N&W in 1910--Accident

[NW Mailing List]

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
August 16, 1910

STRUCK BY TRAIN
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Eugene Wade, Colored, Instantly Killed Monday Morning
    Eugene Wade, colored, was killed Sunday morning on the Coopers hill by the engine of train No. 4, which was driven by Engineer Morrisette.  General Superintendent George P. Johnson was on the engine when the fatal accident occurred.  It seems that Wade, who was about forty years of age, was standing on the track watching a train passing over the western viaduct at Coopers and did not hear the passenger train crawling up on him.  The curve and steep grade at Coopers prevented the engineer from seeing the man until he was upon him and Wade was instantly killed.  His remains were turned over to Ballard Wade, a relative, at Simmons, and prepared for burial.  The Norfolk and Western assumed the burial expenses and gave the body to the relatives at their request.  It was considered an unavoidable death and as the man was a trespasser no other report was made of it.
    Yesterday morning, however, the matter was again brought to the attention of the railroad authorities when the coffin containing the body was found on the station platform where it had been carried during the night by some of the people to whom it had been turned over.  The people at the station did not know what to do when they found a dead body had been left on their hands and the matter was reported to the offices in this city.  The local officials advised that the body be buried, which was done along the railroad right-of-way.  This is the first time in years that a body has been placed on the station platform unknown to the officials.  There have been a number of cases where relatives have refused to take the bodies of their relatives, but it is seldom that the body is returned after the relatives have accepted it and signified their intention of burying it.
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[A Feb. 19, 1909, article posted on the Mailing List about two deaths on the tracks at Graham, VA, ended about one of them, " ...the railroad company gave the body a decent burial on their right of way near the west end tower where sleep a number of unfortunates who met death in a similar manner and were buried by the company."  I speculated then, "I wonder how many instances of bones being found occurred on the N&W during later-day excavations for utilities, etc."]

Gordon Hamilton
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