OBIT: Irvin H. BEAL, 1944, Rockwood, Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

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IRVIN H. BEAL

Rockwood Youth Fatally Injured
Struck by Passenger Train Passing Through Sand Patch Tunnel

  Failure to heed a safety warning in time cost Irvin H. Beal, a 17-year-old 
Rockwood youth, his life in Sand Patch tunnel last Saturday afternoon.
  Young Beal was a member of a B & O track crew engaged in repairing the tracks 
in the tunnel.  Soon after the men had emerged from the manholes in which they 
had found safety while a freight train was passing through the tunnel, Assistant 
Foreman Perry H. Smith ordered the men back into the manholes as a passenger 
train was entering the tunnel.
  Just why the Beal boy failed to heed the warning in time to avoid being struck 
by the rapidly moving passenger train is not known.  One of the fellow workmen 
told Coroner Dosch, who made an investigation to determine the circumstances 
that resulted in the lad's death, that young Beal knew that there was impending 
danger, because he heard him remark after the freight train had passed, that it 
was about time for the passenger train to come along.
  The accident happened about 2:30 p.m.  The boy was found lying along side the 
track after the train had passed, unconscious but still living.  He was taken to 
the Hazel McGilvery Hospital as quickly as possible for surgical attention, but 
died soon after his admission to the institution.  It was found that he had a 
skull fracture, a broken lower jaw and internal injuries.
  The unfortunate youth was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Simon Beal and was born in 
Rockwood.  He had been employed by the railroad company only a few months.  
  Surviving are his parents, two brothers - Arthur and Robert, both at home, and 
four sisters - Mrs. Irvin Ohler, Sand Patch; Mrs. Paul Lytle, Rockwood R.D. 3; 
Mrs. Ralph Ohler, Sand Patch, and Gertrude, Mt. Savage; also a half-brother, 
Walter Beal, Dayton, O., and three half-sisters - Mrs. Paul Gerhart, Meyersdale; 
Mrs. Charles Christie, Mifflinburg, and Mrs. Jane Bingham, Buffalo, N.Y.

Meyersdale Republican, June 15, 1944