Martha Serafin
Baby Frozen
A report reached town as we go to press that the infant child of Mr. and Mrs. John Serafin had wandered away from their home out southwest Thursday evening and tho the frantic parents and neighbors searched all night, the little one was not found till this morning, when the little lifeless form was discovered frozen.
Burial at Prairie Center Cemetery. Survived by parents John and Elizabeth Serafin, brother Freddie.
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LOST ON THE PRAIRIE
One beautiful January day over fifty years ago, a little girl was lost on the prairie. Little Martha Serafin and her younger brother, Freddie, were playing outside the homestead "shack" in the Prairie Center community when she wandered off. The little boy went in to tell his mother. She immediately went out but could see nothing of the little four-year-old girl, The other children who were going to school in Harry Benshoof's homestead shack and were taught by Inez Benshoof, soon came home and joined in the search. They looked eastward thinking she had the idea of following her father who had gone that morning to some job he had in the valley. She had cried to go with him.
Then as it was getting dark one of the children went to the next homestead east, that of Sid Fogelsong. He said he wished he had come sooner because he could have climbed on of the tow hills north of the Serafin house and probably could have seen her.
The next place to go for help was the Bairs, then the Benshoofs. There Harry and Lundy started over at once while their mother Rozella took a team and buggy and started out to alert the neighbors.
There was snow on the ground but just in patches, leaving bare leaving bare spots so it was hard to see. They tried using lanterns but a moon came up and was much better. After some time, a shot was fired and they thought she had been found but someone had found her footprints in a patch of snow and it was on the west side of those hills (afterward nicknamed "The Tetons.") A few prints were found going north of them so now the augmented number of searchers started to comb the prairie there.
Sometime after midnight the Benshoof boys stopped at the Rejda place where they saw a light and where the dogs raised such a fuss. The Rejdas had just got in from a party held further north and wondered why they were out so late, He said he hadn't seen anything of the child. Later his hounds raised an unusual racket. It was believed they were aroused by the child's presence.
About 2 o'clock the first searchers went home for a rest. They had been walking since 4 that afternoon. The later arrivals continued the search. Two of them, John Saunders and Gene Browder, discovered the lost child about dawn, east of the Charlie Rejda place and about 3 miles from home. She was lying face down as though she had fallen exhausted. She was carried to the Benshoof home while other friends carried the sad news to her father. An acquaintance in the valley who had a car offered to bring Mr. Serafin home in return for money for gas.
Mrs. Benshoof and Mrs. Vondra prepared the body for burial and Bill Vaughn made the casket. She was the second person to be buried in the Prairie Center Cemetery--Martha Serafin, January 20, 1916. You will find her grave the fourth to the north from the gate.