Early on the morning of January 8, 1902, two young women, Sadie Scott and Minnie Rice, stood on a snow-covered train platform in New Rochelle, New York, waiting for the 7:48 A.M. express that would take them to their jobs as stenographers in New York City.

Nearby stood F.S. Cowdrey, a banker on Wall Street, and 21-year-old H. Frank Crosby, who worked at the American Locomotive Company on Broad Street.