COURTNEY, Loris Jarvis - Putnam

For the second time within a month, Waveland has been stirred by tragedy. One of our boys, Loris J. Courtney had his life snuffed out under horrifying circumstances about 5 on Thursday afternoon of last week. Three other men met instant death at the same moment and one other escape by a miracle. Courtney has been running on the local crew for a number of years as brakeman and latterly as extra conductor. But in February last he transferred to the switching crew that handles cars between Midway and Crawfordsville, so that he might be at home on ights with his family in that city. On the fatal evening the crew was taking a train of 10 cars up to Midway, which would have ended the days work. The train was backing on a fill about two miles north of Crawfordsville where the Van crosses the Darlington road when it is supposed the tender, which was light from being nearly empty, jumped the track, throwing the engine and 3 coal cars down the embankmet. Harry Tracy, conductor, JC Derby, engineer and Victor Lemon, fireman were in the cab and are supposed to have been instantly killed. Courtney was on one of the coal cars and was seen to jump just as they were going off, but was caught and buried under 150 tons of coal. The body was not recovered until 8 o'clock on Friday morning. The brother, Lyle Courtney, of Evansville was notified of the accident and arrived just at the hour the body was recovered. Loris Courtney, son of Abraham and Jennie Jarvis Courtney, was born on the Sturgeon farm, south of Miligan August 4, 1885. He grew up in this community and attended our schools. He began work on the Midland but changed over to the Van. He was a boy that everybody liked and a faithful employee. He married Miss Edith Gilkeson who with 4 children survive: Lucille, Marcia, Ronald and Margaret. Funeral services were held at the Baptist Church on Sunday afternoon. Burial at Oak Hill. The Ku Klux Klan had charge of the servies at the grave. Those attending from here were: Mr. and Mrs. Hubert Loudermill, Mrs. Charles Moore, Mr. and Mrs. Milt Heslar, Mr. and Mrs. Guy Durham, Wilder Rinehart, Mrs. Olive Lough, John Gilliland, Willard Jarvis, Ben Canine, Dr. Brason, JS Pickard, Joe Huston and Miss Madge Spruhan. - kbz