A Terrifying Buggy Ride to Tea
Two local women narrowly escape injury after a horse-drawn carriage turns chaotic on the way to a club gathering.
While driving out to the club tea at Mrs. Chambers’ last week, Mrs. Andrew Boag and Mrs. C. E. Messer became suddenly frightened at something, jerked the horse to one side, plunged over the dashboard, and permitted the buggy to run over them both. All this commotion caused their horse, an animal of kind and loving disposition, to run away. She was soon overtaken, however, and the ladies proceeded on their way to the tea. The shaking up proved more serious than at first supposed, and Mrs. Boag was confined to her bed for several days as a result. Mrs. Messer suffered only slight bruises.
“All this commotion caused their horse, an animal of kind and loving disposition, to run away.”
While buggies have been replaced by SUVs, the rural roads around White Bluffs—now a landscape dominated by the Hanford Site—remain prone to accidents. This story captures the precarious nature of early 20th-century social life, where even a routine trip to a tea party could end in a medical emergency.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.