Fw: N&W in 1907 -- Emergency Care

[NW Mailing List]

Ken Miller has kindly informed me that the "Singer Tower" photo attached to my earlier message on the above subject is mislabeled in the Va. Tech on-line files, and the photo is actually of the similar Glenvar Tower.

There were a number of similar towers thought to have been designed by the Victorian architect George T. Pearson, of Philadelphia, who designed many early N&W structures. Check out the interesting examples at http://www.brynmawr.edu/cities/archx/gtp/gtpoutpa.html
Note that the tower shown, as well as the Graham tower shown in the link to the Va. Tech photo of that tower, are strikingly similar to the one at Glenvar.

Much of the information for the above website on Pearson's N&W work was developed by Jeffrey Cohen, Bryn Mawr College, during a visit to the NWHS Archives in August of 2006.

Gordon Hamilton

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Gordon Hamilton 
To: N&W Mailing 1List 
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 7:56 AM
Subject: N&W in 1907 -- Emergency Care




Fatally Hurt Trying to Board a Freight Train
------
    Elliston, Va., April 29--While trying to board a freight train Sunday afternoon at Singer tower [see attached image of Singer Tower from Va Tech collection] William Sidney Barnett (generally known as "cat"), aged 17 years, was seriously, if not fatally, injured by being knocked down by the train, receiving a severe wound on the head and one hip; also haveing one foot cut off and the other badly mashed.
    His brother was telegraphed for and left on No. 14 and picked him up at Singer, taking him on to the Roanoke hospital, where one limb has already been operated on.
    His mother, Mrs. Willie Barnett and brother, Sam, left on No. 2 for his bedside.

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
April 30, 1907

[This item is posted as another illustration of how lacking emergency medical care was in rural areas in those days.  Based on the article, the unfortunate victum had to suffer through the following time-consuming events:
    Send telegraph to a station near the brother
    Deliver telegraph message to brother
    Brother get to station
    Brother wait for No. 14
    Brother ride No. 14 (with all scheduled stops)
    Brother help load victum onto No. 14
    Both ride No. 14 to Roanok (with all scheduled stops)
    Transport brother from station to hospital.
It's wonder that the victum survived long enough to be operated on at the hospital.]

Gordon Hamilton
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