Obituaries (June 12)

Jessie L. Ireland

1882 - 1937

Mrs. Walter Ireland, of Oxford [Chenango Co., NY], who has been in ill health for the past two years, died Wednesday, June 2, following a serious operation at the Chenango Memorial Hospital.  Funeral services were held in Colwell's funeral parlors of this village, and burial was at West Bainbridge [Chenango Co., NY].  The Rev. Leon W. Bouton, of Oxford officiated.  Mrs. Ireland was born in Rockdale [Chenango Co., NY], June 27, 1882.  She was formerly a resident of this village.  Surviving are her husband, two sons, Kenneth and Stanley; one grandson, Donald Loomis; a brother, Walter Grannis of Norwich; one sister, Mrs. Henry LoVette, of Binghamton and her father, William McPherson, of this village.

David Wayne Tutty

1929 - 1937

David Wayne Tutty, eight-year-old son of Mrs. Frances Tutty of Yonkers and well known in Afton, died, following a short illness, at the Binghamton City Hospital, Sunday morning.  He is the grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Corbin, at whose home the little fellow had lived for some time.  Funeral services were held at the Baptist church, Afton, Wednesday afternoon with Rev. Frederick Nichols, officiating.  He is survived by his mother, Mrs. Frances Tutty of Yonkers; a sister, Marlyn and brother Donald; his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Louis Corbin and Mr. and Mrs. Charles Tutty of Salem, Mass.

 

Plane Crash
Capt. George Stead & Harry H. Linn & Dorothea Hanson
July 1937

Hopes for the recovery of Arthur W. Hanson, 34, of 2104 Riverview Drive, Endicott [Broome Co., NY], sole survivor of a fatal plane crash at Morris [Otsego Co., NY] Saturday that took the lives of his 30-year-old wife and two others were expressed at Cooperstown last night.  He was seriously burned.  The body of Dorothea [Hanson], wife of Mr. Hanson, an I.B.M. foreman, will be taken to Dexter, Me., for burial after funeral services at Morris this morning. She was trapped in the burning cabin ship with Capt. George S. Stead of Norwich, pilot, and Harry H. Linn, vice president of the American Tractor Co., of Morris and owner of the airplane, both of whom perished in the flames.  John Summers of Buffalo, inspector for the Department of Commerce, flew to the scene Sunday to open his investigation of the crackup.  He released no statements of opinions and is to report to government officials on his findings.

 

Lee Brant, an Oneonta salesman, was the eyewitness to the fatal crash.  He was driving his car past the private landing field of Mr. Linn shortly before 2 p.m.  "I saw the plane flying low," he said, "and thought it was stunting.  I stopped to watch it."  He saw the nose go up suddenly and the ship drop off into a hollow at one side of the field, as though the pilot were trying to pick up speed.  Then a wing hit the brushy hillside and the ship leaped crazily.  It crashed about 100 feet from where the wing struck.  ..... When it hit, it burst into flame and the Oneonta man saw Mr. Hansen thrown from the blazing wreck.  He ran to his side and found him staring dazedly at the wreckage.  By this time, others attracted by the crash ran to the scene.  Persons tried valiantly to rescue the three pinned in the heap, but were driven back by fierce heat. Firemen from Morris were unable to get their apparatus near the scene until a tractor was pressed into service to haul it through the brush.  After investigating with state police, Coroner Norman W. Getman of Oneonta declared the death of Mrs. Hansen, Captain Stead and Mr. Linn accidental.

 

Mrs. Hansen was the daughter of Charles Stone, superintendent of the Linn tractor plant.  With Captain Stead at the controls, Mr. and Mrs. Hansen were to fly to Syracuse with Mr. Linn, who was going on business.  He owned four airplanes and made all of his business trips in them.  His private field has one runway.  Funeral services for Mr. Linn will also be held today.  Captain Stead, who became Mr. Linn's priate pilot in 1935, will be buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery after severices at 10 o'clock Wednesday morning at Norwich.  Mr. Hansen, taken to Bassett Hospital as the ship still blazed, is foreman of the scale assembly department of the international Business Corporation at Endicott. 

 

State police from Sidney barracks, Cooperstown and Edmeston investigated.  Before the bodies could be removed from the wreckage, fireman had to cool it with their hoses. They were examined by the coroner and transferred to funeral homes at Morris and Norwich.  Captain Stead, World War pilot, was a member of the Caterpillar Club, an organization of fliers who have been forced to "bail out" for their lives.  His ship burst into flames over Mitchell Field when he was on active duty and he jumped with his parachute billowing behind.