“In 1919, Dr. Kalbfus, Dr. Penrose, Woody Kelly and I were on a trip locating game refuges,” a colleague of Kalbfus wrote. “One Sunday we were about ten miles below Warren, Pa., on a main highway.”

Elias Woodward Kelly was a field supervisor from DuBois.

“He had been connected with the game department of the state for many years and has traveled extensively throughout this portion of the commonwealth,” the DuBois Morning Courier reported in 1914 and part of his findagrave.com page. “He was regarded as a man fearless in the execution of his duty and one who would not tolerate any infringements of the game laws.”

He was originally born in Indiana County and was 55 in 1919.

A photo of Dr. Joseph Kalbfus published in a pamphlet from a plaque dedication ceremony in 1940.

“Woody had a new car…. A few minutes after I left Woody’s car, he and Dr. Kalbfus were killed at a railroad crossing. It was a terrible calamity, and a great loss tot he sportsmen, for both these men were experts in their line.”

That brings us back to the Officers Down Memorial Page, Inc. page on the August 10, 1919 incident.

“Chief Game Protector Joseph Kalbfus and Field Superintendent Woody Kelly were killed when their patrol car was struck by a ‘fast express’ train in Warren County, Pennsylvania,” the page states in describing the incident. “The two were traveling from DuBois to Warren as part of their inspection of the state game preserves. About 12:15 p.m., Superintendent Kelly was driving across a track crossing near Sheffield when the express train rounded a curve and struck the car. Dr. Kalbfus was thrown from the vehicle and died instantly while Kelly was pinned between the wreckage of the car and the locomotive. This crossing was in a dangerous location and was the scene of another accident about a week earlier.”

The Kalbfus Rod & Gun Club on Chapman Dam Road – formed in 1927 and incorporated in 1932 as well as named in his memory – has a link on their website to a 2014 Steppin’ Out article written by Scott Canfield that provides further details on the accident.

That article explains that it was the Pennsylvania Railroad Express train No. 3914 “consisting of the engine, coach, baggage car and caboose.

A photo of Woody Kelly courtesy of odmp.org.

“The train was reputed to be maxing out at a top speed of 60 mph as it approached Dr. Kalbfus’ car. Without any warning and before anyone could realize what was happening, the train slammed full on square into the Dodge Automobile. The impact was so intense according to eyewitnesses that the car was smashed into kindling, tossed up and onto the engine and carried for a distance of about 800 feet before coming to a stop.

“A witness for the Clearfield Progress testified that he saw the train a minute or two before it crashed at the crossing. He went on to say that the train was running at a high rate of speed and easily passed him as he was driving at 45 mph. The Progress went on to record the engineer’s word when he stated that he never saw the car until the pilot of the engine was almost touching it! As an eyewitness, L.H. Snap of Clarendon testified for the Warren Evening Mirror that he was looking down the track towards the crossing when he heard a great crash. A huge cloud of dust arose and out of the cloud the body of a man was catapulted into the air. Then as the train emerged from the dust he could see an automobile wrapped about the front of the engine:

Snap added that “the man who was ejected was obviously Dr. Kalbfus who landed to the side of the track and broke his back and legs inflicting instant death on him. I could see Mr. Kelly was pinned between the car and the engine and was badly crushed. He had many broken bones including both legs, his arm and hand.”

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Kalbfus was recognized with a plaque in the State Capital in a 1940 ceremony which was the focus of the pamphlet held in the Penn State library.

“Through his love of fellow men, Dr. Kalbfus’ love of nature was boundless; he was a great power for good.”

Gov. Arthur James spoke at the gathering.

“It is especially fitting when a man who has given as much to Pennsylvania, in a day when it was rather unpopular, very unpopular, that a man be denied the right to fish as he pleased and to hunt as he pleased, to do what he would in the spirit of a free country, tried to do the greatest good for the greatest number, not with the selfish idea of what he could get. And it was with that spirit that Dr. Kalbfus contributed his services to the cause,” he said.

In 2013, Kalbfus and Kelly were added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C.

While we’ve already discussed Kalbfus’ accomplishments, a Game Commission released when their names were added states that Kelly “was instrumental in the development of the state’s game-refuge system to restore beleaguered wildlife populations in the early 20th century.”

Kalbfus was killed at the age of 67 and is buried in Bradford County while Kelly was 55 at the time of the accident and was laid to rest in Clairfield County.