Program

Hometown Heritage™

Subject

People, Site, Transportation

Location

550 US-20, Pittsfield, MA 01201, USA

Lat/Long

42.430552, -73.258886

Grant Recipient

Berkshire County Historical Society

Toward the end of his 1902 tour of New England, President Theodore Roosevelt made a visit to Pittsfield, Massachusetts on September 3, 1902. While in Pittsfield, the president gave a speech in a public park and visited the home of Senator H. L. Dawes. Sadly, tragedy struck that day during the president’s visit. While traveling to the Pittsfield Country Club for a brief speaking engagement, President Roosevelt’s carriage was struck by a Pittsfield Electric Street Railway trolley. The president suffered only minor scrapes and bruises in the collision. However, his Secret Service Agent William Craig was thrown from the carriage and run over by the trolley, suffering a fatal injury. The president would soon after require surgery on his leg due to the injuries sustained in the collision, although he quickly made a full recovery.

The trolley motorman Euclid Madden and conductor James Kelly were blamed for causing the crash. In an attempt to make it to the country club prior to the president’s arrival, the trolley reportedly sought to cut off the president’s carriage at a point where the tracks cut diagonally across the roadway. However, the trolley did not make it and instead struck the carriage in the rear, tipping it over. Agent Craig, who had seen the speeding trolley approaching, stood to signal them to stop, and was thrown from the carriage in the collision and immediately killed. In response to the death of Agent Craig, President Roosevelt reportedly said, “He was the most faithful man I ever knew” (Fall River Evening News, September 3, 1902, 1).

Madden and Kelly were both arrested and charged with manslaughter. Both were indicted by a grand jury and pled guilty. The District Attorney did not seek charges in Kelly’s case, and in January 1903, Madden was sentenced to six months in the Pittsfield House of Correction and was ordered to pay a fine of $500 (Evening World, January 20,1903, 2; Pittsfield Sun, January 22, 1903, 1, 8).