The following clipping is from a California paper, relating particulars of the recent death of a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ira Messenger, formerly of Union, and will interest some of the older residents of this place:
Instant death overtook 8-year-old Katherine Messenger, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ira Messenger of Burbank, when an automobile in which she and her father were driving up the Mt. Wilson road backed of the grade at 11;30 a.m. yesterday and fell 350 feet into the gorge below.
Mr. Messenger was thrown clear of the car. He suffered severely from nerve shock after the accident and was given treatment at the Emergency Hospital in Pasadena. The body of the little girl was taken to the Burnham undertaking parlors in Pasadena.
As the accident was explained by Mr. Messenger to the Pasadena police, the machine backed up on him after the engine died when he undertook to shift the gears, and the car rolled over the grade before he could set the brakes.
He was thrown out, but the little girl was hurled to the bottom of the ravine, where she was picked up dead. Mt. Messenger and his daughter were on their way to the top of Mt. Wilson for an outing when the accident occurred.
The mother was prostrated when she heard of the accident.
Newspaper article – Aug, 1921
Contributed by: Larry Rader