The Morris County chronicle., 1907-09-03
DOCTOR AND 8 WOMEN
DIE IN AUTO CRASH
Motor Car, Driven by Rochester
Physician, Hit BY Trolley
COLLISION OCCURS AT CROSSING
Accident Happened on Steep Grade
and Passengers Say the Ger Was
Going at Rate of Fifty Miles
an Hour.

Canandaigua, N. Y. = DR.. George
Waldron, venerable physician of
Rochester, took three of his oldest
women patients for health-giving
auto jaunt in the country. At the
Fresh Hour Crossing" four miles
from here, the machine was struck
by an express trolley car of the Roch-
ester and Easton Railway, and all
four were instantly killed.
Another woman patient, who was
to have joined the auto party at the
crossing, alighted from the trolley
car to step upon the body of the doc
tor 1t is said she will die from the
shock
|, The dead are:
DR.. George Waldron, fifty-four, No.
408 Plymouth avenue, Rochester.
Mrs. Catharine Farnsworth, sew
enty-five. No. II Eagle street, Roch-
ester
Mrs. William Scandling, sixty
seven, Hopewell Hamlet.
Mrs. Jane Hobbs, seventy, of Hope
wall Hamlet.
DR.. Waldron, one of the oldest
medical men in Rochester, numbered
among his patients the richest and
best families of the city and the
countryside for miles around. AS
one of the old school of medicine, he
believed in the fresh air" cure as
much as in drugs, and frequently
took his patients driving through the
rural districts to add the finishing
touch to his treatment.
A month ago he bought an auto.
Thinking he had mastered it, he in
vited three aged women to ride with
him to Canandaigua and back
1T will mean ten years of life to
you.' he said, and bundled them into
the machine.
The thirty-mile ride to Hopewell
and part of the return we're made
without accident But near the
Fresh Hour crossing" tho auto
balked and the doctor could only get
it running in little spurts and cranky
jumps.
He blamed his inability to keep it
going on the lack of implements in
the tool box When the aged women
became fidgety, he jocuiarly took
from beneath his seat the box of
surgical instruments he always car
ried and, with the aid of the scalpel
and pair of "nippers,' tinkered the
engine into running form.
Mounting the chauffeur's seat, Dr.
Waldron drove along until he reached
the crossing of the Translate trolley
system and the State road.
Cars on that line dash past at sixty
miles an hour and one of them ap-
preached at the speed limit just as
the auto stopped again, halfway
across the tracks.
Before the physician or the fright
ened women could cry out, the trolley
car had hit them. Splinters of the
machine were hurled hundreds of feet
in all directions. Its occupants were
thrown into nearby pasture and
against fence and telegraph poles.
When the car had been stopped a
hundred yards beyond. its panic
| stricken passengers crowded out and
went back to find all the auto party
dead. Among these passengers was
Mrs. Leyiza Baker, of Rochester, who
lsstepped upon the body of her physi-
clan, which lay beside the car. She
| tainted from the shock.
DR.. Waldron's neck had been
broken and his skull was crushed; !;
every bone was broken in the body of
Mrs. Farnsworth and the bodies of
Mrs. Scandling and Mrs. Hobbs were
so mangleG that their husbands could
not identify them until late at night.
All the bodies were put aboard spe-
cial car and taken to Canandaigua.