Obituaries (August 25)

Mrs. Myrtie Springsteen passed away very suddenly Thursday night at her home.  She had just returned from a visit at the home of her son, Harry Springsteen and family at Sampson.  The funeral was held in the church Sunday and was filled with friends and relatives.  The floral tributes were beautiful and numerous and expressed the high esteem in which she was held in the community.  Rev. Sabin officiated and she was laid at rest in the Harpursville cemetery [Broom Co., NY] [Afton Enterprise, July 19, 1945]

 

Stanley Fuller, 26, of Elk Creek, between Delhi and East Meredith [Delaware Co., NY], was fatally injured Tuesday evening, July 3, when a grindstone broke to pieces under centrifugal force, and several of the flying pieces struck Fuller.  The young farmer had been preparing to grind mowing machine knives and rigged a grindstone to a motor and set it spinning.  the circular stone was subjected to a spinning speed much too fast and from centrifugal force it broke into many flying pieces, some of which struck Mr. Fuller.  He suffered a deep gash in the neck below the left ear and a fracture at the base of the skull, as well as a puncture of the right thigh and multiple minor wounds of arms and legs.  [Afton Enterprise, July 19, 1945]

Funeral services for Stanley Vernon Fuller, a Delaware County farmer of Elk Creek Valley, who died in Fox Memorial Hospital from injuries received in an accident on his farm, were held this afternoon at the Bookhout Funeral home. the Rev. John F. Sullivan of Delhi officiated.  Burial was in East Meredith Cemetery.  Mr Fuller was injured Tuesday night when a grindstone rigged to a motor, disintegrated through centrifugal force.  Pieces struck him with such force that it caused a fracture at the base of the skull and other injuries.  Mr. Fuller was born in New York City Oct. 17, 1919, the son of Vernon L. Fuller, now of Oneonta, and Bessie B. (Schrum) Fuller, who died in 1929.  He was married on his birthday in 1941 to Dora Anna Kathmann in Oneonta.  Most of his life he had resided in the vicinity of East Meredith.  Besides his wife and father he is survived by a daughter, Grace; two sons, Stanley Jr. and David, a brother, Donald B. Fuller, U.S.M.C.; a sister, Ida Fuller, New York City, and an uncle, Benton Fuller of Meredith.  [Binghamton Press, July 7, 1945]

 

James Edwin Knox passed away at his home, 91 Riverside, Sidney [Delaware Co., NY], Wednesday morning July 18th, after many years of illness.  Funeral services were held at the Tabor Funeral Home, Afton, Friday at 3:00 p.m. Rev. Clifford E. Webb Pastor of the Afton and Nineveh Presbyterian Churches officiated, assisted by Rev. A.P. Reining, pastor of the F.M. Church of Windsor, Burial was in the Nineveh Cemetery [Broome Co., NY].  Charles Ruland, Ray Hurd, Lee Pixley, and Frank Decker acted as bearers.  James E. Knox was born in Jersey City, New Jersey April 6, 1870, the son of William E. and Elizabeth B. (Niblett) Knox.  In 1878 the family moved to Center Village, Broome Co., N.Y. and six years later changed their residence to Harpursville [Broome Co., NY].  Mr. Knox was married to Clarissa A. Bristol, June 11, 1902.  He assisted his father in the mercantile business of Harpursville and remained in that business until 1919.  He graduated from the New Jersey College of Chiropractic in 1916 and practiced his profession in Harpursville and later in Sidney.  He purchased the home at Riverside Sidney in 1924, where he has since resided.  Mr. Knox united with the Presbyterian Church in Nineveh on July 3, 1886.  He was elected Ruling Elder of that Church Sept. 30, 1893.  He was also a charter member of the Epworth League of Harpursville.  Mr. Knox leaves a wife, Clarissa A., a son Everett E., and sister, Mrs. George F. Decker of Afton.  [Afton Enterprise, July 25, 1945]

 

Colchester [Delaware Co., NY]:  Trooper Kenneth B. Knapp, 36, veteran of Troop C, Sidney [Delaware Co., NY] and well known to many people of the community, was killed instantly Tuesday while investigating a domestic quarrel.  As Capt. H.B. Gay, commander of Troop C and Inspector Carl Lawson, BCI, of the same troop pieced the case together, Ernest Mills, who later committed suicide, was a man described as an "antagonistic nature," barred his estranged wife, Dorothy, when she appeared at the home to gather up some of her personal belongings and household goods.  She told authorities she had left him three weeks ago.  Mrs. Mills called Trooper Knapp in an effort to obtain her goods.  When he arrived at the residence, the door was locked, so Knapp moved around the house.  He peered through a window and saw Mills stretched on the floor.  In the belief that Mills had committed suicide, Knapp accompanied by Mrs. Mills, hastened to the rear of the residence and opened the back door and walked through to the dining room. As Knapp entered the doorway to the living room, a blast hit him squarely in the eye and he slumped to the floor.  While Mrs. Mills was summoning assistance, Mills brushed past her and ran next door to the home of his sister.  He barricaded himself there.  While Captain Gay and Inspector Lawson, together with a posse of troopers, were converging on the scene, Mills apparently sat down at a table and wrote some notes, which the captain said contained information as to what he intended to do.  Despite coaxing on the part of the law officers to give himself up, Mills remained obdurate.  Finally, as they prepared to break in, he bade his son Jack, 10, goodbye and shot himself in the head.  Captain Gay said Trooper Knapp had been a member of Troop C sixteen years.  Trooper Knapp was married and leaves besides his wife, four children all living in Greene [Chenango Co., NY]  [Afton Enterprise, July 19, 1945]

Edna Adelaide Luther Warren, widow of the late Wayne W. Warren died July 4th at the home of her son in Harpursville, N.Y. [Broome Co., NY], at the age of 70 years.  She is survived by one son John B. Warren of Harpursville and two grandchildren, Edna and William Warren of Harpursville, one brother, J.H. Logan Luther of Waverly, N.Y. and three sisters, Mrs. Eleanor Smithkors of Syracuse, N.Y., Mrs. Harry Hall of Pasadena, Calif. and Mrs. Henry Lester of Elmwood, Conn., and several nephews and nieces.  Mrs. Warren was born in Cedar Township, Cherokee, Cherokee Co., Iowa, April 16, 1875 the daughter of Burton and Mary Burdick Luther. She was a member of the Afton Baptist church, a Past President of the H. Ray Humphrey Post, Auxiliary Veterans of Foreign Wars, of Union, N.Y. and a member of the Vandenberg Relief Corps of Afton.  Mrs. Warren had served as County Republican Committee woman of Broome County for many years and had an active part in the civic affairs of her home village of Harpursville.  Funeral services will be held Saturday with a prayer service at the home, followed by services at the Nineveh Presbyterian Church at 2:30 P.M.  Rev. Alan Douglas of Afton will officiate assisted by Rev. C.E. Webb.  Friends may call at the Warren home Friday afternoon.  [Afton Enterprise, July 5, 1945]

With deep personal regret we learned early July 4th that one of our oldest friends and also the Harpursville correspondent for the past several years, had passed away.  Mrs. Edna Warren was one of those rare individuals, who seemed to be tireless in her varied activities.  Distinguished in Broome County both in Endicott and Harpursville, she was a leader in county patriotic religious and political circles for a number of years and had held several high offices.  Her newsy column, written each week at her home, will be greatly missed.  She leaves a host of friends throughout the Southern Tier who mourn her loss.  [Afton Enterprise, July 5, 1945]