My mother's Aunt Doris told us the story she was told about the death of John Benjamin Conner (1894-1898). Doris's mother was Susan Conner Slusher (1881-1943), a sister ofJohn Benjamin Conner. The family was making sorghum molasses in a process that invovled a horse or mule walking in a circle and causing a log was was connected to a crusher to squeeze the juice out of sorghum cane. The juice was then boiled for four or five hours until nothing was left but the syrup. The log was attached at an angle, with the higher end connected to the crusher in the center of the circle and the lower end a few feet above the ground on the circumference of the circle. It was that lower end of the log that struck and killed little John Benjamin Conner. I don't know how fast the horse or mule would be walking, but it was evidently fast enough for a blow from the log to be fatal to a small child. I would imgaine that this sort of accident could have happened with other families, but this case is the only one I have heard of.
Contributor: Legacy (48315108) •
Contributor: Legacy (48315108) •
My mother's Aunt Doris told us the story she was told about the death of John Benjamin Conner (1894-1898). Doris's mother was Susan Conner Slusher (1881-1943), a sister ofJohn Benjamin Conner. The family was making sorghum molasses in a process that invovled a horse or mule walking in a circle and causing a log was was connected to a crusher to squeeze the juice out of sorghum cane. The juice was then boiled for four or five hours until nothing was left but the syrup. The log was attached at an angle, with the higher end connected to the crusher in the center of the circle and the lower end a few feet above the ground on the circumference of the circle. It was that lower end of the log that struck and killed little John Benjamin Conner. I don't know how fast the horse or mule would be walking, but it was evidently fast enough for a blow from the log to be fatal to a small child. I would imgaine that this sort of accident could have happened with other families, but this case is the only one I have heard of.
Contributor: Legacy (48315108) •
Contributor: Legacy (48315108) •
Family Members
Advertisement
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
