"6 Brothers, Cousin Trapped by Blaze in Indian Reserve"

SIX NATIONS RESERVE, Brantford, March 20 - The bodies of seven Indian children, one a tiny baby, were removed this afternoon from the ashes of their home in which they burned to death late yesterday.

Six were children of Mr. and Mrs. Wilfred Henry and the seventh a nephew visiting from Buffalo.

Sole survivor is stocky, 14-year-old Marvin Henry who aroused the sleeping youngsters, leaped from an upstairs window in the two-storey frame home, and clothed only in shorts ran barefoot through the snow to summon help.

Dead are Catherine Henry, 14 months; Delano Henry, three years; Mary Louise Henry, nine, and Alvin Henry, 11. Their cousin who died with them huddled at the foot of the stairs was Arthur Crawford, 15, a partial cripple.

The dazed 39-year-old mother rested on a couch in the neighboring home of Jake Bomberry this afternoon and sobbed out her story of last night's harrowing experience.

She had been visiting the Bomberry's about 10.30 p.m., when fire ripped through her home and in 25 minutes took the lives of six of her eight children and all her possessions. Her other surviving child is Irma, 18, who was in Buffalo. Her husband is in Toronto.

"I saw the blaze from this window (in the Bomberry home) and ran up the road," she said. "But I couldn't run very well in the mud, although I tried and tried."

The reserve roads were paths of mud and slush and Brantford fire engines could not have got in if a call had been made. The nearest telephone was two miles away.

"Mr. Harris caught me as I reached my house and said 'don't go near, it's all over. They have stopped hollering,'" Mrs. Henry continued.

The surviving boy, Marvin, ran to the home of Lawrence Harris, 900 yards down the road and shouted outside for help. The temperature was 18 degrees and a strong wind was blowing.

He was suffering from burns, cuts to his arms and shock.

"All he could say when I arrived," the mother continued, "was I tried to save the baby, I tried to save the baby, but I couldn't."

Marvin was wrapped in a blanket by Harris' two sons, Cecil and Albert, and Jake Bomberry, and carried a mile to the home of Frances Bomberry. He was taken to Lady Willingdon Hospital in Ohsweken. Their arrival at the hospital was the first outside news.

"I ran to the burning house but there was nothing I could do," Mr. Harris said. "The whole house was on fire but I could hear the children screaming and crying inside. Then it was quiet."

The mother said, "I would feel a little better if I could have got one of the babies out. I don't know how it started. Maybe the boys hung their clothes too close to the fire to dry."

A natural-gas stove was left burning at night, she said, to warm the upstairs.

"There were no matches in the house. I left the children all last summer when I worked in Brantford and their father went to Toronto, and nothing happened," Mrs. Henry sobbed.

"Marvin did his best. His feet were scorched from running across the hot floor to wake the others. He said the Dutchman (Arthur Crawford) had the baby in his arms. He doesn't know why the rest didn't follow him through the window."

The cousin was nicknamed "Dutchman" when he attended school on the reserve.

In the hospital today Marvin related how he awakened "because the house felt hot," opened the door and saw the downstairs on fire. He awakened his brothers, sisters and cousin.

"They got scared and went under the bed. I had the baby in my arms. I was going to jump with her. When she started to scream I gave her to the Dutchman and told them to follow me out," he related.

"They didn't come but I heard them screaming through the window."

The children apparently went down the stairs instead, for R.C.M.P. officers found the charred remains of the little bodies in a heap where the foot of the stairs had been.

There was not a piece of timber left on the foundation, and embers had been carried 50 feet by the wind. The twisted remains of a baby buggy, stove, washing machine and bicycle could be seen amongst the debris.

Mrs. Henry had been raised in this home for it had been built by her father.

The bodies are at the Styres funeral home in Ohsweken.

The Brantford fire department received no alarm and did not know of the tragedy until hours later. Roads were almost impassable and many cars were stuck. One reported hired a tractor to reach the scene when his car was mired.