On This Date in Minnesota History: October 5

October 5, 1913 – A terrible accident happened today at the Uriel Markkula farm four miles south of Cromwell, Minn. Hugo Markkula, the 7-year-old son of the family, had taken an unloaded shot gun and a shell loaded with buckshot out onto the porch and there loaded the gun and accidentally discharged it.

The charge of buckshot bored a hole through the kitchen door and traveled across the room where his mother Hanna was sitting combing the hair of his sister Lempia, 10-years-old, who was sitting on a stool at her mother’s feet. His brother Charles, aged 11, was standing by his mother’s side when the fatal shot was fired.

One of the buckshot hit his mother in the chest, passing through her body, causing a wound from which she died five minutes later. Lempia was hit by a shot that passed through her neck, and another struck her in the face and lodged in the base of her brain, causing death instantaneously. Charles was shot in the right thigh, but his injury was not serious.

New Ulm Review; “Kills Mother and Sister. Boy Also Accidentally Wounds Another Child.”; Oct. 15, 1913; p. 2.

Cloquet Pine Knot; “Mother and Daughter Killed. Accidental Shooting Near Cromwell Brings Death to Mrs. Markkula and Daughter.”; Oct. 9, 1913; p. 1.

http://media.northlandsnewscenter.com/images/cromwell1.jpg

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