October 4, 1905: Family of Franklin Curtis Guard Experiences Multiple Losses

By Margaret Leidy Harner from her book One Day at a Time: A Social History of Boyertown, PA

October 4, 1905: With his skull broken open and brains bespattered along the tracts, the dead body of Franklin Curtis Guard, age 35, was found lying along the Philadelphia and Reading railroad in Pottstown. He had either been struck by the train or fallen from it, and the terrible injuries indicate that his death was instantaneous.

He lived in Boyertown and had played bass horn in the old Keystone Band. He is survived by three children, William, Ruth, and Dorothy. His wife Laura died in September 1903, and the children were living with their maternal grandparents in Boyertown.

Three years later, on January 13, 1908, his daughter Ruth, age 13, was among those killed in the Opera House fire. She was the first of the fire victims to be buried, and it was reported in the Philadelphia Press that, as her hearse was driven to the Fairview Cemetery, the streets were lined with several hundred mourners who were waiting to honor the cortege. All heads were bared as they witnessed the initial interment of the catastrophe.

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