 West Hill Cemetery Sherman, Texas
 John Noel Totten 1920 - 1934 The Whitewright Sun Thursday, September 27, 1934 pg. 2 FOOTBALL PLEASURE TRIP ENDS FATALLY WHEN BOY KILLED A carefree pleasure trip of 23 Sherman boys to the Greenville-Sherman football game at Greenville Friday night ended in tragedy here at 12:30 a.m. Saturday when one of the youths was killed when the school truck crashed into the concrete curb at the northeast corner of the Ayres dry goods store in trying to avoid a collision with an automobile coming from the north on Bond Street. John Noel Totten, 14, Sherman high school sophmore, was killed; 5 of the boys were cut and bruised, and the other 17 shaken up. The 5 boys were given first aid treatment here before being taken to their homes in Sherman. Jerry Totten, 16, brother of John, was knocked unconscious as his head struck the concrete pavement. The Totten boys were placed in a Sherman automobile and rushed to St. Vincent's sanitarium immediately following the accident. John died before reaching Sherman. Jerry is recovering from his injuries. John was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Jess Totten, prominent citizens of Sherman. Young Totten was riding on the running board of the truck and was crushed when it turned over against the curb. The accident was witnessed by Night Officer F.O. Mangrum, who assisted in lifting the truck off the body of young Totten and called a doctor to render aid to the injured boys. After doing this he immediately arrested Jim Freeman, negro, who was driving the automobile, and his companion, a Sherman negro. Both were placed in the city jail and remained there until the examining trial was held Saturday afternoon in the court of J.L. Cantrell, justice of the peace. Freeman was charged with murder. The complaint was signed by Deputy Sheriff John Evridge. Freeman was taken to the Sherman jail to await the action of the grand jury, which will meet in October. Freeman's home was raided by the sheriff's force some 3 weeks ago and a quantity of intoxicating liquor was found. He was charged with violating the prohibition laws and was released under a $500.00 bond. His home was again raided by members of the sheriff's force early Saturday morning and a gallon of liquor was found. At the time the raid was made the officers did not know Freeman was involved in the fatal accident. When they started to search for him, they were informed that he was in the city jail. Another charge of violating the prohibition law was filed against Freeman Saturday in the justice court at Sherman. Freeman now has 3 charges against him, one for murder and 2 for violating the prohibition laws. According to the evidence given by Officer Mangrum at the examining trial, Freeman was driving at a high rate of speed. He was traveling south on Bond street and came onto Grand avenue, main street, just ahead of the truck loaded with school boys. The driver of the truck, Joseph Hawn, a high school boy, turned to his left to avoid a collision, but was unable to miss the corner curb and crashed into it when the vehicle turned over on its side. The car driven by Freeman kept coming south and at the same time bearing to the right. It hit the steps leading to a wide walk east of the Ayres store. The car ran up the 2 steps and glazed the brick wall, then continued for 20 feet down the walk east of the Ayres store building before being stopped. Both of the negores escaped without injuries. This was the first fatal automobile accident to happen in the business section of Whitewright since the advent of automobiles, and was the second fatal auto accident to happen in the city limits of Whitewright. The other was at the "Y" some 3 weeks ago when a traveling salesman was killed when his car collided with a truck. There has been several fatal automobile accidents near Whitewright in recent years, but these are the only 2 happening withint the city limits, both of which came in less than a month's time. West Hill Cemetery Elaine Nall Bay ©2020 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |
