Spohr - Emory
Source: Crawfordsville Daily Journal 3 August 1891 p 4
When a mile east of Jamestown Saturday night the passengers on the west bound passenger train felt a slight jar, shortly after the engine had whistled for the crossing and soon after the train slowed up and stopped. In a minute or two one trainman was heard to call to another, "there's a buggy top on the pilot." Everyone then knew what had happened and the platforms were crowded with passengers when the train began to back to the crossing. There in the dusty road at the side of the track lay a large horse not yet dead but with its hind quarters crushed. The fragments of a buggy, a black straw hat and a bag of confectionary were also lying there but no human bodies. The trainmen quickly dragged the horse to the roadside and leaving it there proceeded up the ditch on each side of the track swinging their lanterns and looking for the late occupants of the buggy. A hundred yards, perhaps, from the crossing a brakeman who was running up the north side of the track suddenly called out, "Here's one," and there lying in the dry and dusty grass the crowd which quickly collected found the mangled remains of a young man. The body made a most sickening spectacle. The back of the head was torn off and pieces of the skull and brain scattered for some distance along the track. His right arm was cut off as was his left leg below the knee. It took some minutes to find the foot which was some distance from the rest of the body, but it was finally discovered and placed with the other pieces on the bottom of the baggage car. From all indications the trainmen feared that a young lady’s body would also be found but fortunately the buggy had but the one occupant. In the pocket of the coat were found some school receipts in favor of Emory Spohr, and on the side of the track lay the leaves of a small memorandum book all containing scriptural references. A gentleman from this city picked up one of these leaves and upon his arrival at home looked up the reference which was Job 19: 25, and read: “I know that my redeemer liveth and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth.” The verse and chapter are strikingly applicable to the sad misfortune with which the owner of the memorandum had met. The remains were left at the Jamestown station and the undertaker took charge of them until the poor lad’s parents arrived. The funeral occurred yesterday afternoon at 4 o’clock. Emory Spohr lived just in the edge of this county north of New Ross and was a most promising boy. He had attended an ice cream festival at Jamestown Saturday night, and after it had drive a young lady to her home. He was returning when the accident occurred. He had not left her over 15 minutes, cheerful and full of life, until his mangled corpse lay in the railroad ditch. Just how it happened will never be known but he probably miscalculated the distance and the speed of the approaching train. The horse was already over when the buggy which was squarely on the track was struck full center - kbz
Source: Crawfordsville Daily Journal Tuesday 4 August 1891
It seems to be pretty well settled that Emory Spohr, who met a tragic death on the Big Four Saturday night, was asleep when his buggy was struck by the train. He frequently let himself fall asleep while driving at night, his horse always stopping when it reached home. Recently he fell so sound asleep that when he awoke he found that it was three o’clock the horse having stood patiently at the barn yard gate for hours. Saturday night when leaving the young lady at the gate Mr. Spohr remarked that he would probably fall asleep on the way home. She replied that he should at least keep awake until across the railroad track as the fast train would soon be due. He seemed not to have heeded the warning, however, as the engineer who saw the buggy just before it was struck says the horse was jogging quietly across the track and no effort being made to hurry him. Spohr probably never knew what killed him. He was considered a most exemplary young man in the community in which he lived and was to have read a paper before the Epworth League at Jamestown Sunday afternoon. - s
Source: Crawfordsville Daily Journal Tuesday, 29 December 1891
Deaths during 1891
August—Emory Spohr, B. W. Hanna, , A. L. Duckworth, , Isaac Allen, Mrs. J. A. Clark, Robert Carson, James