The following unidentified newspaper article was found in a scrapbook owned by Betty Burton of Lowell:
John Smith, only son of George Smith, was born in Wabash county, Indiana, September 22, 1870, and died at the home of his sister Mrs. Oscar Brooks at Plum Grove, October 3, 1904, aged 34 years and 11 days. He retired Sunday evening in apparent good health. About 2 o'clock Mr. and Mrs. Brooks heard a noise in his room, which was directly over theirs, and on going up to investigate the cause found him in convulsions. Dr. Davis was sent for, but on his arrival found him still unconscious and was unable to get him to take medicine. The doctor requested that his father lie down with him, and gave it as his opinion that he would come out of the fit by 7 a.m. About 5:30 he turned his head and made a peculiar noise; when his father spoke to him he made no reply. Mr. Smith then went below and Mrs. Brooks went to her brother's room and found him dead. He was a man of very industrious habits and was well like by all who knew him. He was never married. His funeral occurred from the Plum Grove school house at 2 p.m. Tuesday. Rev. A.M. Hootman preached the funeral discourse. Funeral Director John Castle had charge of the burial service. Interment in the Plum Grove cemetery. He leaves his father and one sister, Mrs. Oscar Brooks, and numerous friends to mourn his demise, to whom the TRIBUNE extends sympathy in their hour of sorrow and bereavement.