East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1913-02-12
12-YEAR OLD ETHEL
GRUBB MEETS DEATH
AT R. R. CROSSING

12-year-old Ethel Grubb, only child
of ]. B. Grubb of 900 Turner street,
lies in the Baker morgue this after
noon while a coroner's jury is en-
deavoring to learn the details of her
tragic death. She was killed this
morning just before o'clock by the
wheels of a passenger train, the
Walla Walla local, where the track
intersects Court street near the wool
en- mills. How she happened to be
struck by the train has not yet been
determined but the terrible thought
that she might have thrown herself
| beneath the engine lntruded itself in
the case this afternoon when a little
girl friend testified that at one time
last summer the girl tried to drown
herself by jumping into the mill race.
The only eye witness to the acct
dent thus far discovered is Katherine
Dority, eleven year old daughter of
Mr.. and Mrs. Bernard Dority. She
was en- route to the Sisters school at
the time and saw the little Grub girl
running evidently in an attempt to
cross the track in front of the on
coming engine.
! The next she saw, according to her
testimony, was the body beneath the
wheels of the engine. 1t was carried
some distance before it fell along the
north side of the track.
Engineer Melcher testified that the
first he saw of the accident was when
he noticed an object beneath the right
At, % h. 10 fhnrUhf II
was a dog until looking behind he
saw skirt and realized that it was
a girl. Before he could stop the en-
gine the entire train had passed over
the body. The body was picked up
and brought to the depot in the bag
gage car. Both the engineer and
Fireman C. L. Ward testified that the
train was running at about the rate
of six or eight miles an hour at the
time.
Conductor A. E. Loucks' testimony
related to the finding of the child's
body and the blood marks on the
wheels
Zella Harvey, a thirteen year old
girl friend of the deceased, created
sensation when she testified that the
little girl last summer made an at
tempt to jump over the railing OF the
footbridge which crosses the millrace
on Court street, and was only prevent
ed from so doing when she and an
other little friend Retta Gardner, had
pulled her back. Several days later,
she testified, the little Grubb girl told
her that she would have drowned
herself If she could. Asked for the
motive of such a desire, the witness
declared her father, when under the
influence of liquor, was wont to abuse
the child and had been so doing on
that evening.
DR.. o. E. Parker, who made an ex-
animation of the body, testified that
the entire top of the head, the brain,
and the right limbs had been de-
stroyed in the accident and the trunk
disemboweled. Death had been in
stantaneous, he said.
A peculiar circumstances is that the
only blood marks on the engine are
on the front right driver and fire
box. Before the inquest the COM
monty accepted theory was that the
little girl had had her cap pulled down
over her eyes and ears and had not
observed the approach of the train.
She was enroute to school at the time,
being a pupil of the fourth grade of
the Washington school.
She lives in the far east end of the
| CITY and was thus required to cross
| the track.
The inquest was still in progress at
the time of going to press. District
Attorney Steiwer is conducting the
examination before Coroner Garfield
and Ralph Folsom. f. ]. Murphy Dr
McNabh. T ]. Tweedy and Frank o.
Cara and Darr Phelps as jury.