January 6, 1887: Alexander Latshaw Dies from Accidental Fall

By Margaret Leidy Harner from her book One Day at a Time: A Social History of Boyertown, PA.

January 6, 1887: Late tonight, Alexander Latshaw was walking about in the family mill in Barto carrying a lantern, when he walked out through an open door and died soon afterward. The door was on the third floor of the mill and he fell 35 feet! He had been carried into his house and a physician was summoned, but his injuries were too severe for his life to be saved.

Latshaw was 56 years old, unmarried and “slightly demented.” He had for a time been an inmate in an asylum.

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