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New Jersey Obituaries - 1900 - Odey Skeeter
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A Little Child Killed
A Two-Year-Old Boy Struck by An engine
He Was Playing on the Railroad Track Near Belford When a Train Came Along and the Cowcatcher Struck Him on the Forehead
Odey Skeeter, aged two years, son of Dempsey Skeeter, who lives between Leonardo and Belford, was struck by a train in front of his home on Monday
at ten o'clock and two hours later he died from his injuries.
The Skeeter family lives along the railroad track in a house formerly owned by Burry Mills's brick works. Mrs. Skeeter went to Belford for groceries
on Monday, leaving several small children playing about the house. The children were left in charge of a boy about five years old. He was cautioned
by his mother to keep the younger children from getting on the railroad track. Odey, the two-year-old child, wandered on the railroad track and was
playing on the outer edge of a tie when the ten o'clock train for Atlantic Highlands came along. The child's head was toward the rail. William B.
Savidge was engineer of the train and Robert Flett was fireman. When they saw the child on the track the whistle was blown incessantly and the engine
was reversed. The child was too young to understand the danger and it made no effort to get off the tie. Before the engine could be stopped the child
was reached. The edge of the cowcatcher struck the child on the forehead and the little one was rolled over to the side of the track. The engine went
only a few feet further after striking the child.
The injured boy was put aboard the train and taken to Atlantic Highlands for medical treatment. Dr. VanMater was summoned. The flesh on the child's
forehead was not broken where the engine struck it, but the skull had been fractured. The child was unconscious and the doctor gave no hope of its
recovery.
Coroner Tetley of Red Bank viewed the body Monday afternoon and gave a permit for burial. He empaneled a jury and will hold an inquest to-morrow
morning at ten o'clock at Amzi M. Posten's undertaking establishment at Atlantic Highlands. The jurymen are Rutsen S. Snyder, Charles A. Brown,
Frank Fortescue, William Anderson, C. Mell Johnson and George Davis.
Source: Red Bank Register, Wednesday, May 2, 1900
A Coroner's Verdict
The coroner's inquest in the case of Odey Skeeter, the two-year-old child who was killed by a train near Belford on Monday of last week, was held at Atlantic Highlands on Thursday by Coroner Tetley of Red Bank. Eleven witnesses were examined. The testimony showed that the engineer of the train had done all in his power to avert the accident and that the parents of the child were negligent in allowing the child to get on the track. The jurymen were Rutsen S. Snyder, Charles A. Brown, William E. Andrew, Jr., C. Mell Johnson, George W. Davis and Frank Fortescue. The verdict was as follows:
We, the coroner's jury in the inquest as to the cause of the death of the child, Odey Skeeter, have concluded that it came to its death by the locomotive on Monday, April 30th, 1900, at about 10 A. M.
Source: Red Bank Register, Wednesday, May 9, 1900
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