OBIT: Walter TRESSLER, 1930, Addison Township, Somerset County, PA

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

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WALTER TRESSLER

Preacher's Car Kills Pedestrian
Coroner's Jury Exonerates Rev. D. E. Hartman for Death of Walter Tressler

  CONFLUENCE, Nov. 25 - Walter Tressler, aged 46 years, was instantly killed on 
Sunday evening on State Highway Route 53 between Harnedsville and Listonburg, 
the place being known locally as Skunktown, by running against an automobile 
driven by Rev. Daniel E. Hartman, pastor of the Confluence Baptist Church.
  Rev. Hartman who held services on that evening at Markleysburg was on his way 
to his home at Confluence when the accident occurred.  The body of the 
unfortunate victim of the sad accident was brought to Confluence.  On Monday 
morning a coroner's inquest was held, James B. Coughenour, Justice of the Peace, 
officiating as acting coroner.  A jury consisting of Lynn L. Howard, Dr. T. R. 
Show, D. H. Brown, H. L. Sellers, P. S. Rowe and E. J. McClintock was impaneled 
and brought in the following verdict:
  "We find that the death of Walter Tressler was caused by him deliberately 
walking into the side of Rev. Daniel E. Hartman's moving car, at Skunktown on 
Sunday, November 23, 1930.  We the undersigned jurors hereby exonerate Rev. 
Daniel E. Hartman from responsibility."
  Mr. Tressler was a lifelong resident of Addison Township.  He was well known 
to practically everyone in that section of the county and his death came as a 
profound shock to his family and friends.
  He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Ollie (Livengood) Tressler, and eleven 
children, and by the following brothers and sisters:  Jesse and John Tressler, 
Connellsville; Rinaldo Tressler, Monessen; Jasper Tressler, residing in the 
state of West Virginia; Ezra and Elliott Tressler, both of Addison Township; 
Mrs. Frank Swartzwelder, Salisbury, and Mrs. John J. Walker, Boswell.
  The funeral was held Wednesday in the Silbaugh M.E. Church, of which the 
deceased was a member, with interment in the Silbaugh Cemetery.
  It appears that Mr. Tressler spent Sunday evening at the home of a neighbor 
and was returning to his own home when he was struck by the Confluence 
minister's car.  He was within a few hundred feet of the point where he would 
have turned off the State road to a by-road when the accident happened.
  Rev. Hartman saw Tressler in his path and ran his car off the road in order to 
avoid striking the man.  Tressler, who had evidently become confused, staggered 
against the door of the car and the impact threw him back onto the road, his 
head striking heavily on the concrete.  Rev. Hartman and others started with the 
injured man to the Frantz Hospital, but he was dead when they arrived.
  Rev. Hartman went immediately for Tressler's family and then surrendered to 
the Constable.

Meyersdale Republican, November 27, 1930