An article in the March 26, 1936 edition of The Catonsville Herald and Baltimore Countian reported on a weekday afternoon accident in which a school bus was overturned and a car destroyed. Six children were injured as were the two occupants of the car.
A hearing will be held by Magistrate John W. Loeber in the Catonsville police court on April 1 on the accident on Tuesday afternoon at Ingleside Avenue and Old Frederick Road, when an automobile crashed into a Catonsville school bus.
The accident occurred at about half past three. Six school children were injured when a machine collided with the school bus in which they were returning to their homes. The bus was overturned and the machine that struck it was demolished.
Two of the children, Bernard Kable, 13, and James Sparrow, 15, were taken to St. Agnes' Hospital for treatment. The other four were given first aid at the scene of the accident by Dr. Carroll Monmonier of Catonsville. They are Calvin Powell, 14; Lansford Meredith, 14; Robert Sakers, 12, and Emil Sanders, 12.
Fourteen children were on the bus when it overturned. Ten of them are boys and four are girls. Patrolman Thomas Simons of the Catonsville police reached the scene shortly after the crash and said that the bus, driven by Corbin G. Langley, of Woodlawn, was struck by an automobile driven by James E. Sheldon of the 1200 block North Charles Street, Baltimore. Sheldon and a passenger in his car were seriously injured, it was said.
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Standing beside an automobile in which he had been talking with a young woman who has been identified, police said, as his former wife, Robert Harting, 26, of Lansdowne, was shot in the abdomen early Monday morning at an auto park on the Washington Boulevard, near Sulphur Spring road.
George Sadler, 40, watchman at the place, who has been charged with the shooting and released on his own recognizance, told officers Harting had struck him once in the eye and was attempting to do it again when the shooting occurred.
According to Sadler, he heard voices among the company-owned machines on the property and with William Miller, of Relay, set out to investigate. Near the Sulphur Spring road, Sadler continued, he flashed his electric torch into a strange car and Harting leaped out of it, leaving the woman alone in the machine.
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John MacKenzie, 17, of Oella, son of Mr. and Mrs. Wesley MacKenzie, injured his hand severely yesterday, when he caught it in machinery at the Dickey Woolen Mill at Oella. MacKenzie was taken to St. Agnes' Hospital, where he underwent an operation. As a result of his injuries, it might be necessary to amputate the hand.
100 Years Ago
An article in the March 30, 1912 edition of The Argus reported on the tragic result after a woman's pre-dawn escape from an area mental health facility.
Eluding the attendants at Dr. Lewis H. Gundry's sanatorium, near Relay, Miss Caroline Burr, 50 years old, of Silver Springs, Md., fastened an improvised rope to her bed, quietly opened the window, crossed the roof of a porch and slid softly to the ground shortly before daybreak Tuesday. Two hours later, her mangled body was found on the tracks of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad near Relay. She had been struck and killed by a train.
A jury summoned Tuesday night by Coroner Andreae met in the police station at St. Denis and returned a verdict of death due to an avoidable accident.
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Messrs. S. Powers, Smith, H.J. Bender and Golder Shumate, the committee appointed by the Relay Improvement Association to arrange for laying the concrete sidewalks, have ordered the material, and a portion has been received and the work will be begun next week. The greater part of the work done this year will be on the Rolling road, in the vicinity of the school.
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Dr. Adelbert J. Volck, artist, gold miner, author, musician and dentist, and a former resident of Catonsville, died Tuesday at his home, 1601 Linden avenue, Baltimore. Dr. Volck, who was 83 years old, resided here about 40 years ago, occupying the present home of Mr. H. M. Davis on Ingleside Avenue, where he devoted himself to the practice of dentistry. He was a skilled craftsman in copper, silver and bronze and devoted considerable of his time to painting. Dr. Volck is survived by three children — Mr. Howard A. Volck of Kansas City; Mrs. F. H. Falkenburg, of Wheeling W. Va., and Miss Fannie B. Volck of Baltimore.
50 Years Ago
An article in the March 29, 1962 edition of the Herald Argus and Baltimore Countian noted a county ruling against adding a new gasoline station to an already busy Catonsville intersection.
County Zoning Commissioner John G. Rose has denied the petition of the Catonsville Library Association, Inc., Harry E. and Pearl M. Thorn, for a special exception to erect a gasoline service station at the southeast corner of Frederick road and Sanford avenue.
In a ruling handed down on Thursday, March 22, Mr. Rose pointed out that five churches, a school and the post office in that area produce heavy pedestrian traffic at this "dog-leg" intersection; and that the service station traffic would increase the existing hazards. He emphasized the possible blocking of eastbound traffic by a car emerging from the service station into Frederick road and attempting to turn west.
Campbell V. Helfrich spoke for the Library Association, John G. Cribbs for the oil company and Walter Worthington Ewell as a consulting engineer, all of them in favor of the gas station.
Opposed were Malcolm H. Dill, county director of planning and zoning, and John G. Mohler, who expressed preference for the present concentration of about seven gas stations in the east end of Catonsville, where his office also is located. Mr. Mohler is president of the Catonsville Business Association.
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Catonsville was the scene of a unique celebration on March 16. On that day, Thomas Jefferson Triplett was 100 years old, and his family and friends helped him observe the wonderful day at 625 Coleraine road where he resides with several of his daughters.
Born in 1862 at Soldiers Delight, which is three miles west of Owings Mills in the northwestern section of Baltimore county, Mr. Triplett operated a farm and retired 40 years ago. The place of his birth has historical interest in that it was the scene of early Indian and Civil War skirmishes and also the location of the world's first discovery of chrome ore.
The centenarian has resided in Catonsville 30 years. Mr. Triplett had nine children, six of whom are living. He also boasts of ten grandchildren, five great grandchildren and nine great great grandchildren.
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The Lurman Woodland Theatre Fund is still growing since general solicitation began on a door-to-door basis last November. Many interested solicitors from the community organizations which cooperated in the drive found it difficult to make their calls on residents during the holiday seasons and the inclement weather of mid-winter.
Now that Spring is here, the fund-raising through solicitation is finding new impetus. All planned solicitation is to be completed by May 1. Enthusiasm is soaring for the proposed outdoor amphitheatre, to be built on the Catonsville Senior High School grounds when enough funds from the area residents are available.
Material from archives courtesy of the Catonsville Historical Society.