Heroic Act of Harold Snow - 1912

Heroic Act of Harold Snow

Utica Saturday Globe, May 1912

 

 

Harold W. Snow

 

Norwich [Chenango Co., NY]:  Norwich men, after all, are very much like other men, in spite of some alleged shortcomings.  Perhaps that sentence, now that it is in print, will need some explanation.  Here it is:

 

The terrible tale of the Titanic disaster was under discussion in a Norwich household the other day when a spinster sister remarked that if the male passengers aboard the steamer had been from Norwich fewer women and children would have been saved.  As if in refutation of this reflection upon the valor and self-sacrifice of the male members of our population comes this story from the west showing how a former Norwich boy rendered the stuff out of which heroes are made.

 

Harold W. Snow, son of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence M. Snow, of this village, now a resident of Chicago, stood on the station platform at Jackson, Miss., Friday when he saw an aged negress step onto the railroad tracks, apparently not realizing her danger from an approaching locomotive. Regardless of his own peril, Mr. Snow seized the woman and pushed her out of the pathway of the engine, but failed to get himself clear of the track.  His right leg was crushed so that it had to be amputated a few inches above the foot, his right arm was badly injured and there were severe cuts on his head.  Mr. Snow's wife and her father are with him in Jackson, having gone there, after the accident, from their home in Chicago.

 

It is seven years since Mr Snow left Norwich for the west, where he worked first for his uncle, Charles R. Westcott, of the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway.  About four years ago he entered the employ of the Illinois Central in the capacity of secretary to the assistant chief engineer of the road.  He is 27 years of age and was married in Clinton, Ill., about two years ago.  The news of the accident was an unpleasant shock to his many friends here, where, before his departure, he was a member of the George Rider Hook and Ladder company, a Mason and a member of the Ramblers.  His father, Clarence M. Snow, has been in the employ of the O.&W. as baggageman on the Delhi Flyer for about 30 years. About 23 years ago he lost his left wrist when he fell between the wheels of a freight car, at which time he was a brakeman.

 

The negro woman whose life Mr. Snow saved was about 75 years of age and was named Annie Merdith.  She was only slightly injured from a fall when pushed from the track.  Mr. Snow would undoubtedly have been killed except for the quick action of an engineer named Walsh, who was standing near and grabbed Snow, thus preventing him from being drawn under the engine, but could not release him until he had been dragged 30 or 40 feet.

 

Mr. Snow is now at the Baptist Hospital in Jackson and it is learned form a letter received by his parents Thursday morning that he is doing well and will probably recover.

 

[Glen Buell Collection, Guernsey Memorial Library, Norwich, NY]