Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-04-11
y6IvIlQGL GER
I OPENS AID BUREAU
Corps of Reporters Help
Relatives of Victims Seek
ing Information
r1rIL LIST COM PI LIE D
Low and Tragedy Mingled as
Facts Of Explosion Are
Supplied
FILL LIST COMPILED
Bv a star Correspondent
CHESTER, Pa. April II.


A. dawn today a crowd stood outside Of
A. nome of Mrs Mary Kelley. 1902 West
ss,rd r street, Chester, where the EVENING
norp has opened an identification bu-
DE-, THE same crowd for ten hours waited
r,th anxiety for some good news. In this
s.oxd were wives, husbands, mothers and
0.Sars They all wanted some news about
o'nu n,.,er or brother who worked at the plant
:, the Eddystone Ammunition Corporation
% "a who are believed to have perished.
Tho EVENING LEDGER bureau, where to-
~ corps of reporters are at work COM
SLING the list of dead and injured. was
p...h,shed nine hours after the explosion
A. the Eddystone ammunition plant.
CHEsTER'S JOAN OF ARC
City officials of Chester today are COM
,,ending Mrs. Keeley and the EVENING
I'rncER for their publc-spirted act Mrs.
vaa,ev today is being heralded as the
"Inan of Arc of Chester" The home of
Mrs. Kelley, who is a widow, Is directly
.cross the street from the undertaking
, establishment of +. F. White, which today
~ caring for, more than 100 bodies. Mrs.
Esslev stood at the window of the parlor
~ her home and beckoned to panicstricken
4. screams to seek comfort and information
At the EVENING LEDGER bureau.
Once inside her home. Mrs. Kelley led
the inauiring mother. father or brother into
the EVENING LEDGER bureau. While rela-
tiyes were being comforted by Mrs. Kelley
5 and her children, Harry. James and
fosenb and her son-n-law, Clinton II.
Focht a screaming voice every once in
while could be heard. The scream was
from some woman, man or child who made
an identification at the morgue.
"I knew It was she. I recognized her as
.oon as saw the ring" was one remark
that was heard. Ammunition guards who,
with fixed bayonets paced up and down in
front of the morgue directed weeping and
hvsterioa al persons to the EVENING LEDGER
bureau. officials of the Eddystone Ammuni-
ton Corporation, who motored to the
morgue late last evening. praised the EVEN
ING LEDGER for establishing an information
bureau They said that the bureau had
been of great assistance to them IN the way
of giving information to relatives of per-
sons who perished. The ,irst person to
seek information at the EVENING LEDGER
bureau was Miss Catherine Andres of this
city She came to inquire about her girl
friend Miss Margaret Ryan. eighteen years
old also a resident of Chester. Miss Ryan
who Is 4 member of the Church of the I'M
macuate Heart here, was employed in the
,,,,,g department of one os the buildings
which was blown to bits of mortar. Search
Of the records compiled by the EVENING
LEDGER failed to show the Ryan girls name
among the list of dead or injured up to an
early hour this morning.
After searching the hospitals and the
city all night Albert Ferry learned at the
bureau of the fate of his two nieces, Ma
tilda Taylor. of S733 I.a"cock street, Phila-
delphia, and Cele Taylor, Of Essingtcn
Both girls were dead. The father of the
girls is also munition worker. Severa
weeks ago he had a narrow escape from
. death in an explosion at plant at New
Haven.
Automobiles and vehicles from different
parts Of Delaware County stopped in front
Of the EVENING LEDGER bureau all night
As soon as it was established by representa-.
'tlves Of the EVENING LEDGER bureau that
q person reported dead was alive, the auto
would whrl away, the occupants being
eager to break the news to some grief
g stricken family.
Besides turning her home over to rela'
tives of the dead and missing, Mrs. Keeley
communicated with her daughter, Miss Eliz
abeth Kelley, nurse and former official Of
the Chester Hospital Miss Kelley quickly
hurried to the hospital, where today she is
nursing many women and men whom she
knew in her girlhood days.