Nancy H. Vest, Writer

Sharing Stories and Wisdom from Generation to Generation

  • Home
  • About Nancy
  • Growing Up Years Journal
  • Blog
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Marking Your Milestones

in Gladys Martin Family

Earl Frost: a bold move and an early death

Share

A distant MARTIN cousin, G., asked one day if I had information about a mutual cousin she was researching. That inquiry led us both down several rabbit trails that answered some questions and brought up more. I’ll blog about that another day.

On one of the rabbit trails, I found a clump of young deaths in one family. Most of these causes of death are usually treatable with today’s medicine: influenza, eclampsia, and bronchial pneumonia.

But one of those causes of death is generally not treatable even now.

Earl FROST was born 25 April 1913. He was the 2nd child and oldest son of Jesse Andrew FROST (1888-1938) and Katie LEE FROST (1893-1956). The family lived in Richland and Lexington Counties in South Carolina. Katie’s mother, Aretta MARTIN LEE (1863-1953) was a sister of my great-grandfather, Adolphus Burdine MARTIN (1867-1917). This makes Earl my 2nd cousin, once removed.

On the 1920 U.S. Census, 6-year old Earl attended school. Father Jesse was a carpenter, and mother Katie was at home taking care of Earl and his three siblings.

Six years later, when Earl was nearly 13, tragedy struck.

On the morning of 20 January 1926, Earl was walking on the brickyard road, according to The State newspaper. This was likely the Guignard Brick Yard which was built in 1920 in New Brookland, Lexington County, South Carolina. It was located just west of the Congaree River which separates Lexington and Richland Counties.

Earl came across a live wire, and you know where this is going.

Here’s the article from The State dated 21 Jan 1926.

photo of a newspaper article entitled: Live Wire Kills Brookland Lad. It goes on to tell about the accidental electrocution of Earl Frost who tried to crawl under a live wire sagging near the ground. He died instantly.
Newspaper article from The State newspaper from Columbia, South Carolina

Considering the details given, I think Earl was not alone. How awful to have witnessed this accident. Death was instantaneous according to the death certificate.

Earl is buried at Beulah Baptist Church in Killian, South Carolina, according to the death certificate and the article in the newspaper. But according to Find-A-Grave, he’s buried at Ebeneezer Holiness Baptist Church on Old Sloan Road which is in the Killian area. I can’t find much about either church, but I suspect it’s the same church and it changed names somewhere along the line.

Earl made a bold move that day, believing that he could crawl under the wire. Young people make bold moves. Haven’t we all? It’s part of being young and invincible (at least in our minds.)

Copyright © 2022 Nancy H. Vest   All Rights Reserved

Featured image by Michael Jim on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/@michaeljinphoto

Share
Click here to subscribe to my nearly weekly newsletter and receive a free e-book, Write Your First Life Story Today
« Favorite Photo: a surprise father & son photo
Celebrating National Corn on the Cob Day »

Comments

  1. Virginia Allain says

    March 21, 2022 at 11:56 pm

    How sad. I’ve found so many sad stories of early deaths, but even sadder are the ones who die with nothing to explain what happened.

    Reply
    • Nancy H. Vest says

      March 22, 2022 at 10:34 am

      I agree completely.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to my nearly weekly newsletter via email and receive a free e-book, Write Your First Life Story Today.

Most Used Tags

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Baltimore Carroll County Chesterfield County Christmas Civil War Columbia Cotton mill farmer Farming Fort Jackson Frederick Frederick County Ft. Jackson grandparents Keeping Grandma Alive Keepsakes Kershaw County Lexington County Marlboro County Maryland Monocacy Cemetery Montgomery County North Carolina Pennsylvania Photos Richland County South Carolina Surname: Burroughs Surname: Davis Surname: Futrell Surname: Grant Surname: Griffin Surname: Heiser Surname: Hillard Surname: Jeffords Surname: Lee Surname: Martin Surname: Price Surname: Pyles Surname: Terry Surname: Thomas Virginia World War 1 World War 2

Archives

Categories

GeneaBloggers

Share:

Share

Copyright © 2023 · Market theme by Restored 316

Copyright © 2023 · Created and maintained by Bakerview Consulting