Notes:

Witmer - On Sept. 27, 1903, Loren T. Witmer, aged 34 years, met a very sad and sudden death caused by coming in contact with a surcharged electric line, causing instantaneous death. He was the son of Martin and Elizabeth Witmer, and great-grandson of John and Barbara Witmer. He leaves a widow, one daughter and a large circle of relatives and friends to mourn his untimely death. "In the midst of life we are in death."

ALSO

Niagara Gazette - 9/28/1903

Loren T. Witmer, a well known resident
of t h e city was electrocuted a t his
home No. 1307 Linwood Avenue early
Sunday morning between the hours of
2 and 3 o'clock. . There was a cross on
the incandescent circuit which caused
tlie switch blocks to spark, and Mr. Witmer
while searching for the trouble
picked up a wire in the cellar and it
is supposed that he received a shocK
of 2,000 volts.
Mrs. Witmer was aroused by the noise
made by the electricity, there being a
buzzing sound. She awakened her husband
telling him there was something
the matter with the electric light system.
He arose from his bed and told
his wife that he would go to the at-
tic to throw off the switch. He returned
In a minute and with his wife went
to the cellar. It was dark and Mrs.
Witmer left him s t a t i n g that she would
go upstairs after a lamp. As she went
up the stairs she heard a groan. "When
she returned she found her husband
lying on the cellar floor apparently dead.
She called to h im and receiving no r e sponse
she hastened upstairs and summoned
Drs. W. H. Hodge and E. O. Mccarty.
Upon the arrival of t h e physicians an
examination was made and although it
seemed hopeless an a t t e m p t was made
to. rescusutate him by artificial respiration.
The physicians worked over
Witmer for an hour and then gave it
up, the .man being beyond medical assistance.
The exact manner in which Witmer
met his. death will never be known. In
the cellar beneath the stairs there was
an Incandescent lamp suspended from
a. hook. The Wire attached to the
lamp was too long and a portion of it
sagged in a loop touching the cellar
floor. At the point of contact with
the floor the insulation was burned
from the wire leaving it bare. It is
supposed that Witmer picked up the
wire at the 'point of contact with t he
floor and received . t h e full force or'
the voltage of the wire with which the
incandescent system was charged. He
was thrown a distance of several feet
from the point where he was .standing
when he picked up t he wire. He
grasped the wire with the left hand
the physicians finding a charred burn
on the wrist and also a burn on the
instep where the charge of electricity
left the body. Witmer was in his bare
feet and the floor of the cellar being
damp the circumstances could not have
been more favorable for him to receive
the full- voltage of t h e crossed wires.
Coroner Slocum was called, made an
examination of the wiring of t he house
with Mr. McDonnell of the Buffalo &
Niagara Fails Electric Light & Power
Company. Everything was found as
i t should be a n d a test of the wires
made by Mr. McDonnell registered a
voltage of 110 a s it should be. .Yes-
terday afternoon the coroner wishing to
be positive went to the Witmer house
with a first-class electrician and made
another examination. The wiring was
pronounced to be perfect.- The only
deduction left was that the incandescent
system was crossed with a wire of
higher voltage and this is t r u e as one
ohe electric light circuits was clossed
down for a short time early 'Sunday
morning in order to locate a cross of the
wires. Just how the electricity entered
the house on the incandescent wire' is
not explained. It is supposed that the
switch was not thrown entirely off or
if the disconnection had been made in
a proper manner that the voltage was
so high that the electricity leaped the
Intervening space and made connection.
Witmer was employed as a bookkeeper
at the plant of the Carter-Grume
and was 31 years old. He was the son
of Mr. and Mrs. Martin Witmer who
formerly resided in this city but who
now reside in Colorado. Besides his
wife and child the deceased is survived
by three sisters.
At 2 o'clock Sunday morning Superintendent
of the Fire Alarm M. J. Donohue
was notified of trouble on the wire,
the fire alarm having sounded several
strokes. The pin on one of the cross
arms of a pole at 18th and Niagara
streets had pulled out allowing the the
a l a rm wire to drop on a n arc wire.
Word was at once sent to the power
house and at 5: 45 o'clock circuit No. 4
was closed clown upon orders of Supt.
Donohue he .believing it to be better
to have the lamps on t h e circuit in
darkness rather than to t a k e a chance,
of someone being killed by a t t e m p t i ng
to send in an a l a rm on circuit No. 2 of
the fire alarm. In t he opinion of Supt.
Donohue if a person attempted to send
in an a l a rm from one of the boxes on
No. 2 circuit with the electricity on the.
No. 4 a r c circuit they would- have received
a shock which would have caused
death Superintendent Donohue had
the system in working order and as
soon as daylight arrived he went to
work and pulled up the wire which
crossed the arc system. Supt. Donohue
is of t h e opinion that one of t h e Wires
of the No. 4 a r c s y s t em was crossed
with the incandescent- system and
caused Witmer's death. He is positive
t h a t death was not the result of the
crossing of the a r c circuit with t he
fire alarm wire at the corner of Niagara
avenue and 18th street where the trouble
was located at daylight.
The only damage caused the fire
a l a rm system by the cross was t he
burning out of a pair of magnet rolls
in box No. 23 and the burning of a shunt
in box No. 27.

Loren married BROOKFIELD, Mary Leonora in 1892. Mary (daughter of BROOKFIELD, Jacob and WOODS, Nellie) was born in Jul 1872 in New York; died on 27 Oct 1949 in Warrens Corners, Niagara County, NY; was buried in North Ridge Cemetery, Town of Cambria, Niagara County, NY. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Niagara Gazette - 10/27/1949

Former Niagara Falls
Resident Succumbs—
LOCKPORT. Oct. 27 — Mrs. Mary
Lenora Witmer, 77, widow of Loren
Witmer, died today at the home of
her daughter. Mrs. Marie Syddell.
Million Dolllar highway. Warrens'
Comers. Mrs. Witmer was born In
Buffalo, a daughter of Jacob and
Nellie Woods Brookfield Witmer.
Before coming to Warrens Corners 23
years ago she lived in Niagara Falls
where her late father conducted a
grocery store. The daughter is the
only near relative. Service will be
held Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at the
Prudden funeral home, 242 Genesee
street. Interment will be in North
Ridge cemetery.

Martin married KING, Elizabeth I about 1860. Elizabeth was born in Feb 1840 in New York; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Jacob + WOODS, Nellie. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Buffalo NY Morning Express - 5/16/1881

Benjamin Witmer, one of the first settlers In
Western New-York, died at his residence, four
miles northeast of Niagara Falls, on Tuesday, the
10th inst., aged 86 years, and was buried on Thursday,
the 12th, in the family burying-ground on the
old homestead, where he had resided since 1842.
The Rev. John Strickler, of Clarence, assisted by
the Rev. Mr. Leonard, of La Salle, and the Rev.
Mr. Snyder, a neighbor, conducted the funeral
services, which were attended by a very large concourse
of his relatives and acquaintances, among
whom were many who had known him over half a
century.
Mr. Witmer's ancestors were of those Christians
who are known as Mennonites, from Simon Menno,
a Reformer, cotemporary with Luther, who in the
Netherlands renounced the Roman Catholic Church,
in which he was a friar, and became a leader
among the Ana Baptists, a considerable portion of
whom assumed his name to designate their peculiar
sect. Religious persecution by the Romanists
drove these Mennonite ancestors from their native
countries in Europe, and thousands of their devoted
compeers, in the early part of the sixteenth century,
settled in Lancaster County, Pa., then called the
"Garden of America," where they soon became a
numerous, prosperous, and a happy people, mind-
ing their own business and letting other people do
the same, which sometimes is styled selfishness. In
course of time the more enterprising, among whom
were some styled " Tories " because they would not
fight against King George in the War of
the Revolution, sought homes in Western New-
York and the neighboring province of Up-
per Canada. In August, 1810, John Wit
mer, the father of the deceased, sold out his
home in Pennsylvania, six miles west of Lancaster
City, and with a four-horse team brought
his family via Harrisburgh, past the mouth of
Lycoming Creek, over Williams's road via Block
House and Blossburg, down the Tioga Valley to
Painted Post, thence to Dansville, N. Y.. Batavia,
Black Rock, and down Niagara River to Devil's
Hole, from which Mr. Isaac Swain had cut a road
through the woods to his farm on lots 30 and 34.
which the father purchased of Mr. Swain, and
made it his future home. But war's end again
drove these inoffensive people from their wilderness
homes, and in 1813 John Witmer, the father, and
his brother Abraham Witmer, who had settled on
the adjoining farm, took their helpless families to a
safe reheat in the interior, John going to Dansville,
N. Y., and Abraham returning to Lancaster County.
Benjamin, however, being a lad 17 years old (he
was born in Lancaster County, Pa., March 21.
1795). was employed voluntarily as an artificer in
building the fortifications at Fort Niagara, the
religious tenets of the Mennonites forbidding their
taking up arms, the Government, on the other
hand never requiring them to violate their conscientious
scruples. One day as he was coming
from the fort, up the river to the top of the mountain
at Lewiston, he, with his two companions,
were espied by the men at the battery across the
river on Queenston Heights, and were fired upon,
the cannon ball, a six pounder, burying itself in
the ground near by. The ball was afterwards dug
up by Mr. Witmer and has ever since been kept as
a kind of heir-loom in the family, the children
often amusing themselves by rolling it over
the chamber floor to produce artificial thunder.
After the war was over both families returned and
made permanent homes at the places first purchased.
In 1817 Benjamin built a saw-mill for his father, at
the homestead, on Gill-creek crossing of the military
road. This mill was instrumental in preparing
most of the lumber used for building in that vicinity
for many years, and is still used during the wet
season. He next went to Erie County and built a
saw-mill for Christian Long, one mile north of
Williamsville. He also built another for Joseph
Getz, on Ellicott's creek, and another for Christian
Frick at Skinnersville, now Wolf's.
Here he made the acquaintance of Miss Anna
Maria Heil, daughter of John HeiI, whom he married
in 1835, and settled on his farm, where now
the Lutheran church stands at Eggertsville. Here
five of his children--John in 1835, Mary in 1836,
Sabina in 1838. Barbara in 1830, and Benjamin in
1831-were born. In 1831 he sold out and moved
to the farm next west adjoining the old homestead,
which is now occupied by his son Elder Martin
Witmer, where he lived until the death of the old
grandfather John Witmer, in 1843, when he took
possession of the homestead. His family was increased
by the births of Martin in 1833. Henry in
1835, Elisabeth in 1836, Leonard in 1838, Anna in
1839, Esther in 1841, Simon in 1843, and Elias in
1844. These all survive him except Barbara, who
died in 1864. His wife died in 1871, and is remembered
as one of the most exemplary women.
Mr. Witmer, although of a very unassuming character,
was an active, industrious, frugal and ex
emplary man-a kind though commanding father,
stamping a virtuous and determined character upon
his large family, the good influence of which has
reached out far beyond his own family. He was
respected by all who knew him, and he retained the
vigor of a strong mind to the last day, dying at
peace with all men, and, as the writer is assured
from an Interview had on Saturday before his death,
he died in the full assurunce of the Christian's hope
of eternal lite.
All his children except Leonard, Elias and Esther,
who are living in the far West, were present at the
funeral, and the tears of affection were soothed by
the smiles of Heaven, shed down in ihe blossoms of
promise of the lovely May day, and the kind greet-
Ings of a sympathizing crowd of spectators.
T. W.

Benjamin + HEIL, Anna Maria. Anna was born on 26 Oct 1803 in PA; died on 26 Mar 1871 in Niagara Falls, Niagara County, NY; was buried in WItmer Memorial Cemetery, Niagara Falls, Niagara County, NY. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]