Friday, May 16, 2014

Death at the Rossow Crossing

Late in the evening of April 22, 1921, William Rossow and his family witnessed a horrifying accident on the Pennsy Railroad where it crosses present-day Wisconsin Street.

5-16-2014 Parker accident
(Click on image to enlarge)
From the Hobart Gazette 29 Apr. 1921.


The Parker family had only recently lost its oldest member. And Benjamin Harrison Parker had been the youngest.

♦    ♦    ♦

From an item in the social column on the Gazette page above, we learn a little more about the mysterious Miss Kipp — that she had a sister, Mrs. Hatten. I do find a George and Ida Hatten living in Hobart in 1920, but can't determine what Ida's maiden name was. That the Gazette gives first names to Dr. Faulkner and Miss Kipp, but calls the sister simply "Mrs. Hatten," suggests that the editor did not know the first name of either Mr. or Mrs. Hatten.


Sources:
1920 Census.
♦ "Benj. H. Parker Killed by Train." Hobart Gazette 29 Apr. 1921.
♦ "Benjamin Parker Killed at Rossow Crossing, Hit by Pennsy Fast Train." Hobart News 28 Apr. 1921.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 29 Apr. 1921.

1 comment:

Dana Liss said...

I just received some information from Lyle Hatten for the Hobart Chamber Memory Book, and his grandparents were George and Ida Hatten. They lived at 32 W. Third Street. George built this house from lumber removed from the Hobart Amusement Park roller coaster.

I will email you the photo of the house on Third Street and Lyle Hatten's phone number (just in case).