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A few years
ago in Canton
By Stephen Hagan
A tragedy and
a very sad ending
On Thursday,
December 12, 1939, a 1927 Ford Model A sedan, which had been
reported stolen from the Springdale/Pine Street area of town,
was in a collision with the New Haven Railroad’s fast Boston-New
York all first-class train, the Yankee Clipper, which had left
South Station at 1 p.m.
The
collision took place at Ray’s Crossing on Hartwell Street, a
dirt road that connected Norfolk Street with the top of Grand
Street. Neighbors notified police, who then contacted by phone
Dr. Newell Hagan, who had just finished making a house call on a
patient in Ponkapoag.
Unfortunately, due to the recent wet weather, his 1936 Chevrolet
coupe was stuck in mud up to the top of his rear wheels on
Royall Street. The police dispatched a cruiser to bring Dr.
Hagan to the accident scene, but in the meantime Chief Bill
Whitty thought it better to bring the unidentified victim to Dr.
Hagan’s home on High Street, just a short distance from the
accident scene. The police, Mrs. Hagan and Mrs. Mildred Kelliher,
R,N., who happened to be visiting Mrs. Hagan, placed blankets on
the lawn and administered first aid, but to no avail. The victim
was pronounced dead by Mrs. Kelliher, and just as the police
arrived with Dr. Hagan, Mr. Jim Dockray, whose undertaking
business was just down the street at 44 High Street was removing
the body.
The victim’s
name or age was never formally identified, due to his horrible
injuries, but it has always been supposed that he was a homeless
person who was known at the time to live in the woods and thick
brush along that part of the route of the high-tension electric
transmission lines between what now is the Cobb’s Corner
shopping area through to Canton Street in Sharon, just west of
the overhead railway bridge. Canton Street in Sharon becomes
High Street, Canton at the Sharon/Canton town line at the
entrance to Knollwood Cemetery.
The
unidentified victim was buried by the Town of Canton in a grave
at rear of Canton Corner Cemetery on December 18, 1939.
The
interment was attended by Chief of Police and Mrs. Whitty,
Officer Joseph Buckley, Mildred Kelliher, R.N. and Mrs.
Elizabeth Hagan. A sad ending to a very sad story.
August 7, 2008
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