Jim Shorkey and his wife Bess.

Jim Shorkey and his wife Bess.

people -- Summerville

Photo of Jim Shorkey and his wife Bess. She was the daughter of Isaac Bascom (Brack) McLaughlin and his wife and Elizabeth Wesley. Mrs. McLaughlin’s father, Thomas Wesley, was a member of the famous “six hundred” in the “charge of the light brigade” in the Crimean War, according to McKnight’s history. Jim Shorkey's story of falling from the Railroad Trestle: Jim fell off this bridge when the structure was being built across the run. He told me at noon when the whistle would blow for lunch break, he and two riveters he worked with, would grab a rope, leap over the edge of the bridge and slide down the rope to the ground, each trying to be first. This day Jim was first. He grabbed the wrong rope. It was 40 feet short, sliding to the end of the rope, he fell the last 40 feet. Fortunately, he landed in a big brush pile in the middle of the run. He was taken to the Punxsutawney hospital where he recovered. While he was in the hospital he and Bess were married. Strangely enough, Jim died in the Punxsutawney hospital years later.

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Summerville Story Project Photo and Document Collection

No known restrictions. For further information, contact Summerville Public Library.

Summerville Public Library

This Digital Object is provided in a collection that is included in POWER Library: Pennsylvania Photos and Documents, which is funded by the Office of Commonwealth Libraries of Pennsylvania/Pennsylvania Department of Education.