Robert I. Ullom was unlucky around timber. When he cheated death in late 1912, the car he was riding in careened around three horse drawn wagons hauling timber, and over a steep embankment. When death caught up with him for real, less than a year later, it dragged him under an empty train car meant to carry…timber.

Robert is notable to history primarily because his November 1912 car wreck was one of the earliest documented stories of road rage. The Model T had only been introduced 4 years prior to the accident, so cars were still a luxury item of the monied classes. It’s not hard to imagine how young, well-heeled drivers taking over the roadway might be resented. Especially in a rural county such as Greene County, PA, where the mishap occurred. 

On November 12, 1912, Ullom was riding shotgun in a car driven by Simon Wesley Rinehart, husband of Ullom’s cousin Clara. It was a Sunday afternoon, and already in America’s love affair with the Automobile, a Sunday afternoon drive with no particular destination was a treat. The top was down, so it must’ve been a pleasant late autumn day. Ullom’s two cousins Benson and William Moninger were along for the ride, in the backseat. A Waynesburg Republican [Waynesburg, PA] article dated December 12 picks up the story:

“Mr. Rinehart was driving in his automobile along the highway about three-fourths of a mile below New Freeport. Ahead of them were three teams and wagons hauling oil well rig timber. 

“Mr. Rinehart sounded the automobile alarm several times as a signal for the teams to draw to one side of the road and permit him to pass, which they would be required by law to do, but the teamsters gave no heed to the signals, whatsoever. 

“Finally, at a point in the highway where there was room outside of the regular traveled track for the automobile to pass, Mr. Rinehart drove the car by on the right hand side of the teams, which was the lower side of the road. The teams and wagons kept in the usual course of travel, which was to the upper and left side of the road.

“The machine was safely passing and was fully four feet away from the wagons, but in passing the second team, which was being driven by John F. Renner, the latter’s dog may have been touched by the car, but at least was not hurt, as it bounded out of the way with a yelp. This, it is presumed, enraged Renner, for he called to the men in the automobile to stop, then hurled a stone at the car. 

“Robert Ullom, who was sitting beside Mr. Rinehart, saw the stone being thrown and said to the latter, ‘look out, here comes a stone.’ By that time the automobile had passed all three of the teams and had turned up into the traveled part of the highway. 

“As Ullom spoke, Mr. Rinehart turned his face backward so that he might see, and, if necessary, dodge the stone, as the top of the car was down, and while his face was turned the car ran over an embankment about forty feet high. The automobile first passed through a wire fence, then turned over twice.

“The Moninger boys were thrown out of the car when it first overturned and escaped injury, but Rinehart and Ullom were carried to the bottom of the embankment.The former received a gash across the side of his face, one of his ears being cut in two, and his head was crushed, by being caught, it is supposed, beneath the steering wheel. The pressure upon his jaws had bursted several of his teeth. He was carried unconscious to the home of Mr. John McNeely, and for several days no hope for his recovery was entertained, though later his friends were hopeful, but his face was found to be paralyzed and he gradually became weaker. On Friday morning a message came from here stating that his death was expected at any time.

“Robert Ullom was seriously cut upon the face, arms and breast, but is recovering from the wounds.”

We don’t know from the record how long it took Ullom to recover, but by August of 1913 he was back on the job as a lumber inspector for the Sewell Lumber Company, based in Landisburg, WV, about 170 miles south of New Freeport.

One of Sewell Lumber’s trains had just been in the news not three months before: “Tuesday a landslide swept a train from the track of the narrow-gauge railroad between Sewell and Landisburg, 50 miles from Charleston, this State, killing 6 passengers,” reported the Shepherdstown [WV] Register on May 13.

Robert Ullom was not among those six killed. His time arrived on August 21, back in Sewell’s Landisburg train yards.

“He was killed while directing the shifting of an empty car for lumber,” said the Wheeling Intelligencer in its August 25 obituary. “In some manner he fell between two cars and was dragged a considerable distance, before the unfortunate accident was discovered. He lived four hours after being taken from under the train. Death is believed to have been caused by internal injuries.”

The Wheeling Intelligencer, though based 3-4 hours away from Landisburg, noted that Ullom “was well known locally, having been born and raised near Dallas, WV.”

He was 29 years old.

The post A Road Rage Incident at the dawn of the automobile appeared first on Appalachian History.