KIRBY

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 04:13:09 :

The Marin Journal
Thursday, February 24, 1921
Page 1

Train Kills Woman On N.W.P. Trestle

Caught was she was crossing a trestle within a few yards from her home at Lansdale at 7 o’clock last night, Mrs. Martha Kirby was struck by the Manor electric train and injured so severely that she died shortly afterwards at the Cottage Hospital here.

The body was removed to the morgue by Coroner J. Ray Keaton and positive identification was made later by Peter Autzen of Yolanda, where Mrs. Kirby and her son, Charles W. Kirby, had lived for three years. Kirby called at the morgue last night upon his return from San Francisco where he is employed as an accountant. He was almost inconsolable when informed of the tragedy.

Mrs. Kirby and her son had purchased a home in Lansdale and finished moving into the house Wednesday morning. She was on her way to the Autzen store to buy supplies for the first meal in the new home when the accident happened. Dr. Kuser is of the opinion that the woman was rendered unconscious immediately. She was thrown into the creekbed 30 feet below the trestle. She passed away as she was being carried into the hospital.

According to the statement of persons who visited the scene of the accident, the fatality occurred on a curve, so that the woman was obscured by the darkness until the train was close upon her.

Mrs. Kirby was a widow, and is survived by four children, sons, all of whom but Charles W. Kirby, live in other cities.