An early-morning fire in Chariton on March 10, 1858, claimed the life of a young man with serious mental illness named Hiram Reese.
The young man had been confined to a shed adjoining the home of his brother-in-law, Lewis Lewis, when fire broke out, but we'd know nothing about the tragedy had someone named James Ward not written the following brief account and mailed it to the editor of The Burlington Hawk-Eye, where it was published on March 30:
Chariton, Iowa, March 12
Editor Hawk-Eye ---
On the morning of the 10th a fire occurred in our town. The residence of Lewis Lewis was burned to ashes, and a lunatic by the name of Hiram Reese burned to death. Mr. Reese was a young man of about 23 years of age --- has been insane for about one year --- is a relative of Mr. Lewis --- and has been confined for some time in an adjoining building to Mr. L's residence, and in which a fire has been kept day and night, as Reese would not permit any clothes on him which he could tear off. The fire ignited at the exit of the stove pipe, and before any assistance arrived the whole roof of the building was on fire, and so near falling in that all hope of getting the lunatic out was abandoned.
The fire occurred at about 3 o'clock a.m. An inquest was held over the dead body of Reese, and a verdict rendered in accordance with the above facts.
(signed) James Ward
We have very little idea of day-to-day occurrences in Lucas County prior to 1867 in large part because the earliest editions of our newspapers have not survived. The Patriot, which was first, had just launched in 1857. Thanks to James Ward, however, the news of Hiram's death was shared state-wide when other newspapers picked up and republished his dispatch to the Hawk-Eye.
In retrospect, it seems cruel to have locked Hiram in a shed --- even a heated one --- but no one knew at the time how to treat mental illness. And Iowa's first mental institution, the Iowa Lunatic Asylum, did not open in Mount Pleasant until 1861.
We know next to nothing about Hiram. He probably was born about 1835 in Ohio, but most likely grew up in Fulton County, Illinois. When the 1856 Iowa census taken he was living at age 21 in the Fairfield household of C.E. and Zilphia Noble along with Mary Reese, age 60, probably his mother. Zilphia Noble may have been another sister.
His sister and brother-in-law, Hiram and Mary (Reese/Elliott) Lewis, had moved from Fairfield to Chariton in 1856 and Hiram probably joined them there soon after. The Nobles and Mary Reese still were living in Fairfield in 1860.
Nor do we know where Hiram's grave is. The Chariton Cemetery was not established until 1863, so he most likely was buried in what we now call Douglass Pioneer Cemetery, just southeast of city limits.
That's the Chariton Cemetery tombstone, above, that marks the graves of Lewis and Mary Lewis.
Lewis, born during 1818 in Ohio, was a man of various occupations --- a teamster in 1850, a "druggist" in 1856, a teamster again in 1860 and thereafter a farmer. His marriage to Mary, which had occurred during 1841, was the second for both and both had children by their earlier marriages as well as two of their own, both of whom died young.
Lewis died in Chariton on Feb. 24, 1884, at the age of 65 of "typhoid pneumonia." His final illness was so severe, according to the report of his death published in The Chariton Democrat of Feb. 27, that during the four weeks preceding he had been "violently delirious, requiring the constant attention of two strong men to care for him."
After Lewis's death, Mary made her home with her surviving children and died at age 86 on Nov. 8, 1900, in Red Cloud, Nebraska. Her remains were returned to Chariton for burial beside Lewis.
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