A Tragic Death in the Pelham Manor Fire House in 1897

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The Manor Club, it seems, had an odd history of stricken women found on its steps in its early years. I previously have written of one such incident. See Wednesday, December 28, 2005: The Mystery of the "Manor Club Girl" That Set Pelham Tongues Wagging in 1913.

Today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog transcribes an article that appeared in the January 14, 1897 issue of the New-York Tribune about a young woman found at the Manor Club seemingly drunk. It turned out that she was not. She was deathly ill. The text of the article appears beneath the photograph below that shows the original Manor Club club house as it appeared at the time.

"MOUNT VERNON.

Cassie Haggerty, twenty-two years old, a servant employed by Mrs. H. S. Whiting, in Pelham Manor, was found dead yesterday morning in the Pelham Manor Fire House, which is also used as a police station. The girl had a disagreement with her employer on Tuesday, and had started to leave for her home in New-York. Before leaving the house she had complained to Mary McSweeney, a companion that she did not feel well. On her way to the station she stopped at the house of the Manor Club to rest. She then seemed to be suffering from the effects of drink. Constable James Burnett took her back to the house. The cook took the girl in and gave her a bed. Mary McSweeney alleges that Mrs. Whiting returned from New-York City in the evening and she said the girl had been drinking, and that there was no sickness about it. Dr. Washburn was summoned and agreed with Mrs. Whiting. The constable was again sent for, and locked the girl in the police station where she died. Drs. Flemming and Carlisle held an autopsy, which revealed that the real cause of death was congestion of both lungs, the primary stage of pneumonia. Not the slightest trace of alcohol was found in the girl's stomach."

Source: Mount Vernon, New-York Tribune, Jan. 14, 1897, p. 12, col. 1.

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