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July 12, 1908

WAS HE NEGRO, MEXICAN OR INDIAN?

Undertakers Puzzled by

Unidentified Man.

The body of an unidentified man was picked up on the tracks of the Belt Line near Wyoming street, Friday night. Thinking that the body was that of a negro the railroad employes sent the body to Countee Bros., negro undertakers, who embalmed it. Dr. O. H. Parker was called to view the body and pronounced it that of a Mexican. He therefore ordered it removed to the undertaking rooms of Eylar Bros., at Fourteenth and Main streets. It is now thought that the body is that of an Indian. It is large limbed and possesses all of the charactaristics of that race.

Labels: Belt line, Deputy Coroner Parker, Native Americans, race, undertakers, Wyoming street

June 16, 1908

TWO LIVES LOST

IN BLUE RIVER.

ALFRED G. BUCHANAN AND MISS

NITA EWIN DROWNED.

THEIR CANOE STRUCK A SNAG.

YOUNG MAN TRIES TO RESCUE

HIS COMPANION.

His Efforts Rendered Futile by the

Struggles of His Companion.

They Go Down to Death

Together.

MISS NITA EWIN AND ALBERT BUCHANAN.
BLUE RIVER CLAIMS TWO MORE VICTIMS.

While boating on the Blue river in Sheffield yesterday afternoon, Alfred G. Buchanan and Miss Nita Ewin were drowned. The canoe in which they were rowing caught on a hidden snag and turned turtle. Both Mr. Buchanan and Miss Ewin lived in Independence. Each was about 20 years of age. Miss Ewin was the daughter of Mrs. Bertie Ewin, a widow, of 412 North Liberty street, while young Buchanan was the son of J. F. Buchanan, an abstracter and loan agent in Independence.

The young couple secured a canoe at the Blue River shortly after noon yesterday, saying that they would return in a short time. They immediately paddled off toward the mouth of the Blue. The accident occurred just above the Belt line bridge.

Witnesses say the boat struck a hidden snag or the limbs of a big tree that overhung the river. Both the occupants of the boat were thrown out by the shock and the boat itself capsized. The two young people struggled in the water for a short time and then went down. Mr. Buchanan was an expert swimmer but, according to those who witnessed the accident from a distance, he was hindered in his efforts to save himself and the young woman by the struggles of the latter.

Two Missouri Pacific firemen stationed with their engines near the scene of the accident saw the young people drown. They left their engines and immediately began to dive or the bodies. Their efforts were fruitless.

The police department was then notified and Lieutenant M. J. Kennedy of the Sheffield station led a rescue party consisting of Marion Bollinger, owner of the boat, and a fisherman. Both bodies were drawn from the water by hooks nearly an hour and a half later.

Mr. Bollinger found the body of the young man first and the fisherman found the body of the young woman. Lieutenant Kennedy had telephoned the father of the young man and he was present when the bodies were removed. Dr. A. C. Mulvaney and Dr. Connelly Anderson, who had been called by Lieutenant Kennedy, tried to resuscitate the two but failed. It was 6 o'clock before the bodies were sent to Independence in an ambulance.

Miss Ewin was the only daughter of Mrs. Bertie Ewin. Seven members of the family have died in the last five years. Alfred is the second son of J. F. Buchanan.

Labels: Belt line, Blue river, boats, death, doctors, drowning, Independence, police, railroad, sheffield

May 7, 1908

HIS MOTHER'S ERRAND

TOOK HIM TO HIS DEATH.

Eugene Lane, 7 Years Old, Killed by

Santa Fe Train on Belt

Line Trestle.

While returning to his home at 3810 East Fifteenth street yesterday evening about 6 o'clock, Eugene Lane, age 7 years, was caught on the long trestle of the Belt line railroad near Thirteenth street and Jackson avenue and killed. The boy was struck by an eastbound Santa Fe passenger train while midway on the trestle and the impact of the engine threw him against one of the iron uprights, crushing his skull.

Eugene Lane was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Lane, who live at 3810 East Fifteenth street, and had ben sent to a neighbor's house on an errand for his mother. The boy had been in the habit of using the trestle in making journeys to and form the neighborhood to which he was sent, but had forgotten that a train was due when he attempted to cross the trestle yesterday afternoon.

Edward Lane, the father of the boy, has a blacksmith shop at 3406 East Fifteenth street. The boy was an only son.

Labels: Belt line, blacksmiths, children, death, Jackson avenue, railroad, Thirteenth street

April 6, 1908

IT IS THE BODY

OF WEALTHY COOK.

YOUNG WOMAN KILLED ON BELT

LINE IDENTIFIED.

HER HOME IN SPRINGFIELD.

WAS STAYING WITH AUNT AT

TENTH AND BELMONT.

Peculiar Actions of Late Made Neigh-

bors Believe Her Demented.

Left Home Wednesday,

Killed Thursday.

With the reason for her tragic death still shrouded in mystery, the body of the young woman who was crushed under the wheels of a Belt line engine Thursday afternoon was yesterday afternoon positively identified as that of Miss Wealthy Cook, aged 21 years, daughter of A., Cook, a painter who lives at 2136 North Benton street, Springfield, Mo.

The identification was made at Newcomer's morgue yesterday by Mrs. Tom Davis, 6028 East Eleventh street, and further substantiated by Mrs. Edith Green, 6003 East Tenth street. It is believed by all that the young woman came to her death through an accident, as she had no cause for suicide so far as is known here.

Miss Cook had lived in this city about three months, coming here from her home in Springfield to nurse her aunt, Mrs. J. J. Ritchie, Tenth and Belmont streets, with whom she made her home. She was last seen Wednesday morning by Mrs. Green, who lives next door to Mrs. Ritchie, and just where she was between then and the hour she met her death is a mystery. Miss Cook is believed to have wandered around through all of Wednesday, Wednesday night and Thursday, and was probably going back to her home when killed.

Of late, so the neighbors say, she had acted strangely on more than one occasion and it is believed by them that her mind was imbalanced. Certainly, some of her actions would lead to this belief, and it is the generally accepted theory that in a fit of temporary insanity she left her home and simply wandered around until she met her tragic fate.

HER STRANGE ACTIONS.

It is stated that Miss Cook frequently took long walks and would be gone from the house for hours, never telling a soul where she was going. On one occasion she left home before dawn and walked to the city. She returned about 11 o'clock in the morning and stated that she had walked to and from the city and was not a bit tired. The distance from her home to the business portion is no less than sixty blocks, and to accomplish this feat would make even a strong man think twice.

Last Wednesday morning Miss Cook stood on a street corner near her home for over two hours. She never moved from her position during the entire time and when spoken to by one of the neighbors became angry. She was asked why she stood there during all that time, and if she was in trouble.

"DON'T SPEAK TO ME AGAIN."

"You are attracting attention by your strange conduct," she was told.

"Well, if that is so, I will move on, but don't you ever speak to me again," was her reply, and with that she started off down the street.

A very unusual feature of the case, and the reason that the body was not identified earlier, is that Mrs. Ritchie told no one that the girl had gone away until late Saturday night. Mrs. Ritchie has been in failing health for some months, and sufferers from heart trouble. Saturday night she suffered a severe attack, and her mother, Mrs. Hannah Westmon, aged 87, who lives with her, sent for Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Green. These women asked about the girl, and were surprised to learn that Mrs. Ritchie did not know where she was.

"We had been reading in The Journal about the strange young woman who was found dead," said Mrs. Green, "and we at once came to the conclusion from the description given that this was Wealthy. Mrs. Davis went to the undertakers' this afternoon, and sure enough, it was she. Had we been told earlier, we could have identified the body at once."

Mrs. Ritchie's condition is critical, and she has not been told that the body of the young woman is that of her niece, for fear the shock would end her life.

WHERE DID SHE GET IT?

Those who know the girl are at loss to explain why and how Miss Cook got the Sunday school leaflet which bore the name of Loretta Kurster. So far as is known she never attended the Forest Avenue Methodist church, where the leaflets were distributed.

It is thought by some that perhaps she quarreled with her aunt and started to go back to her home at Springfield. She carried all her money with her and as the body was warmly dressed, three skirts and other extra clothing being worn, it is not unlikely that she meant to go to her home and took this method of carrying her extra clothing rather than excite suspicion by packing it in her suit case.

A. Cook, the father of the girl, has been notified by Mr. Newcomer and has advised the undertaker that he and the girl's mother will arrive here today.

Labels: Belmont street, Belt line, churches, death, mental health, railroad, Tenth street, The Journal, undertakers

April 3, 1908

UNKNOWN WOMAN

KILLED BY TRAIN.

RUN DOWN ON BELT LINE NEAR

PARK AVENUE.

DIES IN GENERAL HOSPITAL.

REFUSES TO GIVE ANY INFORMA-

TION ABOUT HERSELF.

Carried Sunday School Tract With

Little Girl's Name on It, but

the Owner Does Not

Know Her.

A young woman who was crushed by the wheels of a Belt Line engine last night at 7:30 o'clock, died tow and a half hours later at the city hospital, without being identified. The scene of the accident was where the Belt tracks are fifteen feet below street level, half way between Brooklyn and Park avenues. It is near Nineteenth street.

The woman was walking eastward and must have entered the cut three blocks west, at the street level.

To avoid the Santa Fe local No. 59, westbound, she stepped upon the other main track, and a Milwaukee engine, eastbound, struck her. Pilot Al Williams was riding to work on the engine but neither he nor the engineer, James Spencer, saw her, nor did the fireman But the flagman on the freight train did.

She lay by the track, her left arm almost severed at the shoulder, and with a contusion, possibly a fracture, on each side of her head. A broad leather cushion from the car was brought and she was carried to Eighteenth street and Brooklyn avenue to the office of Dr. I. E. Ruhl, who saw that she was dying. The police ambulance from No. 4 police station, in charge of Patrolman Smith Cook and Dr. C. V. Bates, arrived and she was taken to the general hospital.

She seemed conscious, but could not be induced to talk. The only article she carried was a Sunday school quarterly bearing the name of Loretta Kurster, 1509 East Eighteenth street.

Drs. R. C. Henderson and T. B. Clayton, who operated on the woman at the hospital. said she seemed bright and could use her vocal organs, but evidently was suffering from a skull fracture so such an extent that she did not really understand what was said to her.

Asked if she knew how she had been hurt, she replied, wonderingly, "Hurt? Why, I didn't know anything was the matter." But questions as to her identity she did not attempt to answer, and there was nothing about her person to disclose this, besides the booklet.

In the meantime it had been discovered that Loretta Kursler is a 12-year-old girl who was uninjured and busy in her mother's bakery at the address given in the book. She thought it might be a Sunday school teacher she had met at Central Baptist church, Miss Blanche Wade, but Miss Wade was found safe at her home. She at once, however, went to the hospital to see if she could identify the woman. The quarterly was found to be one pushed by the Christian denomination.

The Kursler child having recently become a pupil at the Forest Avenue Christian church, Miss Wade called Rev. J. L. Thompson of the Forest Avenue church for aid in identifying the woman. Loretta Kursler said her Christian Sunday school teacher was called Grace, but she did not know her last name. The minister accounted for every Sunday school worker by the name of Grace and everyone who teaches girls of that size. Then the chance of discovering before morning who the woman was seemed very slight.

Apparently the woman was 32 to 35 years of age. She was slightly above medium height, was fairly well fleshed, was brunette with abundance of dark hair, had delicate hands, blue-set earrings worn tight to the ear, and wore a tan jacket and a fur neck piece. No hat was taken with her to the hospital. Around her waist was fastened a package containing $8.70.

Dr. Ruhl, who first saw her, thinks it possible that the woman may have been demented, or if an employed woman may have been making a short cut home from work. In the latter case he would believe her hearing defective.

The Kursler family is at a loss to know how a Sunday school book bearing the little girl's name would come to be found in the possession of anyone not her teacher.

Labels: accident, Belt line, Brooklyn avenue, children, churches, death, doctors, Eighteenth street, Forest avenue, general hospital, ministers, No 4 police station, Park avenue, railroad, women

May 14, 1907

BREAKS UP BOYS' GANG.

In the Juvenile Court Yesterday

Judge McCune Lectured the

Father When He Objected

to the Decision.

Seven little boys, from 9 to 12 years of age, charged with being the "Sixteenth Street Gang," train hoppers and coal thieves, were before Judge McCune, of the juvenile court, yesterday afternoon.

"The boys sit on the rails of the Belt line tracks," said James H. Knapp, of the Knapp & Coumbe Construction Company, a witness, "and try to scare the engineer of the approaching trains. When the engine is within a few feet of them, they jump up like frogs and get off the track. If the engineer sticks his head out of the cab to talk to them, they make finger signs at him."

There were other witnesses against the boys -- three truancy officers and W. K. Miller, flagman for the Belt line at Sixteenth street. They said that the boys made a practice of stealing coal and hopping on trains.

"I pointed out to the boys," Miller told the court, "the place where a boy was killed last year jumping on a train. It wasn't ten feet from where these boys repeat the practice. But they only laughed at me.

"They sit up on the cars and kick the coal off. Then they get down, pick it up, and haul it away in little wagons. The gang has two wagons."

The seven boys before the court were; Willie Eft, 10 years old; Martin Eft, 9 years old, both of 1511 College avenue; Henning Broman, 12 years old, of 3113 East Sixteenth street; Harry Wright, 11 years old, of 3208 East Sixteenth street, Edward Blickhan, 11 years old, and Harris Blickhan, 10 years old, both of 1612 College avenue; Earl Frizzell, 12 years old, of 3208 East Sixteenth street.

All of the boys, with the exception of Earl Frizzell, admitted that they hopped on trains and stole coal. The Blickhan boys took the coal home and the other s sold it for 15 cents a wagon load, they said. Willie Eft and Henning Broman owned the two wagons.

Edward J. Blickhan, father of the Blickhan boys, appeared to defend his offspring, but he did more harm than good. He told the court that they had been sick with tonsillitis for two weeks and could not go to school. He denied all knowledge of their bringing coal home, but the court stated that he preferred to believe the boys' own statement that they had brought coal home and put it in the box by the kitchen stove. When the Blickhan boys were rounded up by the truancy officers last Thursday their hair hung over their shoulders and they were so ragged that Miller told the officers that he thought they were orphans. Yesterday afternoon they wore new suits and had their hair clipped short.

Judge McCune turned Earl Frizzell loose, as he had been with the "gang" only one day, ordered a home in the country found for Willie Eft and released the other boys with the understanding that they attend school and quit playing among the railway yards.

When Blickhan protested against the court holding his boys, Judge McCune said:

"You don't care if your boys get killed playing in the yards, so long as they fill your coal box. I don't want to hear another word from you. You have violated the law yourself."

Henry Eft, 13 years old, a brother of Willie and Martin, now has a reform school sentence hanging over him and is at work.

Labels: Belt line, children, College avenue, Judge McCune, juvenile court, railroad, reform school, Sixteenth street