Rippey Family - Charles Mahlon Rippey Newspaper article - page 1

Charles Rippey was the brother of Grace Hortense Rippey. As the article states he was electrocuted at work. His employer was the Southern Pacific [railroad] Company.

When my mother Lorna, had been declared "good" after performing certain tasks, she would be rewarded by receiving a stamp out of Charles stamp collection. We still have the stamp album.

The article reads:

CENSURES S.P. FOR DEATH OF CALL BOY

Coroners Jury Renders Verdict that Railroad Company Was Careless in Allowing Electric Wire to be Exposed.

The Sourthern Pacific company was censured mildly in a verdict returned yesterday at an inquest held at the Button undertaking establishment over the body of Charles Malone Rippey, 16 years old, who was electrocuted by coming in contact with a highly charged wire in the Southern Pacific shops Tuesday.
     According to witness, workmen in the shops discovered that a poorly insulated guy wire was highly charged with electricity and swinging in such a manner that it was dangerous. This matter was reported to the person in authority four hours before young Rippey, a call boy employed by the railroad company, ran against the wire.
     The verdict returned by the jury reads: "We the coroner's jury, find that Charles Malone Rippey came to his death by being electrocuted by coming in contact with a guy wire at the Southern Pacific shops, due probably to the absence of a cut-off in the guy wire and defective insultation, and we find also that the company did not use means to repair the defect when notified, allowing about four hours to elapse after said notification before the accident."
     The funeral arrangements will be made later. The dead lad lived with his parents at 1601 Pennsylvania avenue.

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