Dangers of the roadway in the early 1900s

As the first decade of the 20th century dawns in the small town of Woodbridge, the lives of the people who live here are being transformed by the potential of new modes of transportation. As we saw with the plans in the late 1890s to extend the electric trolley up into the hills of Woodbridge, the advent of the automobile is also on the horizon – and these two mechanical forms of travel are vying for the attention of roadway users both in sparking the imagination but also warning of dangers that are new and frightening.

The local roads are now being shared by pedestrians, utility workers, farmers and delivery men with horse-drawn wagons, as well as travelers on horseback, trolleys, and automobiles. During the autumn of 1908, the local newspaper is filled with cautionary tales. In the span of just one week in November, five deadly accidents take place on the roads of New Haven, one of which takes the life of a young Woodbridge farmer.

Beginning with a “sudden and violent death” (as the coroner's inquest later describes it), at about 5:30pm on Saturday, November 14th telephone company superintendent of street repair Frederick T. Case is struck down by “a large touring car” at the corner of Temple and Grove streets. He had been standing by the guardrails of a manhole entrance in which his brother Herman was working.

“The automobile, it is alleged, rapidly approached through Temple street from the direction of Wall street, striking its victim and throwing him a distance of 30 feet. The dead man’s face was horribly mutilated, and a pool of blood marked where he was picked up.”

Earlier that day, another automobile accident has occurred nearby on Broadway, the injured man dying the next morning according to the Sunday, November 15th edition of The New Haven Union:

“Returning from a meeting in Christ church parish house yesterday afternoon, the Rev. George Brinley Morgan, D.D., rector of Christ church, and one of the best known Episcopal clergymen in the state, was struck and fatally injured by an automobile driven by Samuel Campbell, of this city, within a short stone’s throw of Christ church. Dr. Morgan died at 12:45 this morning without regaining consciousness.

Unconscious and bleeding from the mouth and ears, Dr. Morgan was picked up and carried into the drug store of Frank Thompson in Broadway, almost in front of which he was struck by Campbell’s car. Drs. Converse, Leonard Bacon and Seibold were quickly summoned, but after a superficial examination, could offer but little hope of recovery.”

Then on Wednesday morning, November 18th at 5:30 am, 22 year-old Harry Dickinson who is delivering milk from his family's dairy farm on Newton Road in Woodbridge, is killed in an accident on Whalley Avenue across from the Westville Cemetery.

The coroner's inquest will later find that the young man's death “was not due to the criminal act or carelessness of any one” and that he likely was not asleep when the accident occurred.

“Discussing the accident the verdict says: From the nature and location of the wound, which was a fracture of the skull on the back right side of the head, I am of the opinion that just at the time the trolley car collided with the wagon, deceased had his head out of the door of the wagon, probably looking in the direction in which the car was coming, and that the end of the car smashed his head between it and the doorway of the wagon.”

Later that same day, at 4:30 pm on the roads of West Haven's Allingtown, 35 year-old John J. Kelly is killed in a cave-in of a sewer trench in which he is working. It takes rescuers three hours to dig out Michael Burns who is trapped with him and “held buried almost to the top of his head with just a chance to breathe with difficulty.”

The newspapers react to this spate of accidents with several articles focused on the work of the coroner, who must determine cause of death and assign criminal responsibility if he finds it warranted with his verdict. They are at times harshly critical in their assessment – as we see in the story about Harry Dickinson's death – but thoughts soon turn to legislative measures to protect the community. In the November 17th edition of the Morning Journal-Courier a front page story summarizes:

“The many recent automobile accidents in New Haven, three of which within forty-eight hours of each other resulted fatally, one in the killing of Edward S. Linstaedt by the machine driven by Senator Alton Farrel, the second in the killing of Rev. Dr. G. Brinley Morgan by the machine driven by Samuel Campbell, and the third in the killing of Frederick T. Case by the machine of David H. Clark, have aroused the people of the city and of the state as well against reckless driving and steps will probably be taken toward the curbing of recklessness as the result. The incoming legislature, it is believed, will be asked to amend the automobile law, and there is a great deal of discussion in New Haven toward having the board of aldermen pass a city ordinance further limiting the speed with which machines can go within the city limits.”

Meanwhile, the community must come to terms with and mourn this series of shocking and untimely deaths. At the funeral of Frederick T. Case on November 17th, the Rev. Harold Wilson eulogizes the 41 year-old husband and father of four as he is laid to rest in Evergreen cemetery:

“...we mourn a loss that has swept upon us with the suddenness of swift desolation. All unexpectedly the blow has fallen. With no opportunity given to those who loved him best of ministering to him, he was without warning taken from us. It is impossible for us to say surely whether the accident could have been avoided; we cannot pronounce blame. And even if we could, that would little heal our grief. The life is gone, and it behoves us to draw near to God; to make sure that we are where we can touch his hand. ... May our Father take us all into his keeping and especially hold with tenderness these sorrowing loved ones.”

On the same day that John J. Kelly is interred in St. Bernard's cemetery, another set of friends and family are gathered in Woodbridge to mourn the passing — all too soon — of Henry Thomas Dickinson (1887-1908) as he is laid to rest in Eastside Cemetery.

In the weeks to come, Harry's parents express their gratitude to the community in a brief, poignant note published in the December 5th Journal & Courier: