News Items from The Kansas City Journal ~ Old News That's New to You from Vintage Kansas City.com

January 10, 1910

SON OF ACTRESS IS BURNED.

Father Dead, Mother Away, Boy

Hurt Fatally Playing Indian.

While playing with some other boys in a vacant foundry at Nicholson and Prospect avenues yesterday morning at 11:30 o'clock, Eddie Campbell, aged 8 years, was so badly burned that he died four hours later at the University hospital.

The lad was attempting to make an Indian fire with some logs, and as the timber would not ignite readily he poured some kerosene on the heated portion. An explosion followed and young Campbell's clothes caught on fire. His playmates made frantic efforts to extinguish the flames, but did not succeed until after the boy had sustained fatal injuries. The body was taken to Stewart's undertaking rooms.

Eddie Campbell had been living with an uncle, Albert Campbell, at 728 North Chestnut street, for some time. His father is dead and his mother, Stella S. Campbell, who is an actress, is touring Michigan.

Labels: Chestnut street, children, death, explosion, Fire, Nicholson avenue, Prospect avenue, theater, undertakers, University hospital

December 16, 1909

AGAIN HURT GOING TO FIRE.

For Second Time Assistant Chief Is

Thrown From Buggy.

In his second similar accident this month M. M. Mahoney, assistant fire chief at No. 22 station yesterday afternoon while making a run to a fire at 3427 Chestnut street collided with a grocery wagon and was thrown out of his buggy to the pavement, receiving a slight injury on the shoulder and scratches on his face. The ambulance from No. 4 police station went to the scene of the accident, but Mahoney had returned to the fire station.

On December 1 his buggy collided with a motor car while making a run and he was thrown to the ground, but was only slightly injured and went on to the fire.

Labels: accident, Chestnut street, Fire, No 4 police station

June 18, 1909

ESTATE TO SISTER-IN-LAW.

Mrs. Lena Ditsch Bequeathed Prop-

erty Valued at $12,000.

To Mrs. Lena Ditsch, widow of his brother, Charles L. Ditsch, is left all the property of Henry Ditsch, who died June 14 at 2645 Chestnut street. The estate is valued at about $12,000. Says the will:

"The reason I have remembered her (Mrs. Ditsch) in my will is that she has nursed and cared for me through my almost continuous affliction for many years. Besides all this, she nursed and cared for my father through all his long sickness with a tenderness and devotion which merits a greater reward than she can ever hope to receive."

Labels: Chestnut street, probate, women

June 10, 1909

BLOWN UP BY PRESCRIPTION.

Druggist High Loses Part of a

Thumb Through Explosion of

Chemicals, Which Starts Fire.

While preparing a prescription in his drug store at Fifteenth street and Troost avenue yesterday evening, Harley High was badly injured by an explosion of the chemicals which he was using in an evaporating dish. His right hand was badly hurt, and powdered chemicals were blown into his face.

The injured man was treated at the residence of Dr. W. T. Singleton, Jr., directly across the street. It was found necessary to amputate the right thumb at the first joint. The great mass of powder which had been blown into Mr. High's face was picked out. He was taken to his home, 3214 Chestnut street.

Fire which resulted from the explosion entailed a loss of $900 on the building and its contents.

Mr. High was suffering so greatly that he could not tell how the explosion occurred. No one else was near.

Labels: accident, Chestnut street, doctors, druggists, explosion, Fifteenth street, Troost avenue

May 31, 1909

POPE'S SPECIAL BLESSING.

Unusual Honor for Kansas City

Couple's Golden Wedding.

An unusual honor in the form of special blessings from the pope on the occasion of their fiftieth wedding anniversary was enjoyed by Mr. and Mrs. Alexis Gosselin, 3240 Chestnut street. The anniversary was observed in Aurora, Kas., a week ago, where most of the Gosselin family resides. The Holy Father cabled his special blessings upon the couple and as a further token of regard he caused an enlarged picture of himself to be sent to them.

Labels: Chestnut street, marriage, ministers

March 31, 1909

STABS ROBBER WITH HATPIN.

Melvina Gerard Puts Purse Snatcher

to Flight and Makes Him Can-

didate for Surgical Treatment.

The problem of coping with the purse snatcher has been solved by Miss Melvina Gerard, the proprietor of a women's tailoring establishment, who was walking from a Twelfth street car to her home at 2823 East Eleventh street late Saturday night. When a man who had followed her from the car attempted to snatch her purse she promptly began to stab him with her hat pin. The vanquished robber fled in dismay.

Miss Gerard worked late Saturday night and with her sister, Miss Ernestine Gerard, started home laden with purchases. A man who boarded the same car as the young women also alighted at Chestnut street. It was over two blocks to their home and not a person was in sight. The streets were poorly lighted and a purse snatcher could operate without much chance of being identified.

The women felt they were being followed, as the man made no attempt to pass them. Miss Ernestine Gerard slipped her purse out of sight under a package, but Miss Melvina made up her mind to cope with the footpad in a different manner should he attempt to snatch her purse. She pulled a long gold hat pin from her hat and waited. At the corner of Eleventh and Chestnut streets the man quickened his pace, and dodging between the two women made a grab for Miss Melvina's purse. He wasn't prepared for the reception in store for him.

As he grasped the purse, the hat pin was jabbed into his face and a moment later it came through his black derby hat. Clearly it was time to retreat, and it didn't take him long to come to this decision. But in his retreat he left his hat on the sidewalk. The sister had screamed for help and this accelerated his flight.

The women reached home with his hat which was turned over to the police department Sunday. At headquarters an examination showed that the hat pin had pierced the crown and it is believed the footpad must have been a candidate for a surgeon.

Miss Gerard was not inclined to talk very much on the subject last night. She didn't want the notoriety, she said.

"If every woman would draw a hat pin instead of screaming for help, there would be less purse snatching," she said. "I wasn't a bit frightened, and knew what I was doing. I must have struck him about four times."

Labels: Chestnut street, crime, Eleventh street, women

Date Here

FELL 11 STORIES IN

COMMERCE BUILDING.

LANDED ON SKYLIGHT AND RE-

CEIVED BROKEN BONES.

L. E. Trout and Charles Pepperdine

Plunged From High-Swinging

Scaffold -- Injuries May

Be Fatal.

L. F. Trout, 411 Chestnut street, and Charles Pepperdine, 3112 Bell street, were working in the light shaft of the Bank of Commerce building at 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon, when their scaffold broke, precipitating them from the thirteenth to the second floor, a distance of eleven stores. The men landed on the heavy glass skylight just above the second floor.

Trout sustained a fracture of the right thigh and a large muscle in the thigh was severed near the knee. Three bones in his right foot were broken and a gash was cut in his scalp. Both of Trout's hands were burned almost to the bone where he held to a steel cable part of the way down. That fact, however, broke his fall and may be the cause of yet saving his life.

Pepperdine was more seriously injured and the attending physicians said they had little hope for his recovery. He has a compound fracture of the left knee and right ankle. His right elbow was burned to the bone by a small rope to which he attempted to hold. He was also internally injured.

In an attempt to lower the scaffold to another floor, it is said to have swerved and then broken. As the men grabbed for a safety line, which is always on the back of a scaffold, just about the hips, they found that it was not fast. That all took very little time, for they grabbed for the line as they fell, each uttering a cry that was heard all through the big building. Both were taken to the Wesley hospital, Eleventh and Harrison streets.

Pepperdine had a narrow escape from death at the same building just about the same time of day on the afternoon of May 6. He, with Paul Jacoby, was washing the building at the seventh story on the south side. In trying to pass the ladder was pushed out from the building. Both men fell from the ladder, but managed to catch the safety rope at the back of the scaffold. Hanging to that they managed to get their toes on the sill of the window below. Then they pulled their bodies up and climbed into the window. Both had received a ducking from a bucket of water which fell from the ladder with them. They went home, got into dry clothes, and went back to work. A large crowd of people on the street witnessed the narrow escape of Pepperdine and Jacoby, but there were few who saw the fall yesterday. The two men treated the accident lightly on May 6, joking each other while dangling in midair.

Labels: accident, Bell street, Chestnut street, Commerce building, death, Eleventh street, Harrison street, hospitals