Week 33--Tragedy—Death by Train

As I search my database for a person to fit this theme, I came across several who came to tragic deaths. Some by their own hand, some by accidental shootings, and some by accidents involving transportation.

This story is about Joseph McFall (1836-1908) who met an untimely death on 6 January 1908, when he was run over by a Chicago, Elgin & Aurora train near the Seventeenth Avenue station in Maywood, a suburb north of Chicago, Illinois.[1] 

The newspaper was rather graphic about the condition of his body; even the headline was sensational: “Cut to Pieces; Son Sees it.” That probably got everyone to read the article. [If you don't want to read the graphic description, skip the newspaper article.]

It seems that the seventy-two-year-old had poor eyesight and perhaps didn’t see the fast-traveling train coming as he was crossing the tracks near the station. He was cut up pretty badly and because of the speed of the train, parts were flung far.

What was most sad, was his son, Joseph H., witnessed the accident. It turns out that they thought it was a local train and probably traveling at a much slower speed. The son crossed and told his dad to wait, as he would hold the train, but somehow, the elder man did not hear him or did not understand.

Joseph was familiar with trains. He worked as a chief car inspector for the Pennsylvania lines at Indianapolis but had been retired for ten years. They had moved to Maywood last April. Perhaps Joseph was not as familiar with the train schedules at this place.

Joseph was the husband of my husband’s great-grandaunt, Catharine Rose Davey, who was the sister of his great-grandfather, Frederick Henry Davey. Besides their son, Joseph, Joseph and Rose had two daughters: Sue, who went by a stage name of Julia Gray, and Mary, who went by a stage name of May Noble. Both were actresses.

This is my fourth year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

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[1] “Cut to Pieces; Son Sees It,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 7 January 1908, p. 5.

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