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As Elwin Geer of Whitesville said, "Starting out I knew very little about my Grandfather Geer.  After all, he died when I was only about a year old."

Little did he know that when a genealogist responded to an ad he ran in the "Good Old Days" magazine that a Certified Hero was going to surface.

Below is some of the results that have since become the story of a Hero, Raymond Alfred Geer.   The story is below the pictures as taken from the Case Minute report received by Elwin in response to his request to the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission.......

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Above, Award Medal now "at home" on Tombstone of Raymond Alfred Geer

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Woodlawn Cemetery, Wellsville NY - Stone with Award Medal attached

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At left, Raymond Alfred Geer & his older brother, Lewis Elwin Geer

Below, the story........

CARNEGIE HERO FUND COMMISSION

CASE MINUTE

CLASS: Train

RESCUER:  Raymond A. Geer; Corning NY - Ticket Agent - Age 33;  Was employed at the Station of accident.

RESCUED:  Loretta I. Herr; Baltimore, Md. - School girl - Age 7;  Was deaf in her left ear.

PLACE:  Corning NY - Monday, August 3, 1914, 2:47pm

SCENE:  On the line of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad Company, between the rails of the east-bound train six feet west of the passenger station.

Two tracksof the railroad extended east and west at the scene.  The south track was the east-bound track.  South of the tracks was the station.  There was concrete paving between the tracks and the station, and the paving extended westward south of the tracks.  Planking extended northward from the paving to the north track at the scene.  Both the paving and the planking were flush with the top of the rails.  The ground was dry.  A freight-train was approaching the scene from the west on the south track at a speed of forty miles an hour.

ACCIDENT:  Loretta and her sister, aged nine, were on the paving twelve feet south of the tracks, waiting for a freight-train to pass westward on the north track.  When it had passed, Loretta walked onto the south track, unaware that a train was approaching on that track.  Geer, who was on the paving thirty feet southeast of Loretta, saw that she was likely to be struck and called to her;  but she gave no sign that she heard him or saw the train.

RESCUE:  When the train was a hundred and sixty feet from Loretta, Geer started running toward her.  Loretta's sister saw the approaching train and called for Loretta to turn back.  Loretta then saw the train and turned facing southward to retrace her steps, but Geer reached her while she was still between the rails.  The train was then only ten feet from her.  Seizing her at her sides, he picked her up as he ran northward across the track.  The front of the locomotive was not more than a foot or two from Geer when he cleared its path.  The train proceeded without its speed being reduced.  Geer says that he had no thought for his own safety when he was starting to the rescue;  that it occurred to him during the act that he might be struck;  that he would have been killed or badly crippled if he had stopped or slipped during the act; that he was pale after the act;  that he would not want to try it again;  that he believes he risked his life in the act.  All eye-witnesses interviewed think Geer risked his life.

INJURIES:  None!

.....the bottom of form lists his financial condition at that time and also his DEPENDENTS as wife, now aged 31, and three sons aged 12, 8, and 3.