Notes:

Leon Arthur Sisco was the second child born to Olin Reece Sisco and Ethel Mae (Banker) Sisco on Monday, April 9, 1923 at the Wilson Memorial hospital in Johnson City, NY. Leon was a twin to Leo Howard, who was born with a spinal defect that took his life at nine months of age. At the time of Leons birth, father Olin was twenty-six and mother Ethel was twenty-three.

Leon spent his formative years growing up at 6 Theron Street, Johnson City, New York. He attended elementary school in Johnson City.

His grandparents owned a small family farm located on Bogart Street, Hallstead, PA and as the country was at the end of the Great Depression, they were having difficulty maintaining the farm financially. So, in early 1935, Leon´s father Olin made the decision to move the family from Johnson City to the Hallstead farmstead to assist. Leon's parents waited until June when school was out for the summer before making the move.

His sister Dorotha Sisco Thomas, relates a couple of stories that she remembers. In Hallstead, Leon and his grandfather Luther Sisco tended to chores on the family farm while Olin Sisco sold Prudential Insurance during the day. Olin never had more than three or four cows at a time. Leon and his grandfather had completed milking the cows and they had put the milk into the separator located in the basement of the home. At one point Leon did something that didn't suit his grandfather and Luther kicked Leon down the cellar steps with a pail of milk. Olin scolded his father for disciplining Leon saying that if there was any disciplining to do of his son that he would be the one to do it.

Soon after moving to Hallstead, Pa, Leon got a dog and named him King. King would follow Leon everywhere he went. Leon told his mother that if he were ever sick and not able to do chores, just follow King because he knew where to go. The milk man that drove the delivery truck would intentionally get King to chase him. One day the driver deliberately ran over King. Leon found his best friend dead. Dorotha Sisco Thomas remembers Leon leaning against the kitchen counter crying saying that "My King is gone." He was very distraught at losing his best friend.

While attending Hallstead High School, Leon met and fell in love with one of his classmates, Esther Louise Bailer. After school he would walk her from the school, located on Franklin Avenue, near the First Baptist Church to the DuBois farm on Harmony Road in Hallstead, Pennsylvania where her parents were the caretakers and the family lived.

On December 7, 1941, Leon was milking the cows in the family barn. While milking, he had the Emerson box radio tuned to a music station when the news reports of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor were announced. After graduating from high school, Leon felt compelled to join the cause and on December 12, 1942 enlisted in the United States Navy. The day that he left from the Binghamton, NY train station bound for basic training in Albany, NY, he had left his dirty clothes on the bathroom floor having just taken a bath. Upon seeing his clothes his mother broke down and cried.

While in the Navy, Leon was the signalman on supply ships and held the ratings of AS, Signalman Third Class (SM3c), Signalman Second Class (S2c), and Signalman First Class (S1c). He attended service schools at the US Naval Training Center in both Newport, RI and Noroton Heights, CT, SERVsch in Newport, RI, USN ACG Brooklyn, NY, USN ACG Treasure Island, San Francisco, CA and served on the ships USS Yucca and USS Thorn. He was honorably discharged in December 1945. Most of his travels were throughout South America and the South Pacific.

When on leave, Esther would meet Leon in New York City. It was while on leave that on July 27, 1943, he and Esther were married at the First Baptist Church, Hallstead, Pennsylvania by Reverend Joseph B. Harrison. Leons son Terry Sisco has a notebook that contains the love letters that they exchanged throughout the war.

After the war, they both worked in the Hershey Chocolate factory in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Leon had heard during the war that working for a utility provided consistent, secure work at good pay so he applied at the New York State Electric & Gas Company in Westover, New York. He started in 1946 as a laborer at the Goudy Station in Johnson City, New York, working on the coal piles moving the coal to the coal burning turbines. He advanced to pump operator in 1950, to turbine operator in 1951, to switchboard operator in 1955 and to unit boiler operator in 1968. He worked his way up through the ranks eventually becoming the foreman of the Goudy steam plant.

Leon worked three jobs to support his family while the children were young. In addition to the electric company he also worked for the Pepsi-Cola company delivering soft drinks and then in evenings he would collect money that people owed for magazine subscriptions. Even though he worked long hours, he always spent time with the family on special outings such as visiting the Ross Park Zoo or weekends at the Chidesters cottage in Pennsylvania.

On November 4, 1955, Leon and Esther signed a mortgage of $12,250 to purchase and build a home at 806 Douglas Drive, in the new and expanding suburbs of Endwell, New York. Both Leon and Esther were very active at the Berean Baptist Church in Endwell, New York. Leon helped to build the current structure on Farm-To-Market Road across from the Maine-Endwell High School. They enjoyed traveling and camping with other families of the church spending summers at the Chenango Valley State Park and Sherkston Shores in Canada.

They purchased a mobile home at the Colony Park in St. Petersburg, Florida after retirement where they would spend the winter months near their son, Terry Sisco who lives in Tampa, FL. During summers, they spent time at Lake Timberline in St. Joseph, Pennsylvania where they permanently park their camper. In their retirement, Leon and Esther enjoyed traveling the country.

In the late 1990's it was discovered that Leon had hepatitis C. Through the spring of 2000, Leon grew progressively weaker. He began kidney dialysis as his kidneys had begun to shut down. He wanted to get back to his home in Florida before the cold weather set in. It was only a short time after arriving in St Petersburg that on October 20, 2000 he passed away at 9:40 am with his entire family at his side.


Buried:
Lot 155 Section K Floral Park Cemetary Johnson City NY

Leon married Esther Louise Bailer 27 Jul 1943, Hallstead, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. Esther (daughter of Charles Bailer and Dora Maude Hobart) was born 2 May 1923, Otisco, Onondaga, New York, United States; died 7 May 2002, Johnson City, Broome, New York, United States; was buried May 2002, Johnson City, NY. [Group Sheet]

1. Terry Leon Sisco
2. Yvonne Esther Sisco
3. Sandra Marlene Sisco

Notes:

Olin Reece Sisco was born on Friday, March 26, 1897 in Nicholson Township, Pennsylvania to Frances "Luther" and "Mary" Mercy (Phillips) Sisco. By April 15, 1910, at the age of thirteen Olin and his family were living in Factoryville, Pennsylvania on Capwell Hill Road. His father worked as a laborer and bridge builder for the Steam Railroad Company. By 1920, the US Federal census shows Luther and Mary living on Silk Mill Road Hallstead, PA. It is unknown when between 1910 and 1920 they relocated from Factoryville to Hallstead nor whether Olin had ever lived at the Silk Mill Road residence. The only indication that he may have lived in Hallstead is the family lore has it that Olin had to walked the family cow from Factoryville to Hallstead a distance of about thirty-one miles.

Sometime around 1915, Olin must have heard about job availability at the Endicott-Johnson Shoe Company (aka EJ) and began working at one of the Johnson City, NY factories. There is a photo of Olin working at EJ as a teenager with Ellsworth Banker, Olin's future brother-in-law who was also from Hallstead. It is not known how or where Olin Reece Sisco and Ethel Mae Banker met. It may have been in Hallstead which is where Ethel lived or at the Endicott Johnson Shoe Company where they both worked. They were married on September 1, 1917 in Binghamton, NY at the parsonage of the Grace Baptist church. Ethel continued to work for the Endicott- Johnson Shoe Company until she and Olin began their family.

On June 5, 1918, after one short year of marriage, Olin registered for the World War I draft as required by law and joined the US Army. His draft registration card indicates that he and Ethel lived at 28 Carhart Street in Johnson City, NY. It was there that they became friends with Eunice and Tom Watkins who lived in the apartment above them. They always joked that they could hear each others conversations through the bathroom walls. Eunice and Tom must have been good friends and neighbors taking care of Ethel while Olin went off to basic training. Olin never deployed as the war came to an end on November 11, 1918 now forever known as "Armistice Day."

At some point between 1918 and 1920, Olin and Ethel moved a few short blocks over to 90 Endicott Road in the Village of Johnson City, Town of Union, NY. It was while living there that on February 25, 1920 that first daughter Dorotha Sisco Thomas was born. Three years later, Ethel delivered twins Leon Arthur and Leo Howard. Leo was born with a spinal defect. In a photo taken of the two infants, it was necessary to wire Leo's neck and head upright as he was unable to do so on his own. Leo died nine months after he was born which must have had an emotional toll on both Olin and Ethel. Dorotha remembers that the undertaker had a big car and she sat between her mtoether and father with baby Leo's casket lying across their lap as they drove to the Floral Park Cemetery to bury the baby.

Sometime around 1923, perhaps just prior to the birth of Leo and Leon, Olin and Ethel had purchased a home at 6 Theron Street, Johnson City, New York, near what is currently the Riverside Drive traffic circle. The Endicott-Johnson Shoe Company provided employees with many benefits unknown in today's economy. Homes were built and sold at cost. Playgrounds, recreation halls for bowling, roller skating and dancing were provided. Hospitals and a medical plan which received world-wide attention and acclaim were established. An eight-hour day, one of the first in a large industry, and other benefits were inaugurated. They even provided each employee's child with their first shoes and each Christmas each year thereafter. The home on Theron Street was one of the Endicott Johnson built homes which Olin purchased for $3,000.00.

The period from 1930 to the mid-1940's was the period of Great Depression in the United States. It was during this time of struggling economy that Olin's parents, Luther and Mary Sisco, were having difficulty maintaining and affording the small farm that they had in Hallstead, PA from the income generated from the crops grown in their fields. To help keep the farm, Olin moved his family in with his parents. They waited until June to move the family allowing Dorotha and Leon to finish the school year in Johnson City.

Relations became strained between Olin and Ethel and Olins parents. Olin's mother despised Ethel and had threatened to do all that she could to sabotage the marriage. Olin gave his mother the choice of staying in their current home or moving into the former Severson's home. Mary chose the latter. Eventually, Olin purchased the family farm from his father and also purchased the home on the road above them from the Severson's for his parents to move into as shown in the 1940 federal census. He added more property to the farm from tax sales and in time had a large farm along Route 7 (Church Street) on the road that leads from Conklin, New York to Hallstead, Pennsylvania. The first piece of property that he purchased was along the main road and the creek. Olin's dream was for both he and his son Leon, to run the farm together. Olin must have rented the Theron Street residence out as Real Estate records show that he sold it on October 19th, 1942.

Ethel would bake and can fruits and vegetables from their gardens, taking them to Johnson City to sell for extra income. The basement of the farmhouse was simply dirt floors with stones collected from the fields and creek beds stacked on top of each to provide some insulation from the dirt walls. Wood shelves were built along the walls to provide storage for canned goods and vegetables for the winter. The cool, dark and damp basements provided excellent storage for winter vegetables. Leon and Dorotha had to do the house and farm chores while Olin sold insurance.

Olin was very stern and possessed a good business sense. In 1922, to provide the family with additional income Olin joined the Prudential Life Insurance Company and was a sales agent throughout the Binghamton, NY and Susquehanna, County, Pennsylvania area.

He was well respected throughout the area for his business acumen and insights. Many people turned to him for advice on business matters. He retired from Prudential after his first heart attack. Olin was fiercely protective of his family making certain that everyone was provided for. Between January 1918 and December 1920 the world suffered from a major flu epidemic called the "Spanish Flu" that killed between 50 to 100 million people one of which was Olin's twenty-one year old sister Clara Almira who died on March 1, 1920, She left behind a husband, George Lynn Jamison and two children, four year old Lloyd and two year old Luther.

After Clara's death, Lynn abandoned the boys. His WWII Draft registration in 1942 shows him living at 60 Hamilton Street New Haven, CT. Luther was sent to live his paternal grandparents believed to be in New Haven also and Lloyd was sent to live with his maternal grandparents Mary and Luther Sisco in Hallstead, PA. Luther ended up in a children's home in Connecticut. At that time a children's home was viewed almost like a juvenile detention center as opposed to an orphanage. Olin went to Connecticut and got him out. Unfortunately, Luther became a liability. He began to drink heavily. One day Lloyd got a call from the local Hallstead theater that Luther was there drunk and causing a disturbance. Lloyd went to get him but instead of taking him to Luther and Marys, he took him to Olins house. In the process of attempting to get him under control Olin slapped Luther in the house to get him to pay attention. Luther then attempted to punch Olin but missed putting his fist through the wall in the back room that served as Olin's office. Rather than repair the wall, Ethel simply hung a picture over the hole.

On another occasion, Luther went to the Swift's slaughter house that was located across SR 1033 behind what is now the American Legion building. Olin had warned him not to go there because some of the animals to be slaughtered had diseases. Luther brought back pig cholera to Olin's pigs that he was growing for market.

While living in Johnson City in their early married life, Olin and Ethel attended the First Baptist Church, Johnson City, New York. He served the church by teaching as a Sunday school class. The family later attended the Primitive Methodist Church in Johnson City. Sometime after he joined Prudential, he got away from the church until many years later after he suffered a heart attack. At that point he became active at the First Baptist Church, Hallstead PA eventually becoming a deacon. He would travel throughout the Southern Tier of New York and northeastern Pennsylvania to hear preachers. He purchased a portable reel to reel tape recorder to record their messages for greater insights and understanding of the scriptures.

When first grandchild Yvonne Bonnie Sisco came along Olin planted a stand of pine trees in her honor across Bogart Street, then a dirt road with two ruts. Olin was an outdoorsman and enjoyed hunting, fishing on the Susquehanna River and gardening. He had two hunting hounds named Skipper and Tony that he kept outdoors even in the coldest weather because he didn't want to "ruin" them. At times the snow would accumulate to 24-36 inches, so deep that a path needed to be dug from the house to their dog houses near the detached garage in order to feed them. Only on a few extremely cold nights did he allow them into the house for warmth.

Olin began smoking while working for Prudential. As a result of years if smoking he developed a "smoker's cough" better known as pulmonary edema. Olin suffered his first heart attack around 1960, eventually succumbing to atherosclerosis and severe myocardial fibrosis on October 10, 1965


Buried:
Lot 155 Section K Floral Park Cemetary Johnson City NY

Died:
Heart Attack

Olin married Ethel Mae Banker 1 Sep 1917, Binghamton, Broome, New York, USA. Ethel (daughter of Nathaniel James Banker and Lila Ann Hinds) was born 23 May 1900, Hallstead, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, USA; died 20 Feb 1972, Binghamton, Broome, New York, USA; was buried , Johnson City, Broome, New York, USA. [Group Sheet]

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

Notes:

Frances "Luther" Sisco was born to Stephen and Mary Ann Johnson Sisco on Tuesday, May 24, 1870 in Nicholson, Pennsylvania. The US Federal census of 1880 confirms that Luther was living at home with his parents in Nicholson. Luther married Mary Mercy Phillips who was nine years his junior on August 25, 1895 in Factoryville, PA. Dorotha (Sisco) Thomas, Luthers grand daughter relates the story that Luther worked for Mary's father who owed Luther money. Since he couldn't pay, he gave Mary to Luther in payment. By 1900, the Federal Census shows Luther as married to Mary Phillips and having two children, Olin and Clara.

Luther was a carpenter and bridge builder who worked on the Nicholson Railroad Bridge in Nicholson, Pennsylvania. His grandson, Leon Sisco recalls visiting him in a shanty village as he was building the bridge. In 1910, the US census shows the Sisco's living on Capwell Hill Road in Clinton, PA. In 1920, Luther and Mary, now in their forties were living alone on Silk Mill Road, Hallstead, PA. It is intereseting to note that their neighbors were the Elveys and Chidesters who would be their neighbors in other locations. In 1930, they were living on River Road with their thirteen year old grandson George "Lloyd" Jamison living with them as his mother Clara Sisco Jamison had died of the "Spanish Influenza" in 1920.

In 1940, Luther and Mary were living on Road 710 (now Bogart Avenue) in Hallstead in the "Severson's" house that was purchased for them by their son Olin. Olin, Ethel and their three children were living down the dirt road in the home that the Luther was originally living in. See Olin Sisco's narrative for the reasons for the living arrangements.

He possessed a bad temper. Luther died in Scranton, PA at the Moses Taylor Hospital.


Buried:
Rose Hill Cemetary

Died:
Age: 78

Frances married Mary Mercy Phillips 25 Aug 1895, Factoryville, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, USA. Mary (daughter of Charles Harris Salsbery Phillips and Almira M. Gardner) was born 1 Aug 1879, Nicholson, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, USA; died 20 Jan 1953, Hallstead, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, USA; was buried , Hallstead, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, USA. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Mary died at the home of Lloyd Jamison.

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

Notes:

Buried:
Stark Cemetary

Died:
COD: Arteriosclerosis

Stephen married Mary A. Johnson 25 Dec 1863. Mary was born 1 Apr 1839, Justus, Pennsylvania; died 4 Nov 1907, Harford, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, USA. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Died:
COD: Carcinoma of Liver

Charles married Almira M. Gardner 1864. Almira (daughter of Erasmus Darwin Gardner and Mercy Reynolds) was born 12 Sep 1842, Clinton Township, Factoryville, PA; died 27 Apr 1913, Nicholson, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, USA; was buried 30 Apr 1913, Evengreen-Woodlawn Cemetery, Wyoming County, PA. [Group Sheet]

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]