My Trails into the Past

I reported on some newspaper articles that described the awarding of $5000 to Fred O. Banks due to the death of his wife when his automobile collided with the Empire Electric Company's truck driven by Joe Gorrell. I inquired with both the civil court clerk and the court archives office. I heard from the archives first, who found loose paper packets about the trial, but they were in delicate condition. The volunteer tried to make some scans for me, but the images are scattered and I have not yet figured out the order of things. Weeks later, I heard from the clerk of the court, who sent a pdf file from pages of the minute book about the court case. Unfortunately, he/she did not record a complete citation. Here, I can determine more about what happened. The trial was held in Jasper County Circuit Court, Division 1 starting on October 18, 1926. This was case no. 34005, Fred O. Banks vs. Empire District Electric Co. and Joe Gorrell. The judge was S.W. Bates. Mr. Banks' attorn...

This is my second year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow . I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past . I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. Sometimes the way we find out that there was a court case is from an article in the newspaper. In the Joplin News Herald on 3 September 1926 was an article about Fred O. Banks of Carthage, Missouri filing a suit against the Empire District Electric Company and Joe Gorrell, asking for $10,000 damages for the death of his wife in an automobile accident. [1] Surely there was more information about the accident earlier in the newspaper. Sure enough, in the 19 August 1926 issue of the Joplin Globe newspaper, a longer article about the accident was published. [2] Joe Gorrell, who was the driver of a service truck for the electric company, refused to testify at an inquest. So the jury returned an open verd...