Notes:

Ethel Mae Banker Sisco was born the third of six children of James Nathaniel and Lila Ann (Hinds) Banker on May 23, 1900 in Hallstead, PA. Both twenty-seven years old at the time. The family rented a home at 213 Fourth Street in Hallstead, PA., within walking distance of the Hallstead train depot where Ethel's father worked as a brakeman for the D, L, & W Railroad.

The 1910 US Federal census shows ten year old Ethel still living at the Fourth Street address. The Banker family were some of the first settlers in the Hallstead area. The family farmstead and cemetery are located at the intersection of SR1022 and Hunzinger Road up DuBois Street, just up the hill from the Fourth Street home of James and Lila.

Like most of her generation, Ethel's education perhaps ended around the sixth grade. Not much is known about her teenage years.

While it is not known when or where she met Olin Sisco, it can be surmised that they either met each other after Olin's family relocated from Nicholson, PA to Hallstead sometime between 1910 and 1917 or, perhaps she began working at the Endicott Shoe Company where her brother was employed before she was seventeen and met Olin there. Seventeen year old Ethel and twenty year old Olin were married on September 1, 1917 at the parsonage of the Grace Baptist church by Rev. H. M. Shepson, a well known evangelist throughout the area. Ethel continued to work at EJ until she and Olin Sisco began their family in 1920.

One year after their wedding, Olin would be called to enlist in the US Army and sent to basic training in Georgia. While Ethel must have missed Olin during this period, his time in the army was shortened and he would never deploy as WWI came to an end five months into his enlistment.

On February 25, 1920, three years after their wedding and at 20 years old Ethel would experience joy as first child Dorotha was born. Life continued to get better and better and by 1923 they purchased a home at 6 Theron Street and in 1923 the twins, Leo and Leon were born.

Unfortunately that joy would begin to turn to sorrow, grief and misery as Leo, born with a spinal defect died nine months after his birth. As was customary in those days, the deceased would be mourned in the home and then taken by the funeral home to the grave site. Dorotha Sisco Thomas remembers sitting in the back seat of the funeral home's large car between her mother and father with Leo's casket sitting across their laps as they were driven the few short blocks to the Floral Park Cemetery in Johnson City, NY.

In 1925, the federal census shows that Olin, Ethel, Dorotha, and Leon lived at 6 Theron Street along with Lorena Banker and Ellsworth Banker, Ethel's sister and brother who were also working at the EJ sho factory at the time. The 1930 census shows that Olin, Ethel, Dorotha and Lillian continued to live at the 6 Theron Street address and that Lorena and Ellsworth had moved out.

By 1940, the family had moved to Hallstead where Ethel's tribulations continued in marriage. It is often said that when you marry, you marry the entire family. This unfortunately was the case for Ethel as her mother-in-law for some reason despised her. Grandson Terry Sisco remembers Ethel as a warm, caring and giving woman who was very devout in her faith in Christ. It is not known when her relationship with Mary Sisco deteriorated but she endured a difficult relationship with her mother-in-law who overtly expressed that she would do all in her power to break up Ethel's marriage to Olin if "it were the last thing I do before I die."

While Dorotha and Leon grew up as model children, Lillian, the Sisco's third child was more of a free spirit. She died at the young age of twenty-three of kidney failure adding to the emotional toll that Ethel had endured her entire married life. It was Ethel's faith in God that sustained her through these tribulations.

Ethel typically wore a "house dress" with an apron over it and black orthopedic high heel shoes. She loved baking. Her baked goods along with canning fruits and vegetables added to the finances of the family. She would take her goods to market in Johnson City, NY along with produce raised on the family farm.

She was a faithful member of the Hallstead Baptist church and was a very devout Christian who intensely loved her family. Her lifelong friend was Bessie Gathany, with whom she spent many hours sewing and conversing. Bessie, her husband Dan along with Olin and Ethel took trips from Hallstead to Indian Rocks Beach, Florida in the days before Interstate highways.

She was a very talented seamstress. Esther Sisco, Ethel's daughter-in-law worked for the Harvey's Chicken farm in the 1950's and would bring collect the empty chicken feed bags that were typically made of flannel. She would give these to Ethel who would make grandson Terry Sisco pajamas from the material. Ethel loved her grandchildren and enjoyed them spending weekends at her house and attending church with her. As a treat she would make "bread, butter and sugar sandwiches.

As a hobby she raised African violets.


Buried:
Floral Park Cemetary

Died:
Stroke and Diabetic complications

Ethel married Olin Reece Sisco 1 Sep 1917, Binghamton, Broome, New York, USA. Olin (son of Frances Luther Sisco and Mary Mercy Phillips) was born 26 Mar 1897, Nicholson, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, USA; died 10 Oct 1965, Binghamton, Broome, New York, USA; was buried , Johnson City, Broome, New York, USA. [Group Sheet]

1. Dorotha Mae Sisco was born 25 Feb 1920, Johnson City, Broome, New York, USA; died 2 Jan 2014, Thompsons Station, Williamson County, Tennessee, USA; was buried 9 Jan 2014, Binghamton, Broome County, New York, USA.
2. Lillian Maxine Sisco was born 28 Sep 1926, Johnson City, Broome, New York, USA; died 20 Feb 1949, Johnson City, Broome, New York, USA; was buried , Johnson City, Broome, New York, USA.
3. Leo Howard Sisco was born 9 Apr 1923, Johnson City, Broome, New York, USA; died 4 Jan 1924, Johnson City, Broome, New York, USA; was buried , Johnson City, Broome County, New York, United States of America.
4. Leon Arthur Sisco was born 9 Apr 1923, Wilson Memorial Hospital, Johnson City, Broome, NY; died 20 Oct 2000, St Petersburg, Pinellas County, Florida; was buried 25 Oct 2000, Johnson City, Broome, New York.

Notes:

James Banker Killed in Train Wreck
Sisco Family GenealogyTerry Sisco

Each year the Primitive Methodist Church of Johnson City, New York set aside a special Sunday in June to celebrate Childrens Day and the date selected in 1925 was Sunday, June 14. Ranked somewhere after Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving, Childrens Day was a special celebration to recognize and honor the children of the church. The childrens choir would sing. Memorized Bible verses would be recited by kids too young to understand the full impact of their message. Some of the older children even got to read something that they had written in Sunday school about their faith.

It was also a day for parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles to marvel at how much cuter, taller, smarter or prettier their child was compared to the others. The week leading up to this special day was spent memorizing lines and rehearsing parts.
There should be no doubt that there is something truly special about granddaughters, especially first granddaughters. On this particular Sunday morning, number Six Theron Street in Johnson City, New York was full of energy and excitement. First child, first grandchild and first niece, Dorotha Sisco was about to make her debut in the childrens program.

Like a favorite doll, Dorothas two aunts, Lillian and Lorena Banker spent an inordinate amount of time curling and fixing her hair, making certain that she would be the cutest girl in the five-year-old class. Ethel Sisco appreciated her two sisters help dressing Dorotha. She and husband Olin had their hands full getting two year old Leon dressed and ready for church.
Dorothas grandparents James and Lila Banker had spent the night as they wouldnt have missed this performance for the world. James, a conductor for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (D, L & W) railroad line was elated that his schedule worked out so that he could enjoy the festivities and family time together. That is, until sometime after breakfast.
With no phone of their own, the Sisco's relied on their next door neighbor who had a phone to relay messages. At approximately 8:45 a.m., the neighbor came over and advised James that there was an emergency call for him. He had left the neighbor's number as an emergency contact number for work. The caller advised him that he was needed immediately to fill in over the next few days for a fellow conductor who had fallen ill.
The eastbound passenger train was known as Extra 1104. It was called Extra because it was a non-scheduled special run of German-Americans on an excursion from Chicago, Illinois to Bremen, Germany.

Each year travel agent Leopold Neumann arranged this trip of mid-western Germans to visit the fatherland from which they or their ancestors had emigrated years earlier. The D, L & W train would take them to Hoboken, New Jersey where they would board transatlantic steamer, "Republic" awaiting to take them the remaining distance to Bremen. The designation of "1104" was given because this was the number permanently assigned to the massive steam engine.

Trailing behind Engine No. 1104 were two coaches and five Pullman sleeping cars, all of steel construction. All 182 passengers, mostly from Chicago were aboard and the porters were loading the final bags for the Monday, June 15, mid-morning departure. The Chicago travel agency had nailed large banners on the sides of the cars emblazoned with "See the Old Country Again."

Under the grey Chicago skies that threatened rain, one can imagine the care-free group of German-Americans leaning out of the windows waving good-bye as No. 1104 and its seven cars gradually strained and shuttered as it pulled away from the station.

Leaving Chicago, the excursion travelled westward through Buffalo, New York. The drizzle grew into a heavy rain by late-afternoon as the train entered the Binghamton, New York area. The bad weather was probably never noticed by the passengers now a few hours into the excitement of their adventure. Children were likely running through the aisles or exploring their little sleeping compartment on the Pullmans. Some of the adults were perhaps sitting around in the coach cars in animated discussion about finally returning to the old country. Others stared out the windows enjoying the panorama as the train swept along the scenic Susquehanna River, passing by the lush green farmlands and crossing one of the marvels of modern engineering, the historic Starucca Bridge in Lanesboro, Pennsylvania.

The rains subsided about twenty miles down the tracks from Binghamton in New Milford, Pennsylvania. Within forty-five minutes the train would be making a stop in Scranton for fuel and a fresh crew.

Two experienced railroad men took charge of the train at the Scranton station. Up front, Engineer Loomis was in charge assisted by a fireman whose job it was to shovel coal into the firebox of the engine, maintain the steam pressure of the boiler and to keep the cylinders on the drive wheels oiled while the train was underway. Conductor James Banker, now into his second day filling in for the ill co-worker was responsible for the seven cars, the D, L, & W employees, the cargo and most importantly, its passengers. He was assisted by a head brakeman along with a flagman by the name of Judge who was stationed in the rear of the train. There were also several porters on the Pullman sleeping cars.

This final portion of the trip would take them southeast from Scranton through Moscow, Gouldsboro, and Pocono Summit. It would then continue down through the Delaware Water Gap at East Stroudsburg crossing the Delaware River exiting Pennsylvania into New Jersey. From there it would head on an easterly route through Hackettstown, Morristown and on into Hoboken where the passengers would board their awaiting ships. The rains intensified as the train left Scranton at approximately 10:15 pm.

Hackettstown, New Jersey is nestled among the historic Revolutionary War farm towns and villages with names such as Great Meadows, Liberty and Washington. It marks the halfway point between the agrarian tranquillity of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania to its west and the modernity of New York City fifty-two miles to the east.

The same storm front that drenched Binghamton hours earlier stretched all the way east to the Atlantic Ocean. Hackettstown was hit with a violent thunderstorm the evening of Monday, June 15. A lick of lightning made a direct hit on the Williams and Hibler Lumberyard (now the site of Blue Ridge Lumber). The ensuing fire, fuelled by the stacks of lumber lit the dark night sky of Hackettstown like a flickering candle lights a darkened room. Most of the townsfolk worked unsuccessfully to quell the blaze that eventually burned the lumberyard to the ground. Yet, unbeknownst to anyone, the storm had also set the stage for another, more deadly disaster.

The Rockport Crossing is the point where the D, L, & W track crosses rural Hazen Road in Rockport, New Jersey. In 1925, the state completed the purchase of 492 acres for a pheasant farm where Hazen Road slopes steeply towards the tracks.

Joseph Snyders house sat about three and one-quarter miles from the Hackettstown train station not far from the Rockport Crossing. Having spent most of his evening watching the lumberyard blaze from his home, Joseph was surprised when he looked at his pocket watch and it read 2:23 a.m. On his way to retire for the evening he could see the headlamp of Extra 1104 approaching from a distance. As it got closer he noticed that the tender, the small car just behind the engine that carries the supply of coal seemed to be oddly derailed.

The recommended speed for trains through this section of track is seventy miles per hour. Due to the poor weather, Engineman Loomis was travelling at approximately fifty miles per hour when his engine No. 1104 began to derail from the track twisting out of control. There was no way for him to see or know that the torrential downpour had washed debris across the track at the Rockport Crossing. With the tracks covered with five to six inches of dirt and gravel there was nothing to keep the steel wheels of the front engine truck, the first set of wheels of the engine on the tracks. At 2:24 a.m. the engine ploughed through the crossing but the pony tender with its wheels off the track clutched the frogs of a switch derailing the engine and causing the coach cars to jump the tracks and begin a staccato bone jarring tap dance along the wooden ties of pine and oak.

The forward inertia twisted and tossed the steel frames of the cars as if they were mere toys. Loomis never had time to apply the brakes. At 2:25 am, on the morning of Tuesday, June 16, 1925, engine 1104 came to rest on its side. The first two cars, the coach cars filled with fifty people decoupled and came crashing across the steam engine.

The first car came to rest across the boiler of the engine while the second coach car came to rest across the rear of the boiler. The impact of the collision practically ripped all of the steam fittings and valves away from the boiler permitting the pressurized steam and hot water to spew upward like a geyser into the two passenger cars resting above. A New York Times article later appropriately dubbed the first coach car as the Death Car.

Joseph Snyder sounded the alarm by telephone and then, with his wife rushed to the aid of the victims. Lyman Gulick, another farmer rode half clad in his automobile to Hackettstown, two miles away and summoned physicians and ambulances from there and other towns.

With little rest from fighting the earlier fires at the Williams and Hibler Lumber Yard, the citizens and doctors of Hackettstown rushed to aid the victims of this horrific accident. Arriving to the hissing and whistling sounds of the pressurized steam escaping its boiler, No. 1104 appeared in the dark as a moaning, writhing, dying behemoth. They were aghast at what they found. The suffering was intense.

Using sheets and pillows appropriated from the Pullman cars, the citizen rescuers struggled to bring the slightest bit of the comfort to those scalded by the steam. One man jerked a roll of bills from his pocket and begged Joseph Snyder to kill him ending his misery. Only a few trainmen and passengers were killed instantly. One woman was decapitated. The others went through hours of agony before they succumbed to their injuries.

Those that could be transported were taken to the hospital in Easton, Pennsylvania twenty-five miles to the southwest of Hackettstown. Others were transported to hospitals in, Dover and Morristown as there was no hospital in Hackettstown. On June 17, police were forced to draw up lines around the Easton hospital as hundreds of grief stricken relatives caused a near riot in an effort to ascertain any information about their loved ones.

Grand-daughter Dorotha Sisco Thomas remembers hearing the story that James Banker was seen walking down the tracks with his conductors lantern aglow, perhaps in a state of shock from severe scalding shouting, My God, would someone please help me. James Nathaniel Banker died nine days later on June 25, 1925 at the age of fifty-two.

Mr. and Mrs. John Pfeiffer, an elderly couple from Hold Corss, Iowa, riding in the front of the first coach miraculously survived with only a few bruises. Other survivors told of a slightly scalded Chicago woman who limped moaning through the wreckage until she found her missing purse.

A total of fifty passengers died, some from the impact of the crash, most from being scalded by the inescapable steam. Of the five crew members, only Flagman Judge survived as he was positioned at the rear of the train.

An investigation into the accident by the W. P. Borland, Director of the Bureau of Safety for the Interstate Commerce Commissions found that it was just that...an accident. There was no blame to be placed, no fingers to be pointed as all had done their jobs appropriately. It was deemed an act of God.

Today, the Rockport Crossing near Hackettstown, New Jersey is peaceful and quiet. In the area of the pheasant farm on Hazen Road near the crossing there is a simple garden to mark the site of the crash that happened generations in the past. In the garden is a brass plaque memorializing the final stop of engine No. 1104 and honouring the souls that were lost that early Tuesday morning of June 16, 1925


Buried:
Rose Hill Cemetary

Died:
Train Wreck

Nathaniel married Lila Ann Hinds 1897. Lila (daughter of Albert Post Hinds and Lilly P Sweet) was born 20 Jul 1872, Montrose, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, USA; died 30 Oct 1950, Scranton, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania, USA; was buried , Hallstead, PA. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Lila had two or three strokes.


Buried:
Rosehill Cemetary

James married Ann E Banker 1865. Ann was born 1839, Pennsylvania, USA; died 1902; was buried , Hallstead, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, USA. [Group Sheet]

Albert married Lilly P Sweet 1863. Lilly was born Oct 1846, New York; died Bef 1910. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Buried:
Family Homestead Cemetery

Nathaniel married Elizabeth Belcher 18 Aug 1830, Pennsylvania, United States. Elizabeth was born 1817, Harford, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, USA; died Aft 1880; was buried , Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, USA. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Died:
Age: 76

William married Betsey Ann Hinds. Betsey was born 30 Jan 1821, Pennsylvania; was buried , Montrose, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, USA. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Buried:
Montrose Cemetery