The Aberdeen Democrat, Friday, September 9, 1904
COLUMBIA
DEATH’S SHINING MARKS.
Edna and Fanny Smith, Former Columbia Girls Die Suddenly.
Friends of the family of Horace Smith, of Pierre, station agent at this place about a dozen years ago, have received word of the sad bereavement of the family in the sudden deaths of two of the girls.
Fanny had been ill for a couple of weeks but was convalescent and pronounced by the physician to be nearly recovered but suffered a sudden attack of heart failure and died in half an hour. Her death occurred on the evening of the ninth of August. She was born in Columbia Dec. 21, 1890, being less than 14 years of age. Her remains were taken to Grand Rapids, Wisconsin for burial.
The other daughter to be claimed by the grim reaper, ten days later, was Edna, who was married five months ago to Wallace Huffstutter, of Phelps City, Missouri, where she resided. She had come to Grand Rapids to attend the funeral of her sister, and a few days later was taken with an illness, which later developed into a fatal case of diphtheria. Edna was born in Brookings twenty-three years and spent her childhood in Columbia. Much sympathy is felt here for the bereaved family by their many friends.
~Transcribed by volunteer researcher, Linda Ziemann