New Haven, CT Train Wreck, Sept 1913 - Washington DC Victim

CAPITAL GIRL A VICTIM

Miss M. ARMSTRONG Crushed in New Haven Wreck.

ONLY LOCAL PERSON KILLED

Other Washington Residents on Board Train Escaped Injury - Young Woman's Identity Learned Through Shoes Bought Here - Little Miss Marriott, Other Children, and Henry Flather Safe

Miss MARGUERITA ARMSTRONG, secretary of the Madeira School for Girls, whose body was identified last night, is, according to latest reports from the scene of the wreck at New Haven, the only resident of Washington killed in the disaster that occurred early yesterday morning. Several other residents of the National Capital were on the ill-fated Bar Harbor train, but, as far as is yet known, escaped injury.

Miss ARMSTRONG was returning from Camp Abena, Belgrade Lakes, Maine. She was thrown from her berth when the collision occurred, and is thought to have been instantly killed. Her mutilated body, with no mark of identification upon it, was held while descriptions were sent to this city. Through a pair of shoes which she had recently purchased here her identity was finally established. Fred B. Armstrong, a brother, hurried to New York and made the identification positive last night.

Fears Felt for Several Girls.

Miss Lucy Mareira, principal of the school, said last night that the camp at which Miss Armstrong had been in attendance has been conducted for several years by Miss Hortense Herson, a teacher in the Friends School, one of the best known institutions in the fashionable section of the city. While the camp is not officially carried on by the school, it draws principally from that school's student body.

Fear was felt for several young girls of this city who had also been at the camp, but a telegram of assurance was received early in the day by Mrs. Crittenden Marriott, of 1811 Twenty-fourth street, northwest, from her daughter Catherine, who had been a member of the party. The girls had been placed upon the train by Miss Herson and were returning for the opening of school.

Their escape is due to the fact that they occupied one of the forward cars. When the children boarded the train it consisted of but a few coaches. Others, however, were attached at different points along the route, thus saving from harm the one in which little Miss Marriott rode.

W. J. Flather Not on the Train.

Henry Flather, cashier of the Riggs National Bank, was much disturbed when the first news of the wreck reached Washington, for he knew that his brother, William J. Flather, vice president of the bank, was returning on the express from Poland Springs, Me., where he has been spending a vacation. Recalling that his brother was to attend a business meeting in New York. Mr. Flather immediately telephoned to the company's offices in that city, and within a short time received a telegram stating that he was safe and well.

It was thought last night that all its passengers from this city had been accounted for.

The Washington Post, Washington, DC 3 Sept 1913

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GIRL VICTIM'S FUNERAL.

Miss ARMSTRONG to Be Buried at Ilion, N. Y., Today.

Funeral services for Miss MARGUERITA ARMSTRONG, the only resident of Washington killed or injured in the wreck of the Bar Harbor express near New Haven, Tuesday morning, will be held at the home of her family, in Ilion, N. Y., at 1 o'clock this afternoon. Interment will take place there. Miss ARMSTRONG'S body lay in the New Haven morgue until Tuesday night, when Frank Madeira, a brother of Miss Lucy Madeira, principal of the Madeira School for Girls, of which Miss ARMSTRONG had been secretary from five years, went to New Haven from New York, and identified it.
Mr. Madeira immediately notified Miss ARMSTRONG'S brother, Alexander Armstrong, at Albany, and the latter hastened to New Haven, and made arrangements for the shipment of the body to Ilion. On his arrival at New Haven, Mr. Armstrong was met with still further sad news. He discovered that his father, Fred W. Armstrong, with whom his sister had been spending a vacation at Kineo, Me., had likewise been a passenger upon the ill-fated train, and was in a New Haven hospital, suffering from serious injuries.

Miss ARMSTRONG, a Bryn Mawr graduate, had entered educational fields immediately upon leaving college, and, after spending two years at a girl's school in Cambridge, Mass., had come to Washington and associated herself with Miss Madeira. During her stay in this city she made a number of friends, to whom the news of her sudden death came as a severe shock.

While in New Haven, Mr. Madeira canvassed the hospitals and questioned railroad officials to ascertain whether any other Washington people had been killed or injured. Yesterday he telegraphed his sister that his search had convinced him that Miss ARMSTRONG was the only person from this city who had suffered in the collision.

The Washington Post, Washington, DC 3 Sep 1913