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The people of New Brighton paid their last sad respects to the memory of George W. Hartman, the First Ward Fireman who met death at the Sherwood Brothers Pottery fire, early Tuesday morning, when the funeral services were held yesterday afternoon at the family home, Sixth Avenue and Thirteenth Street. Over a thousand people were in attendance at the services which were impressive and sad in the extreme. The several organizations of which Mr. Hartman had been an honored member, attended the services in a body. The members of the New Brighton Fire Dept., assembled at the City Building, with Hose Company No. 1, to which the deceased belonged, in the lead, and followed by the members of Companies Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 in charge of Chief Dan T. Cooper, marched down Sixth Avenue, to the stricken home. With the home department were Chief Frank Connery of New Castle; S.G. Dumiller of the Beaver Dept.; Chief Charles Volhardt and Freedom firemen; Chief Charles Medley and Beaver Falls fireman; Chief James Brown and Bridgewater firemen; J.D. Cole and Rochester firemen. The members of New Brighton council and borough officials marched with the firemen, who numbered over 150 men.
The men of Iron Molders Union, of the Royal Arcanum and New Brighton Tent, No. 190, K.O.T.M., marched to the house, as did also Social Lodge No. 351 K of P.; at Castle Hall, before the Knights left for the house, Furness Walker, one of the deceased's warmest friends, delivered a touching eulogy.
At the house the rooms were crowded with friends and hundreds stood on the street outside. Rev. F.W. Kohler, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, delivered the funeral address, which was full of kind words relative to the life of the departed and full of sympathy for the sorrowing family and friends. A quartette from the church choir, consisting of Miss Blanche Schwartz, Mrs. W.S. Morrison, Charles Bedison and Jesse Martsolf, with Miss Elizabeth Nevergold at the piano, sang several selections. The house was a bower of beautiful floral offerings, among them a broken column of white carnations and pink roses, surrounded by a dove, from the New Brighton Fire Dept., Maltese crosses from the Beaver Falls and Rochester Depts., white roses from the New Brighton Council; and other beautiful offerings from the Iron Molders Union and public schools and other offerings from societies and friends. After the service at the house the flowers were taken in charge by a committee consisting of Walter Lewis, Horace H. Funkhouser, Jesse Lewis and Alex Riddell of No. 1 Company, and Lester R. Jackson and Louis Boettner of No. 2 Company, who placed them in the No. 1 hose wagon in which they were conveyed to Grove Cemetery.
An opportunity was given all to view the remains of Mr. Hartman. The members of the fire departments, the union and the lodges passed through the house from Sixth Avenue and left by the Thirteenth Street entrance, marching to Sixth Avenue, where they assembled back of the funeral car and marched to the cemetery. As they left the house the fire bell on the city building tolled until the grave site was reached. At the grave the Knights of Pythias held their ritual service.
The pallbearers were William Funkhouser of the Fire Department; T.S. Calhoun of the Royal Arcanum; Ralph Allender of the Iron Molder's Union; William Stanley of the K.O.T.M., and Ed Carey and Frank F. Harlan of the Knights of Pythias.
The Beaver Valley News - Issue of April 16, 1909
Father - George W. Hartman - Born Dec. 30,1867 in Etna, Penna., (now a suburb of Pittsburgh). Moved to New Brighton when quite young. Married March 30, 1892 in the parsonage of the First Methodist Church, New Brighton, Rev. J. B. Risk, officiating. Witnesses were Katherine Ball and Fred Hartman. They went immediately to their newly purchased home at 1239 - Sixth Avenue (which was our family home until Mamma sold it in 1928.) At the time of his marriage he was working in the grocery store of James D. Wallis. Later he went to the Standard Sanitary Works where he worked as a molder until the time of his death April 13, 1909. During the summer school vacation I can remember carrying a hot lunch to him in a wicker lunch basket. Either Herbert or Harold would go with me and we would enter the plant from Blockhouse Run and Thirteenth Street and make our way between tubs and overhead cranes, etc. I think now how dangerous it was but no one thought about that back in 1907-1908 or early 1909. Today I am sure children would be barred from a plant such as this was. He was a faithful attendant and member of Trinity Lutheran Church; also a member of the Knights of Pythias, Iron Molders Union, Volunteer Fireman, etc. On the Monday evening (April 12th) preceding his death he had attended a meeting of the Iron Molder's Union, of which he was an officer. On retiring he made sure the fire alarm which was at the head of his bed was turned on. (Mamma had turned it off as she felt he needed his rest). At 1:30 A.M. the bell sounded and with other members of his Company he answered the call to the Sherwood Brothers Pottery, which was located outside the borough line, on Block House Run. About an hour after leaving the house he was caught underneath a kiln and heavy girders which had collapsed. Some of our neighbors heard the crash of the failing walls but Mamma did not and did not know of the terrible accident until he was brought home in the horse drawn cart of the First Ward Company (his company). He was placed on a chair which was in the hall of our home and carried to his bedroom on the second floor, on the chair. Later, after Dr. Wm. Beitsch (his cousin) and Dr. Painter examined him he was taken to the hospital (Beaver Valley General) in a horse drawn ambulance. For a covering someone took his overcoat which was hanging on the coat rack in the hall. In his overcoat pocket was $150.00 which he had brought home from the meeting the previous night and which he expected to bank after work on Tuesday. When the overcoat was returned the money was missing - no one knew anything about it. He died about five o'clock in the morning. I can remember Mamma was getting ready to go to the Hospital when someone came to tell us he had died. He was taken to the funeral parlors of Nathan Couch and brought to the house about four o'clock. I remember our teachers - Cliff's from High School and mine from Fifth grade were in the living room talking with us when they told them the body was being brought in. On the afternoon of the funeral I can remember looking out of the bedroom window fronting on Sixth Avenue and seeing the crowd that extended from Sixth Avenue to Thirteenth Street. The fire truck and hearse and all the carriages were horse drawn at that time. We went along Sixth Avenue and up Ninth Street to Grove Avenue and the fire bell tolled from the time we left the house. This is the bell that was in the City Bldg. and is now mounted in Grove Cemetery as a memoral to the deceased firemen.
Mother - Sarah Alice Ball - Born May 12, 1868 in Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, England. At the time of her marriage she was working in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Merrick on Lower Third Avenue, New Brighton. She had been with them for seven years. Previously she had worked at Wooster, Ohio in the Cook home and with the older Dr. Boal in Baden. The records show she was baptized when less than a month old in St. Thomas's Church of England, Kidsgrove, very near to the home in which she was born. Her family came to America in 1869 having a slow voyage of several months. Mother was told that she was a very small baby and also that she was carried on a pillow over the famed London Bridge. Her Mother died when she was six years old and the family was raised by the older sister Annie until their Father (Isaac Ball) married Miss Addie Caler in 1876. After the Father died in 1881 the children left the stepmother and lived together, in East Palestine, Ohio, and enjoyed a much happier home life. Due to financial circumstances all were forced to go to work at an early age. Later Annie married Joseph Iredale and moved to Rock Springs, Wyoming to make her home. She had been a dressmaker and took her sewing machine with her. It was the first sewing machine to be brought into Rock Springs. She made one visit to East Palestine, bringing her small son Cliff (a family name) with her. After she return to Rock Springs she died when her second son was born; the baby's death followed in a day or two. Her husband Joseph visited the family later and brought Mamma and Aunt Kate gifts of jewelry. The friendship ring I wear and the amethyst ring and brooch I have were given to Mamma by him.
We were one of the many families in town who owned a bobsled! It was a long affai rand had to be kept crossways in the kitchen at night so no one would steal it. I can see Mamma stepping back and forth over that heavy board every winter for several years. The sled was made by Cliff and we would board it at the top of the hospital hill and go all the way down Penn Avenue to Run Bottom, beyond 16th Street. Another of Cliff's projects was the making of a full sized canoe. Since it was such a big job it had to be done in the large bedroom of our home. Mamma helped him stretch the canvas on the frame. When he shot a muskrat at the old Keg Shop she made the hide into a cap for him.
Our dining room was the gathering place for the boys in the neighborhood who played with Herbert and Harold. As they became sleepy they would lie down on the dining room floor until their mothers would come by on their way home from lodge meetings, movies, etc., to pick them up. These included Rolla and Wayne Funkhouser, Harvey Lockhart and Les Calder all about eight to eleven years old. Buzz should remember this quite well.