Records Relating to Virginia Ewing GATES (1930-1934), Philadelphia, PA Contributed to the PAGenWeb Archives by Lorene Frigaard [lorfri99@bmi.net] Copyright 2004. All Rights Reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ********************************************************* NOTE: The submitter not related to this family, nor do they know any of them Personally ----------------------------- 1930 U.S. Federal Census; Pennsylvania; Philadelphia County; City of Philadelphia; Ward 22, Block # 61; Roll #: T626_2104; Enumeration District: 1174; Image: 350.0; Enumerated on April 10, 1930 Residence: 8600 Seminole Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania GATES, Thomas S.; head of household; owns home valued at $90,000; male; white; 57 years of age; married; first married at 32 years of age; born in Pennsylvania; both parents born in Pennsylvania; occupation: banker--bank. GATES, Emma B.; wife; female; white; 45 years of age; married; first married at 32 years of age; born in Pennsylvania; father born in Pennsylvania; mother born in Canada (English); occupation: none listed. GATES, Jay G.; son; male; white; 19 years of age; single; born in Pennsylvania; both parents born in Pennsylvania; occupation: none listed. GATES, Virginia E.; daughter; female; white; 18 years of age; single; born in Pennsylvania; both parents born in Pennsylvania; occupation: none listed. WALLER, James A.; stepson; male; white; 13 years of age; single; born in France; mother born in England; father born in Pennsylvania. This household included 5 servants, all female, and all born in Ireland. ------------------------------------ "The Helena Daily Independent" Published at Helena, Montana Tuesday, September 18, 1934 Page 2: PLANS OF ELOPERS VAGUE BUT THEY WILL GO TO COAST Boise, Idaho. Sept. 17. --- (AP) --- Arrayed in a new tailored blue suit, Virginia Ewing Gates, Philadelphia heiress, now Mrs. Dan McCafferty, was ready tonight to leave Boise for some place on the Pacific coast to make a home with her wrestler-mechanic husband whom she married in a strange "highway romance" while state and federal officials sought widely for her. Their plans, admittedly nebulous, were changed again this afternoon and remained subject to further change. Early in the day they announced their intention to leave this afternoon by train for Salt Lake City en route to San Francisco and Los Angeles. MET YEAR AGO. Eventually, McCafferty said, they will reach El Centrol, Calif., the town in which he spent several months during the past year before resuming the wandering that brought him finally to Boise and to a wedding with the girl he met about a year ago at a rodeo dance near Pinedale, Wyo. It was from a dude ranch at Pinedale tht she disappeared and precipitated an extensive search. --------------------------------------- "The Helena Daily Independent" Published at Helena, Montana Friday, September 21, 1934 Page 4: VIRGINIA AND DAN There was, we must suppose, something cosmic about the meeting of Dan McCafferty and Virginia Gates. At any rate it appears to have been something akin to the hypothetical meeting of the irresistible force and the immovable object. They simply merged. And why shouldn't they? They were free spirits. They knew little or nothing about lost liberties and regimentation and the rape of constitutional rights. Virginia indeed had just walked out on them and in doing so had hiked right into Danny's arms. All they knew, all they needed to know for the time being was that two can thumb as cheaply as one. But the hand of fate isn't all thumbs as Danny must have discovered when he learned that he had married his wife right under the nose of a nation-wide searching party, including the federal secret service, out looking for her. We should like to analyze his feelings but the best we can guess is that they baffle, as the baffled school of writers so aptly styles it's description. Dan appears to be a simple if versatile lad. He knows his Imperial Valley, he can turn his hand at adjusting a carburetor or driving another man's car, he can understudy at a wrestling match or a boxing bout and between whiles can travel on his thumb. That's a far cry from the most exalted educational, financial and social circles of Pennsylvania with which he has now established an in-law's connection. But Dan takes it calmly enough. He isn't the man to be awed by Pennsylvania. Fingering a check representing the bride's father's acceptance of the inevitable he remarks with simple candor, "Well, we are not broke any more." What more could an embarrassed son-in-law say, and what less?---Omaha World- Herald ------------------------------------------- "The Helena Daily Independent" Published at Helena, Montana Monday, September 24, 1934 Pages 1 & 5: RUNAWAY COUPLE IN AUTO SMASHUP----FORMER VIRGINIA GATES CRITICALLY HURT Sacramento, Calif., Sept., 23. --- (AP) --- Virginia Gates McCafferty, 22, hitch- hiking daughter of Dr. Thomas S. Gates, president of the University of Pennsylvania, and her mechanic husband, Dan McCafferty, 26, were critically injured in a head-on automobile collision near Dixon tonight. Both suffered fractured skulls and other less serious injuries. They were taken to Butter hospital here where their recovery is in doubt. A 7-year old girl, riding in the machine with which the McCafferty collided was fatally injured. The dead girl is Marjorie Johnson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. F. R. Johnson, Sacramento. INJURED The injured, in addition to McCafferty and his wealthy bride, are: Johnson, 44, fractured skull, cuts on head and other injuries; condition critical. His wife, 35, also in critical condition from a fractured skull; Their daughter, Elle, 9 head injuries; condition serious; Gordon Bennett, 23, of El Centro, wrenched back. Joe McCafferty, 26, brother of Dan, minor injuries. The McCaffertys left Salt Lake City with an unidentified motorist September 21 headed for California where they had expressed a desire to live following their marriiage in Moscow, Idaho, and its subsequent revelation in Boise. The wealthy bride previous had disappeared from a dude ranch hear Pinedale, Wyo., and was the subject of a widespread search in which department of justice operatives took part. REAPPERS The search, which began August 14, ended when she and her bride groom, former El Centro, Calif., taxicab driver, were found in Boise, Sept. 15. In Boise, the college president's daughter revealed how she had met McCafferty during her hitch-hiking tour from the dude ranch to Boise, although she was reticent to discuss details of the tour. "I don't want all this publicity." she said laughingly at that time. "Just say we are going to live in California." BUY CAR The couple had originally planned to go to El Centro by bus to make their home, but Bennett said they had changed their plans and gone to Salt Lake City and bought a second hand car to make the trip. They were on their way from Salt Lake to San Francisco to spend the night before continuing to El Centro. The place where the crash occured is just outside Dixon, 26 miles from here, on the San Francisco highway.