Cannady - Josie - railroad - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

The many friends of Miss Josie Cannady, late of this city, will be pained to learn of her tragic death at Indianapolis on May 14. Miss Cannady was a most deserving young lady. She came here poor and friendless but with a determination to win her way. She worked out at the homes of Ben Myers, C. A. Miller, W. W. Seawright and others and managed by hard labor to earn enough to take a course in the Business College here. Several months ago she was enabled to obtain a position in Indianapolis and went there, where she last week met her death, the following account of which is clipped from the Indianapolis News:

Josie Cannady, a woman twenty years old, was run over by a Pan Handle freight train at the Rural Street crossing of the Belt Road, near Brightwood, this morning about 8:30 o’clock. Her body was cut in two across the abdomen, several cars crossing over it. The train was going west at a slow rate of speed, they said, and they whistled and shouted a warning, but she failed to heed it as she crossed the track. Their statements were confirmed by John Owens and John F. Fisse, spectators.

Miss Cannady had lived with her sister, Mrs. Turner Brown. She was employed at night at the Indianapolis bicycle chain works. After breakfast she went to Brightwood to see her sister. Miss Cannady brought her sister’s little boy back with her to Rural Street and then started to Huffman’s boarding house, two blocks away, to see if she could rent rooms for her sister and herself. On her way she called upon a neighbor, Mrs. Fisse, and during the visit appeared to be in good humor and talked pleasantly. Mrs. Fisse was the last person who spoke to her, and so contradicts the impression that the young woman committed suicide on account of despondency arising from family trouble.

The engine was reversed and the brakes applied so promptly that the long train was brought to a stop within a short distance. The wheels of the engine and seven cars passed over her, and the body was carried about thirty feet from the crossing. She wore a leather belt and the wheels cut the body right at the belt, the two parts being held together mainly by the clothes.

The trainmen moved the body from under the wheels to the side of the track, where it awaited the coroner. After he had looked upon it, it was removed to Whitsett’s morgue. The face bore no sign that she knew that death was near. The theory accepted by her relatives and friends is that she was in a deep study and unconscious of things occurring around her. Her last words to Mrs. Fisse were, “Well, I must be going. I haven’t had any sleep yet. It’s a cool day and I ought to get a good sleep today. Good bye.”