McKay, Winfield Scott

Passed: 1914-07-12

Age: 62

Source: Jackson Herald

Death Notice:

Obituary Date: 1914-07-17

Information: TERRIBLE TRIPLE TRAGEDY-AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENT CLOSES CAREER-OF W. S.M'KAY, RESIDENT RAVENSWOOD, SON AND SON'S SON. AS MAMMOTH MACHINE, SPEEDED ON STRETCH FROM FAIRMONT FOR PENNSYLVANIA POINT-REFUSES TO RESPOND TO DUST-BLINDED DRIVER AND DASHED TO DEATH THIS GIFTED THREE GENERATIONS.  Fairmont, W. Va. July 12 - Three persons were killed and four injured, two probably fatally, when an automobile driven by Graham Knox, and owned by Dr. H. C. McKay, of this city, leaped from the road and crashed into a tree near Morgantown this afternoon.  The dead:  Dr. H. C. McKay, 38 years old, dentist, Fairmont; WINFIELD SCOTT MCKAY, JR., 7, son of Dr. McKay, WINFIELD SCOTT MCKAY, 62, father of Dr. McKay, retired businessman of Ravenswood.  The injured:  John Wright, Superintendent of the Consolidation Coal Company, Fairmont, skull fractured, expected to die; Dorotha McKay, 11, daughter of Dr. McKay of Fairmont, injured internally and leg broken; R. M. Bailey, Fairmont, hardware clerk, cut and bruised; Graham Knox, Fairmont, chauffeur, cut and bruised.      The party was on its way from Fairmont to Mt. Chatteau.  It was shortly before 3 o'clock when they reached Morgantown, and they sped on toward the Cheat River, the party's destination, in the mountains of Cheat.  Two miles out of Morgantown is a stretch of level road a mile long and very wide, known to all tourists to Cheat as a place for speeding.  Knox, who drove the car, let the car out.  At the end of the stretch is a sharp curve, Knox, too late, set the brakes and attempted to make the curve.  The car could not make it and went over the hillside.  Trees prevented the car turning over, and it crashed head on onto a giant oak.  The car was smashed.  W. S. McKay and his little grandson were hurled through the windshield. Dr. McKay and his daughter and Mr. Wright were thrown out.  Soon after the accident, Jacob G. Crookston, of Pittsburg, arrived in his car.  He was not familiar with the country, and as Dr. McKay was bleeding to death, offered to take him to Uniontown, which he thought was a few miles ahead.  The chauffeur placed Dr. McKay in the car, and they started.  For six miles they drove into the mountains, then asked at a farmhouse and were told Uniontown was 18 miles ahead, Morgantown, 8 miles behind.  The two injured men were taken from the car and placed under a shade tree, and the Pittsburg car went on toward its destination.  Harry Baker, a farmer, came to the rescue, took the men to his home and called Morgantown physicians.  They reached the injured men an hour later, too late to save Dr. McKay, who died at 10 o'clock tonight from loss of blood.  The other injured were rushed to Morgantown hospitals, and the two bodies to a morgue there.  Dr. McKay is survived by his widow and three children.   (Many details follow from the Fairmont papers)   Mrs. W. S. McKay, wife of the eldest of the victims of the disaster, arrived here this morning from her home at Ravenswood after traveling all night.  She is in an almost prostrated condition over her terrible loss.  Rev. Cook, pastor of the Episcopal church, of Ravenswood, a close friend of the McKay family, accompanied Mrs. McKay here.  Dr. Roy McKay, of Detroit, Mich., will arrive here tomorrow morning.   Fairmont, W. Va. --July 14--Fairmont's entire population mourned today when the funerals of the three generations of the McKay family, who lost theri lives in the automobile fatality at Morgantown, Sunday, were held.  The burial of Dr. M. C. McKay and his little son, Winfield, was made in Woodlawn cemetery here, and the remains of W. S. McKay, father of Dr. McKay, were taken tonight to Ravenswood, his late home, where burial will be made Wednesday.  The wife of W. S. McKay, of Ravenswood, came here yesterday accompanied by her pastor, Rev. Crook, of the Episcopal church of Ravenswood, and they left with the body of Mr. McKay this evening for his late home.  Dr. R. H. McKay and his sister, Mrs. T. W. Harkins, and their families were here from Akron and left tonight for Ravenswood.  Wednesday morning the remains of W. S. McKay were brought to Ravenswood, taken charge of by Masons, funeral services conducted by Rev. Gay H. Crook, taken to Letart, O., on the 1:30 train and buried by the Knights Templar.