Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1901-07-04
! FAMILY HAS
FOUR FATALITIES
3bert Gamble and Four Sons
n Met Violent Deaths.
|MARKABLE LIST OF ACCIDENTS
Deaths Have Occurred in
Four Years.

be Father Was Mangled by Machinery,
Ind One Son by a Trnin; Another Son
Was Drowned, and the Third Fractured
Hissikuil by Failing from n Tree. q
M Walter Gamble, aged is years. of
& lancaster and Greanhill avenues who
&Mell from tree while Watching the
name OF baseball at the Union street
asst Saturday week. died Thurs
DAY evening at the Homeopathic Hos-
I'LL ital, OF conclusion of the brain hav-
ing had his saul fractured in the fall.
he unfortunate youth never fully re-
Kaintd consciousness after the accident,
MI Though he was able on several oo!
pasions to recognize relatives who called
ITO see him aud had rationa moments,
Il iuring which he talked. His mother,
I. Mrs Anna Gamble, was at the hospital
#the greater part of the time and was by
&Iber son g bedside when he expired,
L about o'clock Thursday evening.
E The body has been moved to the
q humble home Of the family at the
Y northwest corner OF Lancaster and
v Greenhill avenues, from which place the
A funeral took place Monday.
Nj The family has had an Unusual mum.
II Der of fatalities, the father and three
II Sons having died violent deaths within
II four yenrs. In addition to these two
VI infants died. one as the result OF a
Fl broken heart.
Four years ago Mr.. and Mrs. Robert
Il f. Gamble and their seven children
&lived at No. 308 Union street. Mr..
e. Gamble was morocco worker and he
and his boys who we're old enough to
Nj work we're industrious and the family
was enabled to get along satisfactorily.
~ One day in 1897, Rotert +. Gamble,
N Jr., aged 20 years, the eldest sen be-
ing out of employment decided that
Il he would 20 elsewhere to look for work.
n Accordingly, he left Wilmington on a
81 p, W. Il b. freight train, and when
al the train reached Chester, Pa, he
jumped off, evidently intending to look
Il for work there. As he jumped he did
N not notice an express train which was
n approaching on the other track In the
Il oDposire direction, and he fell beneath
= the wheels OF the express and was
n killed almost instantly. The body was
N taken to the Delaware county morgue
In Chester and remained there several
n days. 1t was SO badly mangled that
Identification was almost Impossible.
Every Evening printed detailed ao-
count of the accident at the time and
also announced that the only marks
which might lead to Identification were
the letters "R. F. Co. which were
picked on one arm. Mr.. and Mrs.
3 Gamble, in reading Every Evening,
Il noticed the initials and knowing that
they were those Of their son and that
q he had those letters on his arm, feared
q that the body was that Of the young
man who had left home to look for
n work the Saturday previous.
II Accordingly, Mr.. Gamble went to
ri Chester and there learned that as the
Il body had not been identified or claimed
Ii within period of three days, the
usual time for holding bodies at the
murgue, it had been sent to Philadel-
n phia and had been taken to a medical
col egs there. Mr. Gambles feared the
worst and hastensd to the college. lie
was NOT long in locating the body, but
did not find il until after the students
had begun to dissect 1t. However, he
made a protest and succeeded in stop
ping the mutilation before it had gone
very far. He at once began negotia-
tions with the college people with a
view to having the body turned over tc
him and after waiting three days was
given the body on payment of s27. II
was brought to this city on Frida,
night and buried the following day al
Riverview cemetery, Just one week aftel
the accident had happened.
The sad death was terrible shock t.
the family and they were just beginning
to recover therefrom when, two year
ngo last January, Robert r. Gamble
the father, who'w was about 45 years o
age, got caught In machinery at tn
morocco factory of William Beadenkopf
Fourteenth and Walnut streets, wher,
he was employed, and was SO badl.
mangled that he died four days later a
the Delaware Hospital. just one weel
Irior to Mr.. CANDLES death, an in
FAINT, seven months of age, died. Ate
the death of Mr.. Gamble Mrs. Gambl
and her children moved from the hous
on Union street below Fourth to on
on Union above Fourth.
A year ago last June another fatalit
occurred. Frank, aged 20 years, tn
second son, won't one Saturday evenin
/ to Penn's Grove, N. j., on pleasur
trip. and while there he and SON
other young men went out for sail
The boat was overturned and youn
Gamble was drowned. His body wa
q brought home TO his mother on tue foI
lowing day and buried two days after
n ward. just one week before Frank wa
a drowned an infant, aged 3 months
who was born after the death of th
a father, died of broken heart. Walter
death, Thursday night makes the fourt
violent death in the family, hut Mr.
Gamble is bearing up as best she ca
under the strain. She became sic
Thursday night and was not we'll FIR
Il day, but her condition is not serious.
Mrs. Gamble and her family occur
III the house at Lancaster and Greenhi
"A avenues jointly with another widow
Mrs. Margaret Touhey, and her fol
children, all Of whom are younl
"A Walter and his brother John, aged
years, were the chief support Of the
mother, although Mrs Gamble h
been taking in washing and doir
other work. John is employed at Wi
linn Beadenkopf's morocco factor
where his father was killed, and lik,
by his employers. who are giving hi
ar excellent show. He Is adrancii
nicsly. Walter was also employ
there. There are now four chi!dr
~ living, two boys and two girls, b
none of them, except John, are o
enough to work.
Mrs Touhey, who lives in the hous
has also been unfortunate. Her hu
band, John Touhey and an infant di
about year ago. and since then S
and the eldest son have been worlsi
at Ford's morocco factory. While
husband was living ne kept the ste
in the house, but since his death MI
Touhey has been unable to give b