Short life of Daniel E. Gunn of Butler County

Many Europeans immigrated to the United States during at the turn of the 20th century. They came for a variety of reasons. One of those immigrants was Daniel Edward Gunn. Born in Aberdeen, Scotland, on April 9, 1887, he was picked up while selling newspapers at the age of 8 by the local authorities and taken to live in an orphanage for a few years. By 1901, he was still living in Scotland in the house of Alexander and Georgina Middleton, where he attended school. At the age of 21, with $50 in his pocket, he left Scotland for New York on June 15, 1907, on the SS Columbia. He arrived at Ellis Island on the 24th. A young man in a big new city. On the ship manifest, he listed his final destination as Hebron, Indiana. It is unclear if he made it there or not. What is known is that he spent some time in northern Minnesota in 1910. It is here that he became friends with William Millard of Peoria, Illinois. He and his business partner, Charles F. Bartson, were railroad contractors. Millard wrote that when he came into their camp "a musical instrument was his sole asset. We put him to work as a craneman, and found in him a splendid workman." In between jobs they supported Gunn financially and suggested he make a life insurance policy and will. He did both in 1916, an insurance policy for $2,000 and will with the beneficiaries being Bartson and Millard.

It is unclear how or why Gunn came to live in Butler County. He arrived in the county as early as 1918 because he registered for the draft. Interestingly, he listed his birth month as February not April on his draft card. When the 1920 census was taken for the county on Jan. 5, he was living as a boarder in the home of Ruth Dougherty in Ash Hill. Gunn worked as a fireman (engineer) in the stave mill for Pierce Cooperage Company in Fisk, two miles away.

Ten days later, Jan. 16, the residents of Fisk were beset with tragedy. At approximately 4:15 p.m. one of two boilers at the stave mill exploded. The blast blew some of the workers into the St. Francis River. It is not known exactly how many were injured but at least three were severely. Hugh Hunsaker had a fractured skull and Granville Thurman had both his leg broken and lost an eye. Sadly, Gunn was killed in the blast when he was hit in the forehead.

The Oliver and Oliver law firm represented Bartson and Millard in Gunn's estate against the company. They sued because they were having difficulty being paid as beneficiaries in the will. Bartson and Millard wrote to R.L. Fitzgerald on the 18th about Gunn, "[A] real good kind hearted citizen, who never knew who is parents were, intensely desirous of knowing ... with only kind hearted people left to see that he is properly layed away."