Carolyn Williams Wilkins
CAROLYN WILLIAMS WILKINS, daughter of ELIZABETH HETHERINGTON and CRANSTON WILKINS, was born in June, 1853 in Indiana,4931 and died July 4, 1907 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana.5041, 4931 She is buried in Earlham Cemetery, Richmond, Wayne, Indiana.89, 4931
Obituaries
Indianapolis Star, July 5, 19075041
CRUSHED BY AUTO; DIES FROM INJURIES
Miss Carrie Wilkins Run Down and Fatally Hurt as She Alights From Car.
EN ROUTE TO CELEBRATION
Driver of Machine, Dewey Young, Held Without Bond on Charge of Murder.
Shortly after having been struck and run over by an automobile at Twentieth street and College avenue yesterday, just after noon, Miss Carrie Wilkins, 54 years old, died at St. Vincent's Hospital from internal injuries. Dewey Young, 19 years old, driver of the automobile, was arrested at once and is now charged with murder. He was locked up at police headquarters without bond.
A Fourth of July celebration which had been prepared at the home of Mr. and Mrs. William C. Wilkins, 2030 Broadway, was brought to a sudden close by the tragic occurrence, since dinner had been spread upon a long table beneath the trees in the Wilkins yard and the guests were waiting for the arrival of Miss Wilkins, when the word came that she had been probably fatally hurt a block from the place. Among hundreds of other persons attracted to Twentieth street and College avenue the celebrators flocked to the scene of the accident. After the woman had been taken to the hospital and the guests at the Wilkins home were about to take their places at the table the news came that Miss Wilkins had died within a few minutes after her arrival at the hospital.
In the two-seated touring car with Young, the driver, were James Madison, 2023 College avenue, Mr. and Mrs. Earl Wright of Kokomo, Ind., and Miss Grady Jerrett, a sister of Mrs. Wright, who was visiting from Franklin, N. C. She and Mr. and Mrs. Wright left for Kokomo last night. The auto, with the pleasure party, had been making the rounds of the city parks on a Fourth of July pleasure trip, and was within a half block of the Madison home when the accident occurred. The young men had rented the automobile from the Indiana Automobile Company, Massachusetts avenue and New York streets, at 10 o'clock yesterday morning, by the hour, and had been out from that time until 12:40 o'clock when the accident happened. One of the women was prostrated by the excitement of the accident and was for a short time yesterday in a critical condition at the Madison home.
Miss Wilkins, who was a tailoress at East Washington and Delaware streets, was on her way home. She had boarded a college avenue car and had stepped of at Twentieth street, from where she should have gone a block west and half a block north to reach the Wilkins home on Broadway. According to eyewitnesses Miss Wilkins was struck as she walked north beside the open car from which she had just alighted.
the College avenue car from which Miss Wilkins stopped immediately before the accident was in charge of Isaac Dibbins, 2613 Yandes street, conductor. The motorman was Louis Stout, 1923 Prospect street.
Estimates of Speed Vary.
According to estimates made by persons who saw the accident, Young was driving his car at a speed of ten to twenty miles an hour. No person was found who said he made any attempt to stop his machine or to sound a signal other than the exhaust. Young himself asserts that he used the exhaust as a signal, and released the clutch.
The woman was struck in the back by the forward part of the machine, and, according to the account given by the nearest eyewitness, was carried ten feet before she fell face downward beneath the right front wheel. Both right wheels passed over the middle of her back and the machine was not stopped until about fifty feet farther north on College avenue. Young walked back to where the woman had been run down and stood about until she had been ut on a cot brought from the O. M. Carse boarding house, 1939 College avenue, directly in front of which the accident happened. He started to leave after a few moments, but was detained by Policeman Hanks, who patrols the district just east of that place. He was sent to police headquarters in a patrol wagon, where he was charged with assault and battery, without bond. Immediately after the woman died the charge was changed to that of murder, without bond.
The woman regained consciousness soon after she had been put on a cot on the Carse porch and directed the people about her to notify Mr. and Mrs. Joseph C. Kern, 2234 Central avenue, with whom she made her home. Mrs. Kern is a sister of the dead woman. The City Dispensary ambulance had been called and the police had been notified. Bicyclemen Wilson and Golinisch responded and arrived within a few minutes. Dr. Edgar F. Kiser, superintendent of the City Dispensary, Dr. Ira E. Dunlavy, 1735 College avenue, and Dr. Edmond Clark, Newton Claypool Building, were soon at the place, Dr. Dunlavy and his wife having been witnesses to the accident. The woman was made as comfortable as possible until the arrival of the ambulance.
Stories of the accident told by Mr. and Mrs. B. F. Waddell, who live at the Carse boarding house, were perhaps the most graphic. They sat on the front porch immediately opposite where the auto struck Miss Wilkins, and they were perhaps in a better position to see the entire accident than any other persons.
Stories of Eyewitnesses.
"The woman had just stepped off the middle of the open car," said Mr. Waddell, "when the auto struck her. My wife and I sat on the front porch watching the cars pass. The College avenue car, on which about eight persons were riding, was turning west on Twentieth street to go into the barns and the woman stood as if waiting for the car to get out of the way so she also might go west on Twentieth street. She was the last of the passengers to alight and seemed confused. the conductor had to tell her to get off, that that was as far as the car would go. She had just turned to walk parallel with the car when the auto, running at the rate of ten or twelve miles an hour, struck her in the back."
"I had just remarked that she would get hit," said Mrs. Waddell, "when the impact came. The woman was thrown partly on the front of the machine and was carried, I suppose, about ten feet. Then she fell forward upon her face the the wheels of the auto ran over her. She screamed, "O, my back.'"
The women who rode on the rear seat of the auto screamed with terror as they saw the machine would strike the woman. All four persons in the auto are said to have turned deathly pale, and Young apparently lost his head completely. He admitted in the police lockup yesterday afternoon that he had not sounded either of the two horns on his machine.
"The exhaust, which I turned loose out of the muffler hood," he said, "makes a better signal than either of the horns. When I turned this on, the woman paid no attention to it. I tried to guide my car between her and the side of the car when the machine struck her and threw her to the pavement. It was not running very fast."
The young man denied the charge made by the police that he had been racing with the College avenue car, but one eyewitness, who rode on a White City car, which followed the College avenue car, is authority for the statement that Young drove his car on the street car tracks for ten blocks ahead of the White City car without paying any heed to the bell, which was vigorously rung by the motorman. this witness was J. W. Ritter, Forty-seventh street and Broadway, who rode on the front seat of the White City car.
"About two blocks from were the machine struck the woman," said Mr. Ritter, "the driver turned out of the car tracks and drove on the east side of the street. When he had caught up with the College avenue , it stopped and the passengers got off. I could not tell how fast he was driving."
Charles Swope, 2025 Broadway, who was a passenger on the College avenue car, had just stepped off the car and had passed to the west curb, walking around the rear of the car.
"As I arrived opposite where Miss Wilkins got off the car I heard several women scream, and when I looked I saw them leaning far back in the auto as if something dreadful were happening. Then I saw Miss Wilkins thrown into the air, alighting in front of the automobile. It all happened so quickly I scarcely remember the details, but my impression is that the machine was going at great speed."
Mrs. Margaret Judkins, 626 East Twentieth street, was sitting on the porch of her home when the automobile struck Miss Wilkins. She said that the woman was thrown into the air, raised two or three feet from the ground, and was then thrown forward upon the pavement. She estimated that the automobile was running at the rate of fifteen to twenty miles an hour. Other witnesses asset the machine was not going more than five miles an hours.
Among other persons who were eyewitnesses to the tragedy were Dr. and Mrs. Ira E. Dunlavy, 1735 College avenue.
The woman who had ridden the the machine refused to discuss the accident, saying they were not to blame in any way and declaring they wanted no notoriety over the case.
Madison, who sat in the front seat with the driver, said that the machine was not running very fast and that he did not feel that Young was altogether to blame. One of the women fainted at the Madison home after the accident.
Miss Wilkins was formerly a resident of Richmond, Ind. She came to Indianapolis five years ago with the family of Joseph C. Kern, a tailor. She had been invited to attend the little celebration at the Wilkins home on Broadway, where about twenty-five grown persons and children were to eat dinner and supper yesterday and give a display of fireworks in the evening.
The body, in charge of Whitsett, Culver & Titus, undertakers, will be taken to Richmond today for burial. In a week or more the woman had planned to go to the Silver Lake Assembly, near Buffalo, N. Y., to spend the summer.
Census Records
| Date | Location | Enumerated Names |
|---|---|---|
| 1870 | Richmond, Wayne, Indiana |
|
