100 years ago in The Saratogian
Thursday, March 15, 1917
A Clark Textile employee dies with his face in a gutter after suffering a seizure on the job this afternoon, The Saratogian reports.
Merritt T. Webster, a 44 year old father of three who lives in Ballston Spa, works as a handyman at the Clark facility. “Several years ago,” a reporter notes, “he was employed as a lineman and received an injury to his head from a falling pole. Since that time he had been subject to attacks of epilepsy and was frequently seized with them at the Textile plant.”
Webster remained at his job despite his disability. At 3 p.m. he starts work cleaning out a Spring Street gutter. Fifteen minutes later, engine room employee Henry Hanke finds him face down in the gutter and calls for a doctor.
Dr. John B. Ledlie declares Webster dead at the scene. He believes that Webster died about ten minutes before Hanke found him, suffocating quickly “when the mud stopped the entrance of air to his lungs.”
Webster is covered by a company life insurance policy that will pay a year’s wages to his widow. The paper notes that this is the fourth time that the company has had to pay a death benefit to an employee’s family since the policy went into effect.
THE NEXT D.A.
The state senate’s confirmation of Saratoga County District Attorney Lawrence B. McKelvey as the next county judge has opened intense speculation about the next county prosecutor.
McKelvey remains D.A. at least for today, as he hasn’t received official notice of his confirmation yet. The leaders of his Republican party faction are split among three possible successors and were unable to agree on one of them at a meeting last night.
While McKelvey himself reportedly favors city judge Charles B. Andrus, state senator George H. Whitney, the local GOP leader, supports Ballston Spa attorney Burton D. Esmond, while McKelvey’s predecessor as county judge, new state supreme court justice George B. Salisbury, wants Saratoga Springs city attorney Harold H. Corbin for D. A.
Corbin’s position appears the weakest. Until recently, he had been loyal to Whitney’s former mentor and current arch-enemy Edgar T. Brackett, and “the fact remains that Corbin has at no time publicly stated he would leave the Brackett camp, whether he received the appointment or not.”
“It is very probable that some one will be keenly disappointed when the appointment is finally made,” The Saratogian notes, “The fact that there are two or three other aspirants who believe their chances are as good as the next man’s does not help to clear the political horizon.”