The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1907-07-31
Letter From Mrs. Martindale

1NAt~N fNOIN W. . F'oi AfN1tf~s
The first letter from the Martin
dales and Rockwclls who were in the
Columbia disaster In the Pacific ocean
was received yesterday by Mrs.
George Edmunds. mother of Mrs. Mar.
tindale, who lives south OF the city.
It follows.
Dear Mother and All;-This is
Tuesday noon. Charlie and | in the
Sequora hospital side by side. ban
daged all over in great agony waiting
for some news from the water We
are comfortable. None ever had any
better care or any more done for
them, but our hearts are completely
broken and ache so hard ! sometimes
think | haven't any mind any more.
Gertrude and Skede have just gone to
meet the special with seventeen on
and someone just called for descrip-
tion of Carrie. Our room is full Of
choice flowers and two special nurses
for day and change at night We went
down SO quick with the ship Ruth
and | in Charles arms and ED and
Gertrude IN sight in the stern and
heard Carrie say she would go with
Dorothy We went down I'm 5000 feet
oi water. ahd the explosion brought
Charlie and myself up but separated
MS and Ruth was gone. We pulled her
out of bed tied on a lite preserver and
she never spoke but once papa dom {
go SO fast" We went down at t2:20
Charlie was picked up about = a. m
and ! was washed on deck of the San
Pedro, about an hour earlier We
were so cold we had no feeling and
our bodies were badly bruised and
swollen. We suffered untold agony on
the San Pedro and were rescued by
the Elder about 6 a. m and did not
know Charlie was among the survi-
vors until two hours later, when he
was brought to me exhausted oh,
there was so much sorrow and suffer
ing there. One man shot himself just
before we went down.
I'VE We're received by those on the
Elder with open arms Their hearts
went cut to the sufferers. We were
clothed and fed and given the hest of
everything ON board the ship. Excite
ment ran high. Next the citizens here
received us with omen arms. pair
of shoes is all ! saved from the wreck
Package after package has been sent
in and | now have everything com
plete. We are all well clothed and
have everything imaginable to make
us comfortable and we are waiting
now for the sea TO give M the dead
Ruth had on her gown and my skirt
wrapped around her, Hhe night was
so dark and the water cold Reverend
Talmage came to our room on the
Elder three times and was so good to
us. Read what he says in the paper.
Don't worry about us. We want to
get home as soon as we can VIII
write every day and wire yon when
the bodies are recovered Have de-
cided to bury at Guthrie We are
many miles from the wreck, which is
90 miles from the railroad and tele-
phone station and wires not working
all the time. Il takes so long to get
any word we can't expect TO hear
more than once a day Eureka is a
wealthy town, 10000 population. One
railroad ont and only 40 miles and no
boat can land near the wreck, We
can't stand the sea and will have TO
go by stage over cue hundred miles
when we start hoWc, as our trunks are
at Weisen and we have to go that
way. and will stop between trains.
They were looking for us today We
wired from here about the accident.
Don't worry about we four. we will
start in fow days. ! am ON my back
writing. Hope you can read.-OLlVE.