State Police seek photo of officer killed in 1924

WATERVILLE -- On Aug. 9, 1924 State Highway Patrol Officer Emery O. Gooch of Waterville was riding his state-issued motorcycle home from northern Maine to spend the weekend with his new bride.

He reportedly lost control of his motorcycle on what is now U.S. Route 2 in Mattawamkeag and died a few hours later en route by rail to a Bangor hospital.

Gooch was the first member of State Police to die in the line of duty and no photograph has ever been found of him despite numerous efforts over the years, according to Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen H. McCausland.

"Having been issued a weekend leave of absence, Emery was headed south from northern Maine, presumably for Augusta to drop off the motorcycle before heading home to Waterville," McCausland said. "He had served the State Highway Police that summer, patrolling in Aroostook County."

That was 82 years ago and police are looking for a photograph of Gooch for the state's Fallen Heroes honor roll.

McCausland said Judi Hartley of Corinna, wife of retired state Trooper Darrell Hartley, is completing black and white sketches of the 10 troopers who died in the line of duty between 1924 and 1997. The sketches will hang in the Fallen Heroes conference room at the Department of Public Safety in Augusta.

"Gooch is among the missing and is the only one," McCausland said Tuesday. "We have portraits of each of the other troopers killed in the line of duty; all but Gooch."

According to news stories printed that year in the Morning Sentinel, Gooch had joined the Highway Police earlier in the summer after the end of the school year. He taught automobile mechanics at Waterville Junior High School and was scheduled to return as an instructor for upcoming school year.

Gooch was born in East Machias and he and his family moved to Waterville around 1904, according to McCausland. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. George E. Gooch of 11 Pearl St. He had two sisters, Florence and Violet, and two brothers, Elmer and Phillip.

There are no longer any listings for Gooch in the Waterville telephone directory.

Gooch attended Waterville schools and during World War I, "he did naval work", according to the Sentinel story.

He married Gertrude Mathews on March 25, 1924. It is unknown if the couple had a child during their brief time together.

Gooch's body was found lying on the gravel road over the crest of Sunken Bridge Hill, McCausland said, in a remote area known as "nine miles woods," north of Mattawamkeag.

Two doctors tended to his severe head injuries, but Gooch died about 11 p.m. that night on a train to Bangor. His funeral was held August 13 at his parent's home.

Highway Police Chief Harold Miller and 19 other members of the new department attended the services at the Pine Grove Cemetery in Waterville.

McCausland said that for decades the faces of three motorcycle troopers who died in the line of duty remained a mystery until four years ago when a photo of Frank Wing was found. Trooper Frank Wing died in Millinocket on Aug. 19, 1928.

Trooper Fred Foster died in Belfast on Aug. 20, 1925. Last summer Foster was located in a group photo discovered in an attic in Oxford County.

"Now only Gooch's portrait is missing among the ten state troopers who have died in the line of duty between 1924 and 1997," McCausland said. "Over the years, some members of the Gooch family have been contacted and an ad was placed in the classified section of the Waterville Sentinel last summer seeking yearbooks that might have contained his photo."

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