Surname Index
Updated: 17 Jan 2012

Daily Oklahoman, The 
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 
September 4, 1930

Mother, Son, Friend Killed as Motor Train Drags Auto
Double Investigation Opens: Official Claims engineer Sounded Whistle

Three persons, an Oklahoma City mother, her son, and his playmate were sacrificed to another "blind" railroad grade crossing late Wednesday afternoon when the car in which the trio was riding was demolished by a Rock Island motor car train south of East Twenty-third street on the east side of Nicoma Park.

The dead are: 
  Mrs. Warren T. Whitman, 46 years old, 2138 North Jordan Avenue.
  Fred Whitman, 13 years old, her son.
  James Henry Basham, 11 years old, 1717 East Twenty-first street son of Mr. and Mrs. F. W. Basham

Two investigations into the fatal crash were begun before the oil had dripped from the crankcase of the death car.

One was launched by county officers under the direction of George Kerr, chief deputy sheriff, who visited the scene soon after the accident with Carl Traub, peace justice and acting corner. The other investigation was called by W. C. Meyers, El Reno, division general manager of the Rock Island railroad. Members of the claim department were conducting the probe.

Myers said his information about the accident was incomplete except that Charles Gould, engineer, blew the motor car's whistle as the whistling post and continued to blow it until after the automobile was struck.

After the accident the train continued on its eastward journey, the victims being removed to Choctaw after which they were returned to the Street and Draper funeral home, where all are being held pending funeral arrangements. Traub said he would return a verdict of accidental death.   The death car, used by Fred Whitman to deliver newspapers on his route in Nicoma Park and apparently driven by his mother while his playmate helped him throw papers was going south.

The crossing is blind from both the railroad tracks and the roadway until one is within a few yards of the point of intersection. Two similar crossings are maintained in the Nicoma Park land.  The car in which the three were riding was struck in the center by the motor car and carried down the center of the track approximately 130 yards before the auto fell off the tracks and rolled into a narrow gully. All three victims were carried with the machine and were crushed to death as it fell. Jack Robertson, living southeast of Nicoma Park, had just stopped on a hill about a quarter of a mile away when the accident happened. It appeared he said, the driver of the death car was on the track, when she attempted to swerve left down the track, but the train was upon her almost before she could turn her wheels. The train did not appear to be traveling at an excessive rate of speed, Robertson said.

The mother and boy are survived by the father and husband, W. T. Whitman, a cabinet maker, Mr. and Mrs. H. C. Wilmoth, 2136 North Jordan ave., Mr. and Mrs. Ghayn Ray, Sapulpa, an Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Yount, East Fourteenth Street.

The desire of young Fred Whitman to become well educated and make name for himself lay buried in the small pile of wreckage near Nicoma Park Wednesday night while printed slips of paper which he had used as stepping stones toward his ambition fluttered amid the blackjacks along the Rock Island right of way.

Sources:  good faith fair use of sources stated above

Compiled, transcribed and submitted by Marti Graham, Oklahoma County, OKGenWeb Coordinator, January 2012. Information posted for educational purposes for viewers and researchers. The contributor is not related to nor researching any of the above.

I believe in random acts of kindness and I believe in sharing genealogy. If you have copies of photos, obituaries, wills, biographies, or stories relating to any of these families or other Oklahoma County families, would you consider sending them my way for publication at this site?

I always welcome comments and corrections.