Arthur Wadsworth

December 18, 1894 - December 22, 1928

Marine Sergeant and Family Gas Victims

Father, Mother and Three Children Found Dead in In Philadelphia Home

Philadelphia, December 22 - Sergeant Arthur Wadsworth, a recruiting officer in the United States Marine corps, his wife and three children were found dead from asphyxiation in their home today. Another child was in critical condition.

A neighbor glancing through a cellar window saw Wadsworth lying across a box and notified police. Mrs Wadsworth was found dead on a bed on the first floor and the three children were found in a room on the second floor.

All had been dead several hours. It was believed that Wadsworth had gone to the cellar to investigate a gas leak and was overcome by the fumes. During the day the odor of gas was noticeable in the neighborhood, but a trouble crew sent out to investigate was unable to locate the source of the leak.

Portland Press Herald, December 23, 1928

*******************************************

Philadelphia, December 29 - Nine-year-old Arthur Wadsworth, who is the only surviving member of a family of six, who were asphyxiated in their home here several days ago, was adopted last night by Robert Gray, of Richmond, Virginia, while the boy's parents and his three sisters lay in coffins awaiting burial and while the lad was winning his fight for life in a Philadelphia hospital.

Arthur L Wadsworth, Jr and Mrs Elsie V Wadsworth, parents of the boy:  Virginia Wadsworth 5; Frances Wadsworth 3, and Alice Wadsworth, aged 1, were found dead in their home a week ago. Arthur Wadsworth III was almost dead, too, from the fumes of illuminating gas.

Burial of the Wadsworth family tomorrow in Arlington National cemetery will mark the first time that children of an enlisted man, Arthur Wadsworth Jr, having been a sergeant in the Marine Corps, have been buried there.

Permission for the burial of the children along with their parents was granted today by Major-General B.F. Cheatham, who ruled that to separate the children from their parents in death would be inhuman.

The father was a sergeant in the quartermaster department of the Marine Corps in Philadelphia. The mother came to Philadelphia from Portsmouth, Virginia.

Robert Gray, who is to become the foster father of little Arthur Wadsworth, is a brother of Mrs. Wadsworth.

The Richmond News Leader, December 29, 1928 

*****************************

Arthur was survived by his sisters:  Mildred Wadsworth '09 and Dorothy Wadsworth '13