S/O George W. (B-PA) & Lydia Viola (Barnett) Griffith (B-MD). He resided at 2909 Broad avenue and died in Freedom Twp., 1/4 mi. from Newry. Member of Broad Ave. Methodist Church. Lafferty & Tobias Home, Altoona.
Note: the following was sent from contributor 47494005: thank you.
George Arthur Griffith's tragic death was front page news in Altoona. He had gone on an overnight camping trip with a Earl Fleck, Charles Bookhamer and Charles Hanley to the farm of Harvey H. Smith, west of Newry on Poplar Run. On June 24th, they met another group of between ten and fifteen adolescent boys from Newry who were in the vicinity. They went swimming in Poplar Run and left their clothes in an implement shed on the Smith farm. When a storm broke, George ran back to the shed and he noticed a 22 in long pistol in a holster hanging on a plow handle. When he picked it up to examine it, it went off. The pistol belonged to Kenneth Berkey, son of Rev. C. E. Berkey, pastor of the Newry Lutheran Church. No one witnessed the shooting. Death was immediate. A doctor and and Deputy Coroner were summoned. The body was accompanied back to Altoona by George's older, married brother, Robert and his father, George. At the funeral on June 26th at the Broad Avenue Methodist Church, six boys and girls, including Earl Fleck who went camping at the Newry site, were pall bearers and the funeral was attended by large numbers of persons. Interment was at Fairview Cemetery but there is no stone marking George Arthur Griffith's grave. He would have been a high school freshman had he survived. He was active in his Broad Avenue Methodist Church youth group and the Boy Scouts. Outside of the news of his death, only one other public trace of his life exists: A December 22, 1922 report of a surprise eleventh birthday party for his sister, Marie, at the home of an aunt, Lydia Griffith Adams.
Note: the following was sent from contributor 47494005: thank you.
George Arthur Griffith's tragic death was front page news in Altoona. He had gone on an overnight camping trip with a Earl Fleck, Charles Bookhamer and Charles Hanley to the farm of Harvey H. Smith, west of Newry on Poplar Run. On June 24th, they met another group of between ten and fifteen adolescent boys from Newry who were in the vicinity. They went swimming in Poplar Run and left their clothes in an implement shed on the Smith farm. When a storm broke, George ran back to the shed and he noticed a 22 in long pistol in a holster hanging on a plow handle. When he picked it up to examine it, it went off. The pistol belonged to Kenneth Berkey, son of Rev. C. E. Berkey, pastor of the Newry Lutheran Church. No one witnessed the shooting. Death was immediate. A doctor and and Deputy Coroner were summoned. The body was accompanied back to Altoona by George's older, married brother, Robert and his father, George. At the funeral on June 26th at the Broad Avenue Methodist Church, six boys and girls, including Earl Fleck who went camping at the Newry site, were pall bearers and the funeral was attended by large numbers of persons. Interment was at Fairview Cemetery but there is no stone marking George Arthur Griffith's grave. He would have been a high school freshman had he survived. He was active in his Broad Avenue Methodist Church youth group and the Boy Scouts. Outside of the news of his death, only one other public trace of his life exists: A December 22, 1922 report of a surprise eleventh birthday party for his sister, Marie, at the home of an aunt, Lydia Griffith Adams.
S/O George W. (B-PA) & Lydia Viola (Barnett) Griffith (B-MD). He resided at 2909 Broad avenue and died in Freedom Twp., 1/4 mi. from Newry. Member of Broad Ave. Methodist Church. Lafferty & Tobias Home, Altoona.
Note: the following was sent from contributor 47494005: thank you.
George Arthur Griffith's tragic death was front page news in Altoona. He had gone on an overnight camping trip with a Earl Fleck, Charles Bookhamer and Charles Hanley to the farm of Harvey H. Smith, west of Newry on Poplar Run. On June 24th, they met another group of between ten and fifteen adolescent boys from Newry who were in the vicinity. They went swimming in Poplar Run and left their clothes in an implement shed on the Smith farm. When a storm broke, George ran back to the shed and he noticed a 22 in long pistol in a holster hanging on a plow handle. When he picked it up to examine it, it went off. The pistol belonged to Kenneth Berkey, son of Rev. C. E. Berkey, pastor of the Newry Lutheran Church. No one witnessed the shooting. Death was immediate. A doctor and and Deputy Coroner were summoned. The body was accompanied back to Altoona by George's older, married brother, Robert and his father, George. At the funeral on June 26th at the Broad Avenue Methodist Church, six boys and girls, including Earl Fleck who went camping at the Newry site, were pall bearers and the funeral was attended by large numbers of persons. Interment was at Fairview Cemetery but there is no stone marking George Arthur Griffith's grave. He would have been a high school freshman had he survived. He was active in his Broad Avenue Methodist Church youth group and the Boy Scouts. Outside of the news of his death, only one other public trace of his life exists: A December 22, 1922 report of a surprise eleventh birthday party for his sister, Marie, at the home of an aunt, Lydia Griffith Adams.
Note: the following was sent from contributor 47494005: thank you.
George Arthur Griffith's tragic death was front page news in Altoona. He had gone on an overnight camping trip with a Earl Fleck, Charles Bookhamer and Charles Hanley to the farm of Harvey H. Smith, west of Newry on Poplar Run. On June 24th, they met another group of between ten and fifteen adolescent boys from Newry who were in the vicinity. They went swimming in Poplar Run and left their clothes in an implement shed on the Smith farm. When a storm broke, George ran back to the shed and he noticed a 22 in long pistol in a holster hanging on a plow handle. When he picked it up to examine it, it went off. The pistol belonged to Kenneth Berkey, son of Rev. C. E. Berkey, pastor of the Newry Lutheran Church. No one witnessed the shooting. Death was immediate. A doctor and and Deputy Coroner were summoned. The body was accompanied back to Altoona by George's older, married brother, Robert and his father, George. At the funeral on June 26th at the Broad Avenue Methodist Church, six boys and girls, including Earl Fleck who went camping at the Newry site, were pall bearers and the funeral was attended by large numbers of persons. Interment was at Fairview Cemetery but there is no stone marking George Arthur Griffith's grave. He would have been a high school freshman had he survived. He was active in his Broad Avenue Methodist Church youth group and the Boy Scouts. Outside of the news of his death, only one other public trace of his life exists: A December 22, 1922 report of a surprise eleventh birthday party for his sister, Marie, at the home of an aunt, Lydia Griffith Adams.
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