100 Year Old Weblog: accident

Showing posts with label accident. Show all posts

May 22, 2025 ~ FOUR RUN OVER BY AUTO; ONE IS DEAD

May 22, 2025

FOUR RUN OVER BY AUTO; ONE IS DEAD

Picnickers Jolted Out of Truck Are Victims of Following Car

OFFENDERS SPED AWAY.

Accident Occurs Near Martin City as Party Is Returning to Kansas City.

The Dead
JOHANNA FRANKLIN, 15 years old, 1514 Myrtle avenue; left hip broken; succumbed from internal injuries at the General hospital at midnight.

The Injured

   Ruth Madick, 19 years old, 2040 Cypress avenue; right leg wrenched, bruised on the side of the head and internal injuries; condition serious.
   Edward Relford, 17 years old, 1803 Kensington avenue; right hand bruised, back sprained and nervous shock; not serious.
   Robert Ayers, 19 years old, Nineteenth street and Myrtle avenue; bruised on face and body; may have internal injuries; not serious.

Two young men in a motor car, believed to be students of Missouri university, early last evening, near Martin City, Mo, ran over several of a party of picnickers who had been jolted from a motor truck, seriously injured four, one of whom died later, and then plunged down the road in their big black touring car without offering assistance or disclosing their identity. The accident happened at about 8 o'clock.

All of the injured were brought to General hospital in Kansas City. Miss Johanna Franklin, 15 years old, of 1514 Myrtle avenue, was the most seriously crushed by the wheels of the car. She died at midnight of internal injuries and shock. She was a student at Central high school, and is said to have been a talented musician for one of age.

Miss Ruth Madick, 19 years old, 2040 Cypress avenue, was also dangerously injured but she may live. She sustained a wrenched hip, head bruises and internal injuries, the seriousness of which had not been determined that night. Edward Relford, 17 years old, 1803 Kensington avenue, was bruised about the hands and body and is suffering from nervous shock, and Robert Ayers, 19 years old, Nineteenth street and Myrtle avenue, sustained face and body bruises and possibly internal injuries.

Spent Afternoon Picnicking

According to a story told by the injured boys, fourteen boys and girls yesterday "chipped in" and hired a motor truck to take them to a grove beyond Martin City where they spent the afternoon picnicking. After they had lunched, the party, composed of nine boys and five girls, started home and near Martin City they were approached from behind by a large touring car. Two young men who said they were college students and lived at the Densmore hotel were in the front seat. They began to "jolly" with the girls in the motor truck.

"Get out of that old wagon and give us a chance," they called. "We'll show you a better time than you can have with that bunch." Then they produced a camera and took snapshots of the van and its occupants. The picnickers soon tired of these attentions and the van driver was told to "speed up." He did so. Suddenly as the truck encountered a rough place in the road, the end gate became unfastened and two boys and two girls were spilled out almost under the front wheels of the pursuing touring car.

"Went Right Over Us."

"It went right over us," Edward Relford said last night, as he lay swathed in bandages at the hospital. "The girls screamed. I guess I yelled, too. We were all jumbled up in a mess. The car wobbled around, I think, as it went over us. A fellow gets kind of rattled being run over that way. When I came to, some of the boys had me out on the grass working over me. But Glover got the number of the touring car. It was their fault, crowding us from behind. The old truck wasn't intended to to keep ahead of a high speed automobile. That's how we got jolted out. I am lucky not to have had any bones broken."

The injured were given emergency treatment at Marten City and attended to by Dr. B. M. Colby at the General hospital. Parents of the injured and other members of the party visited them last night. No trace of the occupants or of the car had been found last night.

Car Drivers Speed Away.

All of the injured members of the party said the boys, whom they took to be students of Missouri university, from remarks they made, cut around the van after bumping over the bodies and disappeared down the road in the direction of Kansas City.

The police made an effort to locate the youths and the car last night, but were not successful up to an early hour this morning. The Missouri statutes make it a penal offense for a motorist to run away without disclosing his identity after injuring a person.

May 18, 2025 ~ WINDOW CLEANER IS KILLED.

May 18, 2025

WINDOW CLEANER IS KILLED.

S. O. Twombley Falls Four Stories at Downtown Store.

S. O. Twombley, a window cleaner, 32 years old, 1015 East Fourteenth street, was instantly killed when he fell from a fourth floor window of Kline's cloak and suit store, 1113 Main street, about 10 o'clock yesterday morning. He plunged downward, and through a steel and glass arcade over the entrance, to the sidewalk. Passers-by narrowly escaped being hit by his body. He was dead when picked up.

Twombley was cleaning the store windows and lost his balance as he stepped from one to the other. He is survived by his wife and a son, Kenneth H. Twombley.

May 17, 2025 ~ DANCED AS STEAMER CRASHED INTO BARGE.

May 17, 2025

DANCED AS STEAMER CRASHED INTO BARGE.

Druggists' Outing on the River Narrowly Missed Disastrous Accident.

The festivities of the Kansas Pharmaceutical Association's outing on the Missouri river had just started at 9 o'clock last night. The band was playing and 450 men, women and children, guests of the Parke-Davis Drug Company, were aboard the steamboat Chester.

The strains of a hesitation waltz came floating over the waters and the steamer was aglow with hundreds of electric lights. The capricious dance hall was the biggest attraction to the young druggists, their wives and sweethearts. The floor had only recently been waxed and the dancers glided across the decks to the tune of "Cecile."

At the same time the chairs in the front end of the boat were occupied by those who preferred the moonlit waters of the river to the dance.

Suddenly, without warning, the steamer struck a sand dredge. Those in the dance hall noticed it but continued dancing. On the forward deck a panic was narrowly averted by Captain McCaffrey, who cooled down the passengers by showing that the dredge was a small one and that no damage was done. The dredge, cut loose from its moorings, floated in the middle of the river.

In lurching away from the sand barge the Chester nearly swerved into one of the piers of the Armour-Burlington-Swift bridge. A woman screamed and many others held their breaths. But within a few seconds the Chester continued on its trip down the river.

All of the time the passengers in the dance hall were unaware that their friends in the bow feared a tragedy. The fiddle and the horn and the flute kept on playing without any knowledge of trouble. The rest of the journey down stream and return was made without any further incident.

May 17, 2025 ~ "MONK" MISSES STAGE TREE.

May 17, 2025

"MONK" MISSES STAGE TREE.

Chimpanzee Mistakes Painted Limb for Real One and Falls.

The Jamaican Jungle training of "Napoleon," a trick vaudeville chimpanzee, nearly proved his undoing last night at the Electric theater in Kansas City, Kas., when he mistook a painted tree on the scenery for the real thing and fell on the stage after making a leap of about ten feet to one of its branches. Before Napoleon was captured seven years ago he lived with his family in the jungle. Leaping from tree to tree was Napoleon's principal occupation.

Perched on the the wood and canvas limb of one of the stage settings, the chimpanzee spied a perch on one of the "trees" on the back drop of the setting. Not trained to look before leaping, Napoleon sprang at the "limb." He crashed against the curtain and fell to the stage on his back.

For a moment he was still. His eyes flashed defiance and his demeanor changed. Clattering across the stage on all fours, he butted his head against the "trunk" of the tree. With his hands he attempted to gain a hold of it. Finally he gave up in despair, chattered disgustedly and walked off the stage. Napoleon's act was finished. He could not be induced to complete his part in the programme.

May 16, 2025 ~ ACCIDENTALLY WOUNDS GIRL.

May 16, 2025

ACCIDENTALLY WOUNDS GIRL.

Jefferson Beale Shoots "Becca" Levitt While Loading a Gun.

While customers were few last night at the "Joy Palace," 1233 Main street, Jefferson Beale, who takes post card photographs, wounded Miss "Becca" Levitt, the cashier, in the right thigh with a shot from a .22 caliber revolver. Both the photographer and the cashier declare that the shooting was an accident. The police arrested Beale, however, and are holding him for investigation. They say that other empolyes at the penny amusement resort declare the girl and the man have quarreled frequently recently.

Miss Levitt was taken to the General hospital and later to St. Margaret's. Her injury is declared painful but not dangerous. She told physicians at the General hospital that Beale was trying to load the rifle for her when it was discharged.

The cashier is the sister-in-law of Harry Fogal, who is her employer, and resides at his home, 2715 Harrison street. Beale lives at a hotel at Thirteenth and Main streets.

May 13, 2025 ~ FIREMAN DIES OF INJURIES.

May 13, 2025

FIREMAN DIES OF INJURIES.

Eugene Green Was A Victim of Explosion of Can of Powder.

Eugene Green, a Kansas City, Kas., fireman, injured in a powder explosion about ten days ago, died at his home, 50 South Fifteenth street, last night. He was 25 years old and lived with his mother.

Green was injured while trying to explode a can of powder, which he had found in a park. he extended a fuse about twelve feet from the can, and though that he could get to a safe distance before the explosion occurred.

May 12, 2025 ~ FALLS FROM WINDOW; DIES.

May 12, 2025

FALLS FROM WINDOW; DIES.

Miss Dora A. Ford is Killed at School for Deaconesses.

While seated on the window ledge yesterday morning, cleaning the window of her room on the third floor of the Kansas City National Training School for Deaconesses and Missionaries, Miss Dora Alice Ford, a 26-year-old student, fell backward to the concrete pavement below and was instantly killed.

Miss Ford, who was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. M. Ford of Little Rock, Ark., has been a student at the training school since last September. She was to have been graduated with a class of fourteen tomorrow. Her fall was witnessed by a fellow student, Miss Clara Rust, and Miss Edna Hayes, a guest at at the school. They were returning to the school after an early morning walk. Miss Rust glanced up toward the row of third story windows and saw Miss Ford pitch to the ground.

Mr. Ford will arrive here this morning from Little Rock, Ark., and will accompany the body to Detroit, Mich., where burial will take place. A telegram to that effect was received by Miss Anna Neiderheiser, superintendent of the training school. Miss Ford's room was in the west wing of the building, which is at Fifteenth street and Hardesty avenue.

May 11, 2025 ~ MISS STELLA SWOPE IN AUTO ACCIDENT.

May 11, 2025

MISS STELLA SWOPE IN AUTO ACCIDENT.

Young Woman Says Her Car Was Traveling 50 Miles an Hour.

Miss Stella Swope, who lives at the St. Regis hotel with her mother, Mrs. Logan O. Swope, motored on Rockhill road with three friends yesterday afternoon and at Forty-sixth street collided with an automobile driven by W. N. Bauchus, Forty ninth street and Mission road. No one was injured.

Miss Swope said last night she was going at a high rate of speed when her roadster was struck by teh Bauchus car. She denied that her machine ran into his motor car. The Swope car skidded nearly fifty feet after the collision.

"Our automobile was damaged to the extent of $350, I believe," said Miss Swope. "I was going about fifty miles an hour and the little car came up from behind."

Miss Swope laughed as she said that she traveled fifty miles an hour. The police from No. 9 station reported teh affair, but did not say at what speed the two machines were going. A patrolman, H. C. Johns, who investigated the accident, said that Miss Swope was speeding. The damage to the Bauchus car amounted to $150.

May 6, 2025 ~ WOMAN OF 68, HIT BY COUPE, IS KILLED.

May 6, 2025

WOMAN OF 68, HIT BY COUPE, IS KILLED.

Mrs. Virginia Asbury Is Run Down Within 100 Yards of Home.

Mrs. Virginia Asbury, 68 years old, a native of Kansas City, was struck by an automobile and fatally injured within less than 100 yards of her home at 302 Westport avenue just after 6 o'clock last evening. She died within the hour.

The car, an electric coupe, was driven by James C. Letter, 17 years old, a son of George A. Letter, vice president of the George R. Peck Dry Goods Company. After striking Mrs. Asbury the car skidded along the pavement for fully twenty-five feet.

Young Letter was arrested by the police of No. 5 station, but after an interview with Captain D. J. Whalen was released on a personal bond.

Mrs. Asbury's injuries consisted of a fracture at the base of her skull, severe scalp wounds and a shattered right ankle.

Mrs. Asbury is survived by her husband, Foster Asbury; her daughter, Mrs. Agnest Doerschuk, wife of Albert Doerschuk, a druggist at Westport avenue and Penn street, and three sisters and four brothers. She was born in Jackson county, was a niece of the late Colonel Upton Hays and a great-granddaughter of Daniel Boone.

April 29, 2025 ~ WOMAN DECAPITATED BY COUNTRY CLUB CAR.

April 29, 2025

WOMAN DECAPITATED BY COUNTRY CLUB CAR.

Mrs. Caroline Wahlenmaier, Wealthy Widow, Meets Instant Death.

Mrs. Caroline Wahlenmaier, 65 years old, widow of J. W. Wahlenmaier, a wealthy pioneer citizen of Kansas City, was struck and killed by a northbound Country Club car at 5 o'clock yesterday evening at Firty-first and McGee streets. The head was severed from the body and death was instantaneous.

Mrs. Wahlenmaier made her home with her son, A. G. Wahlenmaier, an automobile dealer, at 5110 Main street. She had been to a neighborhood grocery store and was on her way home with some purchases. The care was slowing down to take on passengers, and did not move more than six feet after it struck her. Witnesses told Patrolman B. D. Crowley that the woman seemed absent-minded, and either did not notice the car or thought that she could cross ahead of it. They declared that they did not believe the motorman was to blame.

The motorman, L. R. Marshall, 4530 Virginia avenue, and the conductor, V. T. Todd, 4836 Charlotte street, were arrested and taken to police headquarters. They were held until two of the sons of the dead woman appeared and asked that they be released, declaring that they believed the accident to be unavoidable, and due to the failing faculties of their mother. The two men were released under orders to appear and make statements today at the prosecutor's office.

Mrs. Wahlenmaier was the owner of the Wahlenmaier building, the finest office building in Kansas City, Kas., and many other properties in both Kansas Citys. She is survived by three sons: A. G., with whom she made her home, W. F. of Seattle, Wash., and F. C. Wahlenmaier, an oculist living at the Densmore hotel, and a daughter, Mrs. L. F. Barney, wife of Dr. L. F. Barney, living at the Hotel Grand in Kansas City, Kas.
Both Mrs. Wahlenmaier and her husband were born in Germany and came to the United States with their parents when they were children. She would have been 66 years old today. The parents of both settled in Kansas City, Kas. Mrs. Wahlenmaier lived for forty-seven years at her hold home at 436 Washington boulevard, Kansas City, Kas. Her husband was a pioneer lumber dealer and for many years conducted a lumber yard at what is now Fourth street and Washington boulevard. He was prominent in civic affairs and became an extensive property holder. When he bought the land on which the Wahlemaier building now stands at Eight street and Minnesota avenue, it was covered with underbrush. He died thirty-one years ago. Mrs. Wahlenmamier recently went to live at the home of her son, near where she was killed. She had one sister, Mrs. Catherine Brune, who lives at Lakeview, Kas.

April 29, 2025 ~ SUES OWNER OF MOTOR CAR.

April 29, 2025

SUES OWNER OF MOTOR CAR.

Cyclist Who Chased Boy Stealing Foul Balls Collided With Auto.

When a small boy picks up all the foul balls knocked over the ball park fence and keeps them he eventually will break up the game. That's what one boy did last August when two teams were playing a friendly game at Association park. Henry H. Topping, 1314 Askew avenue, started on a motorcycle in pursuit of the boy. At Sixteenth street and Park avenue Topping's motorcycle collided with a motor car driven by Richard F. Bourne, and Topping was injured.

Topping is suing Bourne for $10,000 damages. The case is being tried in Judge Robinson's division of the circuit court.

April 18, 2025 ~ KILLED BY ELEVATOR.

April 18, 2025

KILLED BY ELEVATOR.

E. V. Halley of Otterville, Mo., Loses Life in New Hotel.

Eatel V. Halley, a decorator, 35 years old, of Otterville, Mo., was caught between an elevator and the wall of the shaft yesterday afternoon at the new Westgate hotel, Ninth and Main streets. His head was crushed and death was instantaneous.

Halley left his wife and two children at home a short time ago and came to Kansas City in search of employment. He was employed by the Shackleford Paint and Paper Company. Halley was on the third floor of the new hotel looking over some work that he expected to do. He put his head into the shaft to look down, when the elevator struck him from above. His body was thrown in upon the elevator floor.

A brother, E. R. Halley, lives at 2318 Prospect avenue. The body will be taken to Otterville today for burial.

It is said that Halley's home at Otterville burned a few days ago.

April 6, 2025 ~ MOTOR CAR RUNS AWAY. ~ Demolishes Popcorn Wagons, Then Crashes Into Theater.

April 6, 2025

MOTOR CAR RUNS AWAY.

Demolishes Popcorn Wagons, Then Crashes Into Theater.

A light roadster motor car ran away from its driver at Twelfth and Walnut streets last night, demolished a popcorn wagon at Thirteenth street and then ended its career by crashing into the corner of the Globe theater. At 11 o'clock several men were seen at Twelfth and Walnut streets, pushing the car south. The engine had "died," and efforts were being made to revive it. The efforts were startlingly successful and before the men could jump in the machine it gave a wild jerk and ran to Thirteenth street.

"The car swerved into the popcorn wagon and then crashed into the Globe," declared W. C. Ansell, manager of a theater, who witnessed the affair. "It was going fast and those of us who saw the car coming made no futile efforts to stop it."

Popcorn, peanuts and chewing gum decorated the intersection at Thirteenth and Walnut streets. A crowd gathered and poked around the ruins of the vendor's wagon, searching for money, a quantity of which scattered in the confusion.

The runabout is owned by the Bonner Portland Cement Company. The names of the men in charge of the machine could not be learned.

BLIND WOMAN WAITED AT DEPOT IN VAIN. ~ Hostess Detained by Accident -- Mrs. Aldrich Writes Literature for the Blind.

February 5, 2026

BLIND WOMAN WAITED

AT DEPOT IN VAIN.

Hostess Detained by Accident -- Mrs.

Aldrich Writes Literature

for the Blind.

Mrs. Clara Aldrich, totally blind and a stranger in Kansas City, arrived at the Union depot last night from Joliet, Ill. She was expecting friends to meet her at the station, but was disappointed. She told Mrs. Ollie Everingham, matron at the depot, that Mrs. O. P. Blatchley of 220 South Ash street, in Kansas City, Kas., had promised to meet her. The matron called the Blatchley home over the telephone and found that Mrs. Blatchley had fallen on the ice near her home yesterday morning and received injuries which confined her to bed. The matron sent Mrs. Aldrich to the Young Women's Christian Association boarding house for the night.

Dr. O. P. Blatchley said last night that his wife's parents were friends of the parents of Mrs. Aldrich, and that she had arranged to locate her in Kansas City, Kas. Dr. Blatchley said that Mrs. Aldrich for many years has been engaged in writing religious literature for students in the blind schools over the country.

Mrs. Blatchley suffered a dislocated left shoulder and a ruptured artery over her left eye in her fall yesterday.

BOY AFRAID OF AUTOS KILLED BY BIG CAR. ~ Frank Smoot, 15, Crushed Under Overturned Delivery Van -- Had Premonition of Disaster.

February 2, 2026

BOY AFRAID OF AUTOS

KILLED BY BIG CAR.

Frank Smoot, 15, Crushed Under

Overturned Delivery Van --

Had Premonition of

Disaster.

FRANK SMOOT.

Frank Smoot, 15 years old, delivery boy for the John Taylor Dry Goods Company, was instantly killed at 7:20 o'clock last night when a new twenty-four horsepower delivery wagon in which he was riding struck a pile of bricks on Baltimore avenue between Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth streets and turned over, crushing him.

Frank Limpus, who was driving, works for the company which sold the car and was teaching a man to drive it.

They were just finished making deliveries and were returning when the accident happened. Limpus and J. J. Emmert, who had charge of the deliveries, were on the seat and young Smoot was seated on Emmert's lap.

"We were going north on Baltimore about six or seven miles an hour," said Limpus. "It was rather dark and we did not see the pile of bricks until we were almost upon them. I tried to pull away from them, but did not have time and our right front wheel hit with a crash. The bricks were piled about seven feet high and when the car, which weighs about 3,500 pounds, struck them the corner of the pile was torn away. The force of the collision did not stop us and the wheels on the right side ran up onto the pile until the car was overbalanced and turned over. The three of us were thrown out, young Smoot falling beneath the heavy car, the weight of which crushed his life out, almost instantly.

"It all happened so quickly that we did not realize he was hurt until Emmert and I had picked ourselves up. I saw that the boy was caught under the car and tried to remove him, but was not able to lift the car off him. A crowd of people came up and several men helped me lift the car and we pulled him out."

Dr. Harry Czarlinsky, deputy coroner, had the body removed to the Freeman & Marshall undertaking rooms.

The victim of the accident was the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Smoot, 19 East Thirty-first street. Mrs. Smoot was at home preparing supper for her son when she was informed of his death.

"I knew something would happen," she said. "He did not want to go to work this morning. He is not used to automobiles and does not like to be around them. Just before he left for work he said to me, "Mamma, I expect John Taylor's will be getting air ships before long and deliver the packages with a long rope down the chimneys."

Mr. Taylor was notified of the accident and called at the undertaking rooms last night.

The dead boy had had been working for the dry goods company for the past year. He was born in Chicago, but was brought to Kansas City when he was six months old. The father of the boy runs a dress goods sample room at 406 East Eleventh street. Besides the parents, two little sisters, Addie and Edna, survive.

No one responsible for the bricks being piled in the street could be located last night, but several persons who live in the immediate neighborhood of the accident assert that no warning lights were placed.

3 KILLED, 3 HURT WHEN AUTO SKIDS OVER CLIFF DRIVE. ~ MACHINE DROPS EIGHTY FEET AND IS DEMOLISHED ON ROCKS.

January 25, 2026

3 KILLED, 3 HURT

WHEN AUTO SKIDS

OVER CLIFF DRIVE.

MACHINE DROPS EIGHTY FEET

AND IS DEMOLISHED

ON ROCKS.

John Mahoney and Wife and

Thomas McGuire the

Victims.

WRECKED AUTO WHICH PLUNGED OVER EMBANKMENT ON CLIFF DRIVE, KILLING THREE.

Three persons were killed and three, who by a miraculous streak of providence escaped death, were injured yesterday afternoon when a large automobile plunged over an eighty-foot embankment on the Cliff drive, at Scarritt's Point. The dead:

John Mahoney, aged 51, grading contractor, 616 North Seventh street, Kansas City, Kas.
Mrs. John Mahoney, aged 46 years.
Thomas McGuire, 50, a foreman for Mr. Mahoney; resided at 53 South Forest avenue, Kansas City, Kas. Father of six children.

THE INJURED.

John O'Connor, 42 years old, of Fifty-first street and Swope parkway.
Miss Nellie Mahoney, 19 years old, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Mahoney.
Lillian, 6-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Mahoney.

The O'Connors also have two other children, John, age 8, and Anna, age 13, who were in school at the time of the fatal crash which claimed their parents.

The accident is ascribed to a slippery condition of the driveway, water which trickled from the cliff having frozen. The machine, in rounding the curve at Scarritt's point, evidently skidded on the ice toward the precipice at the outer edge of the drive. Mahoney, who was the contractor that had charge of the grading work on this scenic drive, was driving the car. He evidently tried to steer it toward the cliff, with the result that t he heavy rear end of the car was thrown completely around, the rear wheels crashing through a fence and over the abyss.

FORTY-FOOT DROP.

At the point where the machine went over the cliff there is a sheer descent of probably forty feet, with probably forty feet more of steep hillside ending in an accumulation of boulders. Tracks in the roadway showed where the rear wheels of the car had backed over the precipice and the entire car was precipitated upon the rocks below, alighting on its side and crushing two of the victims. The others either landed on the rocks or were caught in the wreckage.

The scene of the accident is just above and a little to the southeast of the Heim brewery and the men who witnessed the tragedy, or who were attracted by the piteous cries of the victims, rushed to the place and gave first aid to the injured. Police from No. 8 station, who were notified, carried the injured down the cliff, which owing to the slippery condition of the ground, is almost impassable even for pedestrians, placed them in the police ambulance and hurried them to hospitals. The dead were removed later to undertaking establishments, the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Mahoney being taken to the Leo J. Stewart parlors and that of Mr. McGuire to Carroll-Davidson's.

BODIES UNDER CAR.

The scene following the tragedy was a sickening and pitiable one. the first persons to arrive found pinioned under the wreckage of the big motor car the mangled bodies of Mr. Mahoney, Mr. McGuire, Mr. O'Connor and the two girls. Mrs. Mahoney lay on the rocks at the rear of the machine unconscious, but still alive. She expired within ten minutes. Mr. Mahoney and Mr. McGuire were killed outright evidently.

The younger daughter of the Mahoneys still grasped a doll which she had carried in her arms in the machine and, gazing upon the forms of her parents as they lay still puon the frozen ground she cried piteously:

"I want my papa, I want my mamma."

It was with difficulty that she was induced to leave the spot and her childish grief brought tears to the eyes of every bystander. Miss Mahoney was dazed badly. She talked little, though seeming to partially realize what had happened, and just before she was placed in the police ambulance she was prostrated. Mr. O'Connor also was dazed, though he walked about and declared he was not hurt.

TWO SEE ACCIDENT.

Daniel Ferhnback, 19 years old, of 28 Bigelow street, just below Scarritt's Point, with Thomas Nelligan, 10 years old, were eye-witnesses to the accident. Ferhnback was chopping wood in his yard and the Nelligan boy was with him when they glanced up and saw the machine go over the brink of the hill.

"It was terrible," said Ferhnback. "The rear end went over first and the whole thing fell down into the hollow. It was done so quickly I hardly knew what had happened, but it seemed to me that the machine partly turned over. The noise sounded like a bunch of sewer pipe falling and hitting something."

For a moment, Ferhnback said, he scarcely knew what to do. Then he heard a cry, "O, God! O, God! " It was Mr. O'Connor pinioned under the car.

Ferhnback and his boy companion at once started up the hill but Nelligan, being more nimble, arrived at the top first. The boy took one look at the mass of twisted iron and wood and at the blood covered bodies under and about the machine and he ran back the winding path to where Ferhnback was hurrying up.

"It's awful," said the boy, covering his face with his hands as if to shut out the sight.

CRASH IS HEARD.

About the time that Ferhnback and Nelligan were horrified to see the machine plunge over the cliff, M. G. Givson, of 2026 Charlotte street, was walking along the Chicago & Alton tracks, far below the Cliff drive. He hears a crash but paid no attention to it and was startled by the screams of a woman, evidently one of the Mahoney sisters. He also rushed up the hill, arriving about the time that Ferhnback reached the top.

Mr. Gibson picked up the little Mahoney child and bandaged her head with handkerchiefs. Mrs. Mahoney lay free of the car, and Mr. Gibson said that she still breathed when he arrived. He took one of the cushions which had been hurled from the automobile and placed it under the woman's head, but within ten minutes she was dead.

Miss Nellie Mahoney was carried to one side by the two men, who made her as comfortable as possible. Mr. O'Connor lay with one leg pinioned under a rear wheel of the car, a short distance from the body of Mrs. Mahoney. Mr. Gibson and Mr. Ferhnback managed to lift the rear portion of the car enough to extricate the man and Mr. O'Connor immediately got up and walked about, declaring that he had no pain and that he was all right.

POLICE NOTIFIED.

The accident happened at 3:15 o'clock. It was not so very many minutes later that Mr. Gibson, having done everything he could to help the injured, ran to No. 8 police station, 3001 Guinotte street. Sergeant Edward McNamara, Patrolman Gus Metzinger and Motorcycleman George A. Lyon responded at once. They were joined later by Park Policeman W. F. Beabout and the police carried the two Mahoney girls and assisted Mr. O'Connor down the cliff to the ambulance.

Coroner B. H. Zwart went in peerson to view the bodies, and he summoned undertakers. It was 5 o'clock before the bodies finally were removed, the conditions in the vicinity of the scene of the horror making it difficult to carry the bodies out.

Even the coroner, accustomed as he is to such things, was moved at the horror of the scene. Mr. Mahoney lay crushed under the car and a piece of the spokes of the machine was found to have penetrated his adbomen.

The Point, which is the highest on the Cliff drive, lies under the shadow of the north side of the cliff. the sun does not strike there, save during a small portion of the day, and water which runs down the hill is frozen, as it trickles across the roadway, into a mass of treacherous ice, making it difficult for motor cars without ice clutches to round the curve at that point without skidding.

Mr. Mahoney, who was driving the machine, sat in the front seat with Mr. McGuire, and the others sat in the rear seat. The car was a seven-passenger Pierce-Arrow. The tracks in the driveway show that the machine came round the curve well within the middle of the roadway and away from the precipice. It is probable that Mahoney had noticed the slippery condition of the pavement and purposely kept away from the brink.

When the fatal stretch of ice was reached, however, the auto was shown to have skidded greatly toward the chasm and the theory is that Mahoney, in order to avoid the very thing which happened, headed his car toward the inside of the road. If he did, he miscalculated terribly, for this swung the heavy rear of the car around over the edge of the cliff and the ill-fated occupants were hurled down up the rocks. The wooden fence, through wh ich the auto smashed, was erected as a warning to daring motorists. It went out as if made of egg shell.

That the machine did not take fire and add to the horror is believed to have been due to a final effort of Mr. Mahoney. the engine was found to have been shut down entirely, and it is believed that Mr. Mahoney automatically pulled his lever as the machine shot backward over the precipice.

At the emergency hospital, whither the two Mahoney girls and Mr. O'Connor were removed, it was stated last evening that Mr. O'Connor's case is the least serious of any of the injured. He sustained a wound on the back of his head and some bruises. He probably will recover.

After being removed to the hospital, little Lillian Mahoney lapsed into a coma and Miss Nellie Mahoney became hysterical. It was stated that neither of the girls knew that their parents are dead. It was feared neither could stand the shock.

The condition of both the girls is regarded as serious. Miss Nellie sustained a dislocation of one of the shoulders, a fracture of the right arm and bruises about the body.

The younger girl received a bad cut about the back of the head and bruises about the body. Both girls are suffering terribly from nervous shock, and this is what makes their cases so grave.

It was said at St. Margaret's hospital at midnight that Lillian Mahoney is probably fatally injured. The child is under the effects of opiates. It is belived her skull is fractured.

BUILT THE DRIVEWAY.

Mr. Mahoney executed the grading work on the very driveway where he, with his wife, met death. It is said that he was familiar with every foot of the ground along the roadway and that because of the pride which he took in the work he particularly liked taking a spin in his machine along the course.

JOHN MAHONEY.

The ill-fated machine was purchased by Mr. Mahoney from the estate of Mrs. Mary S. Dickerson, who died. It is said that Mr. Mahoney paid $3,500 for the car.

FRIENDS SHOW SYMPATHY.

A telegram telling of the death of Mr. Mahoney was dispatched late last night to his old schoolmate and business partner, Justice Michael Ross, who is now visiting in Jacksonville, Fla. Mrs. Ross went to the residence of the dead contractor last night and arranged to take charge of the children.

"My husband and Mr. mahoney were lifelong friends. I know if Michael were here he would want me to take care of the children and and give them a temporary or even a permanent home," Mrs. Ross said.

Annie and Johnny Mahoney heard about the catastrophe at 4:30 o'clock in the afternoon. They were overwhelmed with grief.

CHILD PREDICTED ACCIDENT.

"Oh, I told papa not to buy that auto. I told him all along it would lead to some accident," sobbed the girl.

The boy, four years younger, soon quieted himself and began to assure his sister. The children were taken last night to the Ross home, where they may stay permanently.

January 24, 2026

BOY ACCIDENTALLY

KILLS STEPSISTER.

Carries Dying Child Into House

and Runs Mile and a Half

for a Doctor.

Sobbing with grief and carrying in his arms the unconscious form of Elizabeth Baumgarten, his little sister, who was bleeding form a bullet hole in her forehead, Willam Mudder, 16 years old, staggered into the home of his stepfather, Marten Baumgarten, Kansas City, Kas., yesterday afternoon.

Baumgarten, a carpenter, sat by the side of his wife, who is confined to her bed with a 2-weeks-old baby by her side in the bedroom of their little home. A number of old acquaintances were also in the room. It was while they were talking and laughing the boy entered with his burden.

"I didn't mean to do it papa," he shrieked. He hurriedly explained that he had shot the little girl accidentally with a .22-caliber target rifle. Bolting from the room, the boy ran a mile and a half to the office of Dr. David W. Thompson at Nineteenth street and Quindaro boulevard.

"Doctor, I shot my little sister accidentally, and I want you to come to her quick," he shouted as he entered the doctor's office.

Dr. Thompson hurried with the boy to the home. The bullet had entered the middle of the child's forehead and lodged near the base of the brain. She died about twenty minutes after the doctor arrived. Dr. Thompson notified Dr. J. A. Davis, coroner of Wyandotte county, who decided that an autopsy would be unnecessary.

The Mudder lad works during the week for his aunt, Mrs. John Smith, who runs a grocery at Twenty-seventh street and Bell avenue in Kansas City, Mo. He went home yesterday and began a romp with his four brothers and three stepsisters. He took a little target rifle belonging to the step father and, calling the children, started out in the back yard to shoot at a mark. All seven of the children walked down the back stairs from the porch. Elizabeth, 4 years old, was the last. Just as she reached the bottom step, by some unknown means which the lad himself cannot explain, the gun was discharged, the bullet entering the little girl's forehead.

Mrs. Baumgarten was prostrated over the little girl's death. The father, too, was grief-stricken. The Mudder boy was affected more than either. He could not be comforted and paced the rooms of the house back and forth. Dr. Thompson said last night that the boy was nearly crazed when he came to his office.

Martin Baumgarten, the boy's stepfather, said last night that William was absolutely blameless. "I am confident that the shooting was purely accidental," he said. "The boy loved his little stepsister just the same as if she had been his own sister. It was just one of those unfortunate, unavoidable accidents.

Funeral services for the little girl will be held tomorrow morning at the Church of the Blessed Sacramet in Chelsea place. Burial will be in St. John's cemetery.

NEARLY WRECKS STORE. ~ Horse Smashes Through Plate Glass Window and Damages Stock.

January 18, 2026

NEARLY WRECKS STORE.

Horse Smashes Through Plate Glass

Window and Damages Stock.

Frightened by a passing automobile, a blind horse attached to the market wagon of Maurice Abramovitz, a vegetable peddler, stampeded and did $300 worth of damage to J. E. Biles' shoe store at 21 East Fifth street, yesterday morning. The horse freed itself from the shafts of the wagon and broke through a $150 plate glass window into the store and badly damaged the stock.

SHOUTS MURDER IN YIDDISH. ~ Smitzle's Drop Into Salt Barrel Calls Out Police.

January 7, 2026

SHOUTS MURDER IN YIDDISH.

Smitzle's Drop Into Salt Barrel

Calls Out Police.

Charles Smitzle, who sells kosher meat to his co-religionists under the careful supervision of the rabbi in a store at 1603 East Eighteenth street, is undersized, so he stood on a salt barrel last night when he went to light the gas lamp. If he was just short there would never have been a feature to this simple act in a thousand years. However, he is also fat and just as he stood on tiptoe to apply the match to the jet the barrel collapsed.

It happened that Smitzle was alone in his store at the time of the accident, but two of his patrons were in the act of coming in and heard the crash coupled with an exclamation in Yiddish.

"Something has gone wrong with Smitzel," said one of them.

They pushed the door in and saw Smitzel arise out of the debris with a bloody nose. They took note of the wrecked condition of the store and thought they remembered that the word Smitzle had used was "murder." They then rushed out in search of a telephone.

Report that on top of several holdups and assaults that had occured earlier in the day a lone Hebrew was killed by highwaymen in his place of legitimate business produced a sensation in No. 6 police station. Sergeant Michael Halligan immediately dispatched a patrol wagon loaded with officers. When they arrived at the address on Eighteenth street Smitzel had succeeded in lighting the lamp. He had used the meat block and it had held. The blood on his nose and been washed away and the treacherous barrel converted to kindling.