the remains of a human being, the broken fragments of a jug, and a pocket knife which was identified as having belonged to Reed.

Whether there was an inquest held, we have not been informed; but the circumstances taken together, are conclusive that the remains discovered are those of Jacob Reed, and that he perished thus terribly from the effects of intemperance, another victim on the alter [sic] of the insatiable monster, the Molloch of Rum.

Reed leaves a wife and four or five children to mourn this sad fate of the husband and father, and, from no fault of theirs, are made to endure this terribly afflicting blow.