100 Years Ago: Chappell Sisters Die in Car Accident

ALTON - On August 19, 1925, Prudence Chappell, 29, and her 12-year-old sister Pearl were killed in an automobile accident. Prudence taught at Granite City Community High School and had been a teacher at Alton High School. She was an instructor in commercial subjects (she taught business classes) at the high school, and also organized a night business class in St. Louis, at Manchester and Taylor Avenues. After a month’s vacation around the Great Lakes, with visits to Chicago, Wisconsin, and Michigan, they were on their way back home for the start of the school year. Pearl, who suffered from heart disease and had been a patient at Children’s Hospital in St. Louis for nearly a year, was well enough to join Prudence for the trip.

The Chappells were a quarter of a mile north of Dwight, Ill., when their Buick roadster skidded 200 feet on wet pavement and overturned. Prudence died instantly. Pearl was taken to a government hospital in Dwight, but died 12 hours later. Driving a car was extremely challenging in this time period, especially if road conditions weren’t ideal. Anti-lock braking systems weren’t invented until years later – they were available on some luxury automobiles starting in the 1970s, but weren’t standard-issue until the 1990s.

Prudence and Pearl were survived by their father, stepmother, sister, and brother. Prudence lived at the home of Alderman Frank M. Smith and his family in Granite City during the school year, but the rest of the Chappells lived in St. Louis. A joint funeral was held at an undertaker’s chapel on Manchester Avenue. The Chappells are buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in Jennings, Mo. It is unclear if they have gravestones – no grave photos are currently available on Find A Grave. In October 1925, the Madison County Teachers Institute honored the memory of Prudence Chappell, along with William E. Kelley, Rita Webster, and H.T. McCrea, during their annual meeting.

Sources

Alton High School (Alton, Ill). 1924. “The Tatler.”https://archive.org/details/AltonHS_Tatler_1924

“Former Alton Teacher Dies in Auto Crash.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), August 21, 1925.

“Sisters Killed When Auto Skids on Wet Road.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, Missouri), August 21, 1925.

“Teachers Honor Memory of Four Who Die in Year.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), October 10, 1925.

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