A newspaper in Camden, New Jersey

12 Jul 1871

DISTRESSING ACCIDENT – Last Wednesday Mrs. Martha Sheldon, while visiting the steam grist-mill of Sheldon & Reed, on Penshauken Creek, was horribly mangled by her clothes catching in an upright shaft which was making 120 revolutions per minute.  She was whirled around at a fearful rate, when her head struck a post near by, killing her almost instantly, and scattering her brains a distance of thirty-six feet.  Her tongue and teeth, and part of her skull, were found on the floor after the accident.  She was about sixty-five years of age, and was on a visit to her nephew, one of the proprietors of the mill.  Her remains were brought to this city and interred from her brother’s residence.