My 4th great-grandpa, James Cassidy, died quite suddenly:


The Brockton Times, Tuesday, July 23, 1901:

"Stepped to Death - James Cassidy killed while walking railroad track.

Skull badly fractured. He died an hour later on the way to emergency room."


The Brockton Daily Enterprise, Tuesday, July 23, 1901:

"Killed While Crossing Track - James F. Cassidy struck by train this morning."


Both articles are fairly detailed, as to how my grandpa, only 62 years old at the time, was walking on the tracks in Brockton, Massachusetts, heard the train coming, and stepped in its path by accident. Apparently the driver sounded the whistle to alert my grandpa of the oncoming train, but my grandpa became confused.

If he had remained on the track on which he was originally walking, he would have lived.

The first article is quite detailed about the injuries, saying, "...as the blow nearly in the middle of the top of his head crushed through the skull and cuased the gray matter of his brain to ooze out."

Um, ew.

At first when I got his death certificate at the city hall and it said "railroad accident", I thought maybe he was a worker there. But then when I went to the library next door and scrolled through the newspapers for that date, I found the two articles.

That was an interesting day at the library a few summers ago!

Wendy,

I love productive library research. I just recently went to Ponca City's Library and my mother in law read quite a few obits out of a book. She said that there were several reports of people being injured/killed by a train. She said that some of the obits read more like a story book.

I was hoping to find some articles on my family but no luck. However, I did find death dates and burial locations. A worker at the library said that I might look in Kansas for marriage records and such since they lived very close to the state line.

Anyway, what an interesting - yet sad - story.

Donna

that is so sad, but you are so lucky to have the articles!!!

Well, I do like colorful stories to add to my database...but I bet that was more color than you bargained for. Facinating story. I love some of those old obits. And some of the old newspapers werent' shy to give you every gory detail.

Steph

yeah todays obits dont give you any clue as to how the person died unless they request "in lieu of flowers" donations to somewhere that researches diseases

Right; cause of death is rarely listed these days, except in instances of "after a long battle with cancer", which always brings tears to my eyes.

The obit itself was teeny, tiny, but it did mention the pall bearers, all with Irish names. And I have to wonder if any were related to the family... There was a Brady mentioned, and James Cassidy's mother's maiden name was Brady.

So despite the tragedy of his untimely death, my generation definitely has a "colorful" explanation of what happened to him.