Kate Clerigan
Cincinnati Enquirer, 17 April 1891, page 2
NEWPORT
A most horrible sight was brought to the attention of Coroner F A
Davis yesterday. In the mring he was notified that a woman had died suddenly at
the Poor House on Southgate, below Columbia street. On reaching the infirmary he
found that through negligence of someone, in not informing him, the body had
been removed for burial.
The woman proved to be Kate Clerigan, 60 years of age, an habitual drunkard, who has with her sister, been confined in the Poor House for a considerable time. The last seen of her alive was Tuesday evening, when she came down staris and asked an inmate named Mrs. Banahan for something to eat.
Edibles were given her and she was at the time very drunk. She went up to her room and is supposed to have died some time Tuesday night. Yesterday morning her sister, aged 64 years, notified other women in the house that she believed Kate was dead as she could not arouse her. Several went to the room and found the woman a most horrible looking sight. She was propped up in bed wrapped in blankets.
Blood was oozing from her nostrils, ears and mouth, while her glassy eyes were wide open and looked as though they would jump from their sockets, her head being swelled to an enormous size. She was immediately prepared for burial and interred in potter's field in Evergreen Cemetery.
Coroner Davis questioned the sister closely and could not understand how she could sleep by the side of the dead woman last night. After a thorough investigation, Coroner Davis rendered a verdict of death from alcoholism.