Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1915 — BOILER TRUCK FOR HEARSE [ARTICLE]

BOILER TRUCK FOR HEARSE

Last Wishes of West Virginia Man Are Carried Out at His Funeral. Fairmont, W. Va.—ln keeping with a request made at various times in his life that his body be borne to the cemetery by his faithful teamster, "Black Dick,” in the latter’s vehicle, a boiler truck, the wish of William D. Smith, a prominent team contractor and pipe-line man, in the oil fields of West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania, was carried out recently at his home town, Mannington. Mr. Smith died Tuesday of acute indigestion. Owing to his heavy build, weighing 360 pounds, an ordinary hearse would not hold his casket. His body was borne to the church and to the grave in a boiler truck, draped in black and the Elks’ lodge colors, purple and white. Dick, a negro employee of 23 years’ service, drove the conveyance, drawn by six white horses. Rev. C. E. Goodwin of Mannington conducted the services, assisted by otbeT ministers. Smith was a native of Greene county, Pennsylvania.