For “Event” NOV 1922 of Alfred R Stiller
A tragic fire occurred at midnight at the residence of Mr. Louis Stiller, Caswell-street, the youngest child, a boy aged three years, being burned to death, whilst the other members of the family had a narrow escape. At the time of the outbreak Mrs. Stiller and a family of six children, the husband being absent at work in the country, were asleep in bed.
Read in full this session, as was the Dubbo Liberal's fuller version: "Mrs. Stiller was awakened by the crackling of fire. She found th back portion of the house in flames, and immediately awakened the children, who were sleeping in the back rooms. When she got these out she went to the res-cue of the two youngest children, who were sleeping in the front bedroom... Stiller was absent at his work in the country." WHY THIS IS PROBABLY ALFRED: he was born in 1919 and died in 1922, so he was three; the fire was at Peak Hill, where this family lived; his is the only Stiller death registered at Peak Hill in 1922 (18946/1922); and he was the youngest, born three years after Ronald Verdun. Leo Paul was a carpenter who had worked the mines, consistent with a husband "absent at work in the country". WHY IT IS NOT CERTAIN: every report calls the father "Mr. Louis Stiller", not Leo Paul, and since all nine descend from one wire dispatch that is a single unverified statement, not corroboration. NO NAME IS CHANGED ON THE FATHER and no death date is changed on the child. THE SCHNEIDER LEAD: the Dubbo Liberal adds "The deceased child was a nephew of Mr. and Mrs. E. F. Schneider, of Dubbo", which means a sibling of Leo Paul or of Mary married an E. F. Schneider — a route to relatives this tree does not have, and possibly to Otto Paul's other children.