Officer Claude Henry "C.H." Wyatt
(Dec. 8, 1895 -- Aug. 27, 1919)

Early on the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 27, 1919, an LAPD officer on foot patrol apprehended a burglary suspect at Seventh and Alvarado streets, at the southern corner of MacArthur Park. The officer was able to call for help to transport the suspect to the police station for questioning.

An LAPD patrol car driven by Det. Sgt. Richard Lucas, 27, responded to the call. Lucas was riding with his partner, Officer Claude Henry "C.H." Wyatt, 23. As the patrol car was heading west on Third Street approaching Figueroa Street, a motorcycle driven by 18-year-old Bradford Burgess was heading south on Figueroa.

As the patrol car approached Figueroa, just east of the current location of the Harbor Freeway (Interstate 110), the motorcycle suddenly crossed its path. Lucas swerved in an attempt to avoid a collision, but the motorcycle clipped the front fender of the patrol car.

Lucas lost control of the vehicle, the patrol car slammed into a telegraph pole, and Wyatt was thrown from the passenger seat. According to newspaper reports, "the pole, 20 inches thick, was snapped off like a pipestem. The automobile was almost completely demolished."

Lucas suffered a hip fracture, cuts and bruises. Burgess, the son of LAPD Det. Sgt. Phillip H. Burgess, was knocked from his motorcycle and suffered a concussion and internal injuries. He was taken to California Hospital, at 315 W. Sixth St., where he was initially listed in critical condition, but he eventually recovered from his injuries.

Wyatt was thrown to the pavement and suffered a fractured skull. He was taken to the Central Receiving Hospital on West First Street, where he died that evening.

Claude Henry "C.H." Wyatt was born Dec. 8, 1895, in Mount Sterling, Illinois, a small city in the west-central part of the state, about 130 miles north of St. Louis, Missouri, and 70 miles west of Springfield. He was the youngest of six children born to Lamarcus Henry "Harry" Wyatt, a carpenter, and Alice Belle Kendall Wyatt.

Claude's older siblings were Herbert, born in 1887; Florence, born in 1889; Allen, born in 1891; Helen, born in 1892; and Levina, born in 1894.

By 1900, when Claude was 4 years old, his parents divorced and his father married Zaidel "Zada" Lee, the daughter of Irish immigrants, in Illinois. The following year, Claude's half-brother, Loren, was born.

Claude Wyatt moved from Illinois to California and, on Sept. 28, 1915, he married fellow Mount Sterling native Alta Elita Anderson in Santa Ana, California.

Wyatt died the day after his sister, Levina "Vina" Wyatt, married Frank McCoslin in Cleveland, Ill.

After her husband's death in 1919, less than four years after they were married, 24-year-old Alta Wyatt moved briefly back to Mount Sterling and lived with her parents. Alta married her second husband, Indiana native Edward Jenkins Kershner, on Aug. 24, 1921, in Cook County, Illinois.

In 1930, Alta and Edward Kershner were living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where Edward managed a dry goods store. By 1935, the Kershners moved to Glendale, Calif., where Alta worked as a cashier for a life insurance company. Edward Kershner died on Sept. 20, 1950, at the age of 60, and is interred in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Glendale. Alta Wyatt Kershner died on April 26, 1969, at the age of 75, and is interred with her second husband.

The driver of the patrol car, Richard Lucas, served with the LAPD for 22 years, and rose to the rank of detective lieutenant with the department's vice squad. He died at his home in Los Angeles of heart disease on Jan. 22, 1937, 16 days after his 46th birthday.

The motorcyclist involved in the collision, Bradford Burgess, died in Los Angeles on Dec. 12, 1963, at the age of 62.

Officer Wyatt was buried at Odd Fellows Cemetery in Los Angeles.

His memorial sign is located at the southwest corner of West Third and South Figueroa streets.

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