#52Ancestors Week 6 (4 days late!!) A tragic mule ride in Hawaii.......

I did not have a chance to finish week 6 before I headed to RootsTech last Wednesday - so here it is!!

I was working on updating some records this week and ran into a person who never married, and died quite young,

I was quite intrigued what the story was went on a mission to find the story.....

John Edward Kirkman is my great-grand uncle.   He was born in 1886 and died in 1910.

Mules Grazing in Hawaii

After poking around a bit - I did find out what happened.   John Edward Kirkman was killed while serving an L.D.S. mission in Hawaii.   He was riding a mule between settlements, along a path that bordered the ocean, and the mule slipped and it and John fell into the ocean below, and John drowned.  At first - there was no body to be found, but later  his body was recovered.  What a sad event for this family.

Here are the articles I found which say what happens much better than I could:

Later on - this appears in The Improvement ERA

Published in the New Improvement ERA, Volume 14 in Nov 1911.

Sources:

The Logan Republican, 12 January 1911, accessed on newspapers.com on 16 Feb 2015

The New Improvement ERA, Volume 14, accessed on books.google.com on 16 Feb 2015