| Press
Gazette Hillsboro, Ohio September 6, 1955 County Youth Victim In Kentucky Accident A Highland County youth, on his way home for the holiday weekend was killed in a traffic accident in Kentucky, early Saturday. Hurbert Ray Mathews, 24, son of Mrs. George Speelman, Leesburg, and Clarence Mathews, of Bainbridge, was killed instantly when his auto collided with another car on Route 42, 22 miles south of Cincinnati, about 5 A. M., Saturday. A passenger in his car was tentatively identified as a brother, [name removed] Mathews, but last Saturday this was disproved and the victim identified as a buddy of Hubert’s, Joe Winningham, of Louisville, KY. Two others, the driver and a passenger in the other car involved were also killed. According to Kentucky State Police, the accident occurred when a northbound auto driven by Hubert collided with a southbound car driven by Benjamin Bell, 25, of Sandusky, O. Bell and Willie Johnson, 16, also of Sandusky, were also killed in the crash. Two others in the Bell car were injured. They were [name remove], 20 brother of Willie, and [name removed] 17, of Sandusky. Police said the Mathews car skidded some 132 feet after colliding with the other vehicle and reported that the speedometer on the auto was locked at 90 miles per hours. The Mathews car, a 1950 model, apparently swerved across the centerline into the path of the other car after a front tire blew out. Services for Hubert were to be held Tuesday at 2 P. M. at the Rhoads funeral home, with Rev. L. C. Harbold officiating and burial following in New Market Baptist cemetery. Besides his mother and father he is survived by one sister, Mrs. [name removed], Hillsboro, one half sister, Miss [name removed] at home, Leesburg; two brothers, [name removed] Mathews, Louisville, Ky, and [name removed] Mathews, at home in Leesburg; his paternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Mathews, Hillsboro, Rt. 1, and maternal grandmother, Mrs. Orpha Wilmoth, Willow Street, Hillsboro. Winningham, the passenger in the Hubert’s car, had no identification papers on him, making checking difficult. George Speelman, Hubert’s stepfather, and [name removed], his brother-in-law went to a funeral home in Florence, Ky., Saturday to aid officers. They said the victim was not Russell. Late in the day, Russell himself appeared at the funeral home and identified Winningham, who was employed at the General Electric plant in Louisville where Russell worked. Hubert and Russell were living at separate places in Louisville. Hubert was employed by the General Mills plant in Louisville. The latter was apparently enrouted home to Leesburg for a visit when the mishap occurred. The Sandusky group was enroute for a vacation south. Hubert, born in Hillsboro, Oct. 9, 1930, attended Hillsboro and Greenfield Schools, graduating at McClain in 1948. He was employed at Finney & Son garage as an auto mechanic from 1949 to March, 1951, when he enlisted in the U. S. Marine Corps. Hubert set an all-time record at Parris Island, N. C., in 1952, when he won the Brig. Gen. Calvin B. Matthews award for his score of 140 with the M-1 rifle. The youth had been enrolled in the Ohio State Highway Patrol School at Columbus and was nearing graduation when he quit to take a job in Louisville. He was single. Bell’s auto stopped 140 feet from the point of impact and torches were required to cut metal and free his pinned body. Police said it was “hard to tell the cars had been motor vehicles.” The front of Mathews’ car was left a mass of compressed metal. “It’s difficult to imagine making such a small package of an auto,” they added. One of the cars was pulled to a junction of Route 42 and 25 and left there as a warning to motorists, it was reported. |