Edward Sheldon Killed by a Train at McLean

 

 



Keenan's Crossing, 1/2 mile southwest of McLean, N.Y.

Cortland Evening Standard, Monday, December 7, 1896.

INSTANTLY KILLED.

EDWARD SHELDON STRUCK BY A TRAIN AT MCLEAN.

Riding in a Top Carriage—One Horse Killed, the Other Badly Hurt—The Warning Was Ample as the Whistle Blew Again and Again.

   Edward Sheldon, a resident of the town of Dryden, aged about seventy years, was struck by a Lehigh Valley train at McLean this morning and instantly killed.

   Mr. Sheldon was driving a spirited team attached to a top buggy. He had been to McLean and was just starting back home when the accident occurred. He was killed at the Keenan crossing one-half mile west of McLean, where the highway crosses the track at an angle of about thirty degrees. Mr. Sheldon had just reached the track when passenger train No. 147 came in sight from the west. Engineer Thomas J. Durand blew the whistle at the quarter mile line, as is the custom at all crossings, and continued the whistling as he saw the team was very close to the track. Mr. Sheldon was either deaf and did not hear the approaching train until too late or thought he had time to get across, as the horses were seen to rear just before being struck, as though being suddenly pulled backwards by the reins. The train must have hit the rear of the horses for they were hurled into a ditch at the right, while Mr. Sheldon's body was found at the left of the track about seventy-five feet from where he was struck. The carriage was totally demolished.

   Mr. Sheldon was instantly killed, his head apparently having been hit by the pilot of the engine, as a portion of his brain was noticed there afterward.

   The remains were brought on the train to McLean and a coroner from Ithaca notified. One of the horses was impaled and died at once and it is thought the other horse may live.

   Mr. Sheldon was a widower and resided with his son, Charles Sheldon, about two and one-half miles southwest of McLean in the town of Dryden. He leaves two other sons, Benjamin and Frank Sheldon.

   It seems that no blame can be attached to Engineer Durand, as several persons who were on the train say that the whistle was blown and that the warning was ample.

   The place where the accident occurred was near the place where Mrs. Honora Keenan was killed by a train last summer.

 

Vital Statistics.

   Health Officer W. J. Moore has the following vital statistics recorded for the month of November:

   Total deaths 12—males 5, females 7; social condition—married 9, widowed 3: nativity—United States 12; ages—between twenty and thirty 1, between thirty and forty 3, between forty and fifty 2, between fifty and sixty 2, between sixty and seventy 1, between seventy and eighty 2, between eighty and ninety 1; causes of death—consumption 3, cerebral hemorrhage 1, chloroform poisoning 1, diabetes mellitus 1, gastric fever 1, heart disease 3, paralysis 2; total births— 9—males 4; females 5; marriages 3.

 

Mrs. Potter Released.

   The Syracuse Journal of Saturday night says: "The authorities have discovered that Mrs. Emma Potter of Cortland, who was arrested Thursday for shoplifting, is a morphine fiend, and a kleptomaniac. None of the firms who suffered were willing to appear against her, so Justice Thomson sent her home with her husband this afternoon."