Swearingen - Warren - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

Sunday morning at three o’clock Warren Swearengen received probably fatal injuries while alighting from a Monon freight train at the Market Street crossing

The unfortunate young man is twenty years of age and is a son of Charles Swearengen, of Crawford Street.  He had been employed until about two weeks ago as lineman for the Home Telephone Company, leaving its employ to take a position with the long distance company. He was working last week with a gang near Danville, Ind., and in the evening started for home to spend Sunday. He reached Greencastle and there finding freight train number 83 about to pull out, he climbed into a box car. In the car he found a tramp and the two men rode together as far as Crawfordsville. For some reason Swearengen did not get off at the junction but concluded to wait until Market Street crossing was reached. When this place was approached, he opened the west door and holding onto the floor of the car with his elbows he swung his legs down until his feet rested on the hog chain, the long iron bar extending under the car from one end to the other. Bracing his feet against this he gave himself a swing to throw himself several feet away from the train, which was then running only four or five miles an hour. Had it not been for an unlooked for accident he would have succeeded in his calculation. Just as he threw his weight against the hog chain and let go, the floor of the car with his elbows, the heel of his shoe pulled off by reason of the weight thrown against it and caused him to slip under the wheels. His right leg was crushed to a pulp and his left foot terribly crushed and mangled. The tramp who had been in the car with him saw him slip and heard his shriek as he went under the wheels. He at once leaped from the car himself and ran at full speed to the station where he informed Conductor Morgan and Engineer Frank Tyler, who had stopped for water that a man had been badly hurt or killed by the train a little way back. They inquired of him how the accident occurred and on learning declined to sacrifice their time to go back. They telephoned the police station, however, and also called up Dr. Ensminger, the road’s surgeon. Having given the alarm the tramp disappeared, probably going back to his car. No one saw him after he notified the trainmen of the accident and Swearengen, who rode with him from Greencastle, has no idea who the fellow was.

Officer Clarence Patton was the first man to reach the victim of the accident who lay in a pool of blood just north of the crossing. He was groaning piteously and stated to the officer that he had lost his legs and regretted that he had not been killed outright. Officer Doyle, who had phoned for a cab and had notified the father of Swearengen, soon arrived with several other people and the mangled boy was placed in a conveyance and taken home. He begged to be taken to a hospital or boarding house, declaring that he did not wish to give his father and sister trouble, but his wish in this matter was of course disregarded.

At the home Dr. Ensminger assisted by Dr. Ristine, amputated the boy’s right leg at the knee joint and his left foot just above the ankle. It was thought that the patient would hardly survive the operation and both before and after it he expressed a desire to die. All day Sunday he seemed on the point of death, and had the end occurred at any hour the physicians would not have been greatly surprised.

Warren Swearengen is the son of Charles Swearengen, an employee of the coffin factory. His mother is dead and he has one brother, Walter, and one sister, Mrs. Alva Moore. He has always been an industrious young man and a general favorite among his friends.