Clark - Edna - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

The five year old daughter of Wm Clark, living near Clark’s Hill, was killed by the cars on the Clover Leaf Road last Saturday. She was attempting to cross the track and the engineer of a passenger train did not notice her until too late to stop the train. – thanks so much to “S” – one great typist

Source: Lafayette Weekly Journal 13 April 1894 (Friday)

The westbound passenger train on the Clover Leaf killed a little girl at Clark's Hill about 9 o'clock Saturday morning and the circumstances attending the accident were pathetic in the extreme. On July 21, at the same hour and within 10' of the place where the child's body was found, Isaac Wall committee suicide by throwing himself under a Clover Leaf passenger train going in the same direction.  The coincidence would be tragically complete if it was known that the same train cause the death of both but that fact could not be ascertained.

Saturday morning Mr. and Mrs. William C. Clark who reside about wto blocks from the fatal railroad crossing permitted their little daughter to leave the house for the first time since the winter has broken to play with her companions. Edna was their only daughter, a beautiful child whose third birthday would have come with the roses of June an idolized member of the family whom all loved devotedly. She had a little playmate, three-year-old Stella Campbell and that morning these little ladies, their dolls tucked away in tiny carriages, prattled innocently as they pushed their doll carriages down the road toward the railroad.  John Roberts lives near the railroad and was burning brush.  He saw the little girls going toward the railroad and warned them back.  He returned to the rear of his premises to get some more brush and forgot about the children until he heard an engine whistle for the crossing.  Then the children came to his mind, and urged on by a premonition of impending danger he dropped an arm load of brush and ran as swiftly as possible toward the railroad crossing.  The road curves within about 50' of the railroad track.  As he rounded this curve he saw one of the little girls standing about 10' from the south side of the track. The engine was then on the crossing.  He could not see the other child until the train passed. Then he saw her lying on the north side of  side of the track side of the track almost against the rail.  He ran to her, picked her up and carried her into the nearest house. She as unconscious and blood flowed from wounds on her head.  A physician was called and the parents notified. In half an hour Edna Clark was dead.  Her skull had been fractured on the back part of the head and her left leg was broken below the knee.  She died without regaining consciousness. The engineer says that when the engine reached the crossing the little girl was 10' from the track.  It is believed that the noise of the train bewildered and frightened her and that she ran against it. The steps on one of the car platforms struck her and knocked her down. She fell in such a way that neither arm or limn fell across the rail. Mr. and Mrs. Clark, who rank as one of the leading families of the village are heart broken and the mother refuses to be comforted.  No sadder accident has ever happened in the county.,  Coroner Davidson visited Clark's Hill Saturday afternoon to view the body preparatory to the inquest. - kbz