Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 268, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1913 — HAMMOND ADCOUNT OF MRS. TILLMAN’S DEATH [ARTICLE]

HAMMOND ADCOUNT OF MRS. TILLMAN’S DEATH

'Hammond Times Gives Interesting Account of Accident That Re--suited in Her Death. Mrs. Bessie L. Tillman, aged 28, wife of Ernest S. Tillman,- a teacher of botany in the Hammond high school, was instantly killed in Hammond last evening by the passage hf an Inlander and Steindler paper delivery wagon across her breast She had been knocked to the pavement at Oakley avenue and State street by a maddened plunging team that drew the ponderous vehicle. William <?arr, a boilermaker of Zion City, seated in the Moran saloon a few .yards from the tragedy, was knocked out of his chair and across the barroom by the impact of the wagon tongue which “burst through the wall and extended into the interior four or five feet. Mrs. Elizabeth Daugherty, of Rensselaer, a widow of middle age, had a miraculous escape from death beneath the team or under the wagon. She is on the verge of a nervous collapse from the experience. John Gehrke, the driver, was placed under arrest for violation of a city ordinance requiring that horses left unattended on public highways be hitched or the wagon locked. He is out on bail of one hundred dollar. R. E. Moran, 195 State street, and a Mrs. Hemike, have been retained as witnesses. Mrs. Tillman was a member of the Hammond Woman’s Club, occupying an official position as a press reporter, and a teacher in the public night schools. With her husband she came to Hammond at the beginning of the 1912 term of school. Prior to that Mr. Tillman was in the faculty of the Lebanon high school, where he had established the department of science.Mrs. Tillman was twenty-eight years of age. She was born on the fifteenth of February, 1885. The team which ran wild causing v the fatality had been left to stand in front of the Heimke grocery store They ran away hut did not become wild until at the comer of State and Oakley they swerved suddenly, frightened at a cas. Mrs. Tillman was crossing from the west side of Oakley avenue to the east when caught half way between curbs. She was knocked to the pavement and' dragged for a few feet apd then, falling prostrate, the passed over her. At the time Mrs. Elizabeth Daugherty was walking towards the corner from the * north. (She barely escaped. Mrs. Tillman was lifted from tinder the wagon by Mrs, Daugherty and a man, whose name is not obtainable. Mrs. Tillman died in the arms of the woman, who not until today, learned her identity. It develops that Mrs. Tillman and Mrs. Daugherty were once acquainted at Rensselaer 1 * the latter’s home town. That Mrs. Daugherty did not recognize the other during the minutes following the accident indicates the excited state of her blind. Mrs. Tillman was carried into a nearby drug store. She was pronounced dead by a doctor and taken to Stewart’s morgue in the police patrol. At the home of Lewis L Daugherty, 195 Logan street, the house wife said that,her guest, Mrs. Elizabeth Daugherty had told of having a presentiment early yesterday which kept her from keeping an appointment in Chicago. “She said,” Mrs. Daugherty told a reporter, “that she saw a commotion,-, a crowd, and gained the impression that someone had been hurt. She was to have taken the nine o’clock train on the Erie lor Chicago, on which friends were traveling. Although In good health and spirits her feeling of dread had held her back. At twenty minutes of four she started for town to shop and a few minutes later had a narrow escape from death.”

Mrs. Elizabeth Daugherty is a widow who has spent the last few years of her life traveling. She states that it has been her lot to see tragic sights and have narrow escapes, especially while traveling by railroitd. “I have been, in a number of disastrous wrecks,” she said. Mrs. Tillman was on her way to the postoffice when the runaway horses charged upon her. Mr. Tillman was waiting at Central school tor her company to a supper in the Russell street Methodist church. Bhe was in'the best of health and spirits. (Mrs. Daugherty, the most reliable witness, owing to'the fact that she watched Mrs. Tillman every minute, states that the team did not run wild down State street. Mrs. Tillman in turn had her attention cenered on a couple of children who were crossing .the street and appeared in danger. The team forged ahead and turned at the corner, giving no one a chance to escape. An active man would have probably been caught under the same eondotions. The Inlander and Steindler company today made inquries into the' case. Public sentiment demands ‘that the carelessness of horse drivers as well as motorists cease. Officers have been instructed to rigidly enforce the traffic laws, a matter In which the chief of police is particularly strict. The police were at a loss tor means of identification after the body had been removed N to the morgue A purse containing Mrs. Tillman’s card was tou nd, haw ever, f in the rear of A. E. Keperts’s drug store, where It had been taken together with an umbrella belonging to her. Someone recognized the wavy brown hair, still beautiful in death ‘She is a teacher in the night school,” the party told the police. ‘There ean be no mistake, the hair identifies her.” Miss Berth Hansen, secertary to C. -M. McDaniel at the board of education, was called. She hurried to the morgue and recognized Mrs. Tillman at once. The Times was on the street by that time carrying a bulletin of the accident. When the news became general scores of friends hurried to do what they could in consoling and aiding Mr. Tillman. The flowers that were taken to Stewart’s morgue today are most beautiful and profuse. At the services this morning the chapel was packed with members of the Woman’s CJub, teachers and other friends. Dr. Ohidlaw, deputay coroner, will hold an inquest at four o’cloeto Monday. Other witnesses are Fred Sliger and Ben Denaoli. ■/. , Mrs. L. L Brfmberger sang at the services in the Stewart chapel this morning. Her selections were “Faith in Jesus'’ and “In the Morning Land.” Mrs. Tillman was a member of the First Methodist ehuroh in this city, and an active worker. During the recent Northwest Indiana Conference she served with the women of the Aid society. she held membership with the Lebanon and Rensselaer Wiman’s clubs. In both of these cities she had acted in the capacity of public librarian. Anotlbr remarkable thing that Mrs. ’.eft at her home was a calendar with every date filled out to April. She was a most methodical woman ns well as highly intelligent and, well educated. Those who viewed her body this morning saw no marks of the catastrophe. A wound in the breast was the worst visible effect found by the doctor. * It showed plainly the imprint of the calk of a horse< shoe.