Survivor of the Titanic disaster
On April 15, 1912 – 111 years ago today if you’re reading this newsletter on time – news of the loss of the Titanic was the front page of the morning newspapers. The mighty White Star ocean liner had struck an iceberg and sunk on its maiden voyage with great loss of life.
The Caldwell family escaped in Lifeboat Thirteen.
Among the survivors were second-class passengers Albert and Sylvia Caldwell, both of Pittsburgh, and their ten-month old son, Alden. The Caldwells were both educators returning from a teaching assignment at Bangkok Christian College. They reached Bloomington in about 1920.
Along life’s road, Albert had been principal of Aledo (Illinois) High School; Ames (Iowa) High School; and a successful car salesman. He was the nephew of Annie Kelso, who with husband George started Kelso Hospital (later Mennonite, and ultimately part of BroMenn Hospital). Sylvia, born and raised outside Pittsburgh, ran the home and raised sons Alden and Raymond.
Car sales were over for Albert in Bloomington. He began selling insurance for two companies, and joined State Farm in 1929. Sylvia found a job there too, as secretary to founder George J. Mecherle. In the twenties, the Caldwells were busy in the community and were often booked to give talks about the experiences on the Titanic.
In the avalanche of anecdotes about the sinking, two connected with Sylvia stand out. One, the quote “God Himself could not sink this ship,” was attributed to a crewman when Sylvia asked whether the Titanic was unsinkable. Two, the fact she was sick when the ship struck the iceberg. After she boarded Lifeboat Thirteen with her husband and infant son, she handed the baby off for someone else to mind.
The move to State Farm Insurance signaled the beginning of the end of the Caldwell marriage. Albert was a good agent, an engaging talker. Sylvia was a good secretary to founder George Mecherle, but the two were rumored to be having an affair. Both were married. The rumors were baseless, according to Caldwell family biographer Julie Hedgepeth Williams, who was a niece of Alden Caldwell.
Still, the Caldwells divorced in 1930 but awkwardly both continued to work at State Farm. However the awkwardness eased when Alfred was promoted and transferred to the company office in Richmond, Virginia.
George Mecherle and Sylvia Harbaugh Caldwell were married in Hot Springs, Arkansas on January 8, 1944. His first wife, May Edith Perry Mecherle, had died at the age of 61 in 1942. The newlyweds enjoyed high social prominence in Bloomington during their time together.
The new Mecherles were Founders Grove people. Sylvia lived at 102 Moore Street, which she and Albert built in the twenties. After the marriage to George, they moved in together at 1416 East Washington Street. They belonged to Bloomington Country Club and attended Second
Presbyterian Church. Sylvia was active in Community Players and the Brokaw Hospital Auxiliary.
George died in 1951 at the age of 73. Sylvia eventually moved in with Raymond, the younger of her two sons, at 305 Grant Road in Normal. Her health began to fail and she lived out the last fourteen months of her life as a patient at Brokaw Hospital.
On January 14, 1965 she died at the age of 80. She was buried in Bloomington’s East Lawn Cemetery, as is her older son Alden, who died in 1992. Younger son Raymond, who died in 1989, is buried in Albuquerque, New Mexico. George Mecherle is entombed in mausoleum space at Park Hill Cemetery with his first wife.
Sylvia Caldwell Mecherle was the only known Titanic survivor to have spent decades in Bloomington. No Bloomingtonians were known to be on the ship when it sank in 1912, although one couple was booked to sail on the doomed voyage. They cancelled and took another ship home. Another former Bloomington woman was identified as a Titanic survivor when she died in 1963. But that report was wrong, although the woman and her husband did survive the sinking of another ship, the Columbia, in 1907.
Microsoft Word – 2023-04-15 – BID April
A Few Titanic Reads
A Night to Remember, by Walter Lord (Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 1955) tells the story of the great ship and its untimely demise. The Caldwells are listed among the passengers and in the text.
A Rare Titanic Family, by Julie Hedgepeth Williams (New South Books, 2012) is the story of the Caldwell family. The author supplies well- researched anecdotes and unanswered questions about the family’s actions during the sinking.
The Farmer from Merna, by Karl Schriftgiesser (Random House, Inc., 1955) is the authorized biography and history of the State Farm Insurance Companies of Bloomington. He had no connection to the Titanic other than to marry Sylvia Caldwell.
Echoes of Purple and Gold, by your editor (Page Publishing, 2022) tells the story of Lilla Dell Riggs, who survived the sinking of the Columbia off the Pacific coast in 1907. When Mrs. Riggs died in 1963, a headline and the story below it said she was a survivor of the Titanic. She was not.