100 years ago in The Saratogian
Wednesday, July 11, 1917
A National Guard private is killed by a Delaware & Hudson freight train while on guard duty outside Ballston Spa early this morning, The Saratogian reports.
Pvt. Paul Speanburgh of Schaghticoke serves in Company E of the Second New York Infantry regiment. His unit was moved to Ballston Spa from Fort Edward “about a week ago.” The Second regiment also includes Company L of Saratoga County, which is currently on guard duty somewhere in Schenectady County.
Speanburgh is near the end of his 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. shift on the East Line railroad bridge when the accident takes place. He was last seen alive around midnight, when some local men passed him on their way home from a dance.
When Pvt. Guy Munger arrives at 1 a.m. to relieve him, Speanburgh “was not in sight.” Munger doesn’t have to look far to find him, however. Speanburgh is found lying dead in the center of the bridge. Investigators believe that he was struck by “an extra northbound freight which passed through here about 12:30 this morning.
“He had evidently been dragged about fifty feet over the ties, but the wheels had not passed over any portion of his body,” a Ballston Spa correspondent notes. A coroner at the scene determines that “the man’s skull had been crushed in and both legs fractured in one of more places.”
WORK WANTED, NOT A HUSBAND
A Saratoga Springs woman looking for a job inadvertently entered into a longdistance courtship with a New Jersey man, The Saratogian reports.
William Bettens of Haskell recently wrote to Mayor John P. Mitchell of New York City, asking if the leader of that great metropolis could help him find a wife. The mayor made Bettens’ letter public and invited applicants to contact him.
One applicant gave her address as 39 Fenlon Street in the Spa City, signing her letter L.T. “Would like a man of means as a companion,” she wrote, “one not under 50 years preferred, which is some years older than myself. Send picture of some one thorough respected. I am a hard-working widow. Wish a cottage in the country. Entirely alone. Colored. For God’s sake let me hear at once.”
The “Colored” part makes the woman’s application something of a joke for the local reporter. Following up, the writer learns that L. T. stands for Lady Taylor, who explains today that she misunderstood what Bettens was looking for.
Taylor insists that “she was not looking for a husband, offering her services and recommending herself only as a competent worker.” In her defense, Bettens had asked for a good cook.