Chemung County's First Traffic Death: July 1914

On July fifth, nineteen fourteen, Doctor and Mrs. Sherman Voorhees and their son were involved in one of Chemung County's first recorded automobile accidents. Mrs.

Voorhees was killed instantly, becoming among the earliest traffic fatalities in the county's history. A cross was erected at this spot in her memory. The inscription reads, 'This spot is sacred.'

It is a striking reminder of how dangerous the early automobile age was, and how quickly communities began memorializing its victims. Chemung County in upstate New York was still adapting to motor vehicles in nineteen fourteen, and this roadside cross, long before highway safety campaigns existed, marked the beginning of a tragic accounting that would define American roads for the entire century ahead.