At about 10 o’clock Wednesday morning in the late spring of 1893, 15-year old Pearl, adopted daughter of Thurman Kelsey, was baking a cobbler for dinner when her dress caught fire. The June 16, 1893, Sidney Journal account says she was "crazed by terror" and started for the home of Dennis Critton who lived just across Scott Road from the Kelsey place. The Kelseys were on a trip to Chicago at the time. The 163-acre Kelsey farm, on the northwest corner of the Sharp-Scott intersection, is the location of the houses proposed by developer Duaine Liette.

"Critton, who was working in a field, saw her and rushed up," according to the Journal account. "Her clothes were burned up, and only held together by a leather belt. He cut this, and she ran on, arriving at the house with nothing on but her shoes. She was at once taken care of and a physician sent for. She was frightfully burned about the body, only her breast and face escaping. Thursday morning she was taken home, the family having in the meantime been sent for. Later in the day she became unconscious and this (Friday) morning was hardly expected to live through the day." A sad postscript to the Friday Journal article noted that "Pearl Bretches died at 1 p.m. today..."

Pearl was buried in the new cemetery the following Sunday, according to the obituary appearing a week later in the Sidney Journal. "Over 800 persons attended, and 235 carriages followed her to the grave--the largest funeral ever held in the county," the Journal said. The services were held in the Reformed Church at Swanders, with the Rev. W. S. Culp presiding.

Jennie Pearl Bretches, born July 23, 1877, was the youngest of three daughters born to John and Euphemia (often spelled Phema in the records) Bretches. She and older sisters Catharine and Nettie, born in the Bretches home directly across Sharp Road from the Kelseys, became the wards of John Thurman Kelsey when their father died in 1878. John Bretches and brother Samuel, the executor of John’s estate, owned land on both sides of Scott Road. Records of St. Jacob Evangelical Lutheran Church show that Pearl was baptized on August 24, 1877, when she was one month old. John Bretius and Pheme Gouge were listed as parents. The late Roy Lacey who compiled the church records noted that "records are all given in German script or German writing," which probably accounts for the "Bretius" and "Pheme" spellings. Euphemia later married George Potts and died at her Sidney home on North and Oak in 1923.