# 1 - - published in The Tribune, June 3, 1914

DEATH LURKS AT CROSSING

ALEX WALLACE AND EVERETT HINELINE ARE DEAD; FRANK WALLACE AND SON, RUSSELL, ARE SEVERELY INJURED

TRAIN STRIKES THEIR AUTO AT DE SOTO

AUTOMOBILE REDUCED TO A MASS OF BENT AND TWISTED STEEL AND INJURED ARE PINNED BENEATH THE RUINS. DEAD ARE THROWN 150 FEET DOWN THE TRACK

Everett Hineline and Alex Wallace are dead and Frank Wallace and Russell Wallace, a 9-year-old son of Frank Wallace are frightfully injured as a result of the 11:05 passenger out of Blair striking an automobile driven by Frank Wallace at the DeSoto crossing this Wednesday morning, June 3, 1914.

Frank Wallace and his sons, Alex and Russell and Everett Hineline had just been at the De Soto store doing some trading and had started home, going east, and according to bystanders, they thought that Mr. Wallace had heard the engine whistle, but thought it was farther away and that he could clear the track. As he passed the depot, he saw the on-coming train and gave the auto all she had, and the wheels were fairly lifted from the ground as the machine took the extra power. But it was too late and the engine struck the auto in the rear with such force that the front end of the car was swung into the engine, reducing it to a mass of scrap iron.

Everett Hineline and Alex Wallace were riding in the back seat and were thrown against the boiler-head of the engine with a force that crushed both their heads, and the impact threw them about one hundred and fifty feet down the track. Mr. Wallace, Sr., was picked up from under the ruins of his machine and was quite severely injured. His young son, Russell, was pulled out of the debris by Ole Michaelson and was found to be injured in the back and crushed in the stomach and bowels. Frank Wallace and his son, Russell, were put on the train and rushed to a hospital in Omaha. Dr. Clark of Herman was on the train and rendered aid to the injured and accompanied them on to the hospital.

The remains of Alex Wallace and Everett Hineline were taken in charge by Coroner Pierce and placed in the morgue at Blair.

# 2 - - from The Enterprise, June 5, 1914

FATAL AUTO ACCIDENT

ALECK WALLACE AND E. HINELINE INSTANTLY KILLED

LOCOMOTIVE STRIKES AUTOMOBILE

TRAIN NO. 1 ON THE OMAHA CRASHED INTO CAR AT DE SOTO STATION - - TWO DEAD AND TWO BADLY HURT

Aleck Wallace, aged 21, son of Frank Wallace and Everett Hineline, aged 16, son of Frank Hineline, were killed at 11:20 A.M. last Wednesday and Frank Wallace and his son, Russell, aged 9 years, were dangerously if not fatally injured on the crossing at De Soto station when the auto in which they were riding was struck by the south-bound passenger train on the Omaha road at the crossing at De Soto station. Wallace lives about a mile and a half from the station on the east side of the railroad track and had driven his Ford car from home to the postoffice near the station to get the mail and make some purchases at the store and his two sons and young Hineline accompanying him, the accident occurring as they were returning home. Frank was driving the car and his young son, Russell, was in the front seat with him, Aleck and Everett occupying the back seat. The train was at full speed, 35 miles an hour and the locomotive struck the auto a little back of the center, throwing the occupants of the back seat 150 feet along the side of the track south of the crossing and when reached by the freight train crew that was sidetracked there, were both dead.

“The car was overturned and landed in a ditch at the edge of the road with Mr. Wallace and Russell under it. Mr. Wallace was unconscious and an examination showed him to be badly bruised and suffering from a broken leg, while the lad, Russell, was not seriously injured.

The train backed up to the scene of the accident and word sent to Mrs. Wallace who, with another son hurried to the station and were taken to Omaha with Mr. Wallace and the injured lad who were rushed to the Methodist hospital on arrival at Omaha.

Those who saw the accident say that Mr. Wallace appeared to slow down his car just as he reached the crossing and the conductor of the freight states he thought Mr. Wallace intended to stop, but just as his car was almost at a standstill, he threw in the clutch and went ahead.

Dr. P. J. Clark, of Herman, was on the train and gave every aid possible to the injured, staying by them during the balance of the trip to the city and seeing that they were placed in the hospital.”

Undertaker Stanley Pierce went down with the ambulance and brought the bodies of Aleck and Everett to Blair and an inquest was held Thursday at 10 A.M., the jury rendering the following verdict:

“At an inquest holden in Blair, in Washington county, Nebraska, on the 4th day of June, A.D., 1914, before me, E. C. Pierce, Coroner of said county upon the bodies of Aleck Wallace and E. Hineline lying dead, by the jurors whose names are hereunto subscribed, the said jurors on their oath do say that the said Aleck Wallace and E. Hineline came to their death June 3, 1914, by being in an auto and struck by engine on train No. 1, while crossing the road at De Soto station. No blame is attached to train crew on train No. 1. (signed) Hugh Cooke, D. Henningsen, J. C. Rosenbaum, C. M Roush, F. A. Abbot, Ed Jones.”

Frank Wallace is one of the best known farmers of the county his farm and home being alongside of the railroad track a mile and a half south of De Soto station.

His daughter was to have been married at 3 P.M. at the family home on the day of the accident to Pete Jones, son of Mrs. H. L. Jones of this city, who came down from Montana where he is homesteading, to take his bride to their northern home.

Funeral services will be held at the Methodist church here today, the burial at the Blair cemetery.

(typed as printed in the newspaper.)

Blair Democrat 11 June 1914

Train Crew Held Blameless

At the coroner’s inquest over the bodies of Everett Hineline and Aleck Wallace held at the city hall in Blair last Thursday, a verdict was rendered exonerating the crew of the passenger train whose engine struck the automobile in which the deceased boys had been riding.

The jury consisted of Hugh Cooke, D. Henninger, J. C. Rosenbaum, C. M. Roush, F. A. Abbott and Ed Jones, who listened to the evidence for nearly three hours before returning a verdict. The fireman, engineer and conductor of the train were among the witnesses examined, as well as the two Michaelson boys, Clyde Allen, Hans Schumacher and others.

The inquest attracted quite a number of our people, and the evidence produced showed that the engineer had whistled both for the station and crossing and that the view of the oncoming train was not obstructed by the freight train standing on a siding as was at first reported. The freight train was on the siding south of the depot and the view between the elevator and depot was only partially obstructed by the trees.

Just why Mr. Wallace nearly stopped his car and then started again will probably never be known, but the theory has been advanced that he became excited and instead of putting his foot on the brake pedal pressed down on the clutch pedal with his other foot, thus sending the car forward too late to either stop it before the train was on them and too late to clear the track.

Hundreds of people have visited the scene of the accident and viewed what is left of the Ford auto which Mr. Wallace was driving. The bodies of young Hineline and Wallace were thrown fully one hundred and fifty feet down the track and there were holes in the ground where they struck.

Blair Democrat 11 June 1914

Funeral Largely Attended

The funeral of Everett Hineline and Aleck Wallace, the two young men who were killed last Wednesday morning at DeSoto while crossing the track in an automobile, was held Friday afternoon from the Methodist church and was very largely attended by sorrowing friends and relatives.

It was a double funeral, the procession to the cemetery being headed by the two hearses, and as the procession woended its way through the streets it cast a shadow of gloom over our people whose hearts went out in sympathy to the sorrowing relatives.

Rev. G. B. Warren conducted the services and in his address spoke words of cheer and comfort to the afflicted ones and commented on the sadness of the occasion in the death of two of our stalwart young men, Hineline being only about 15 years old, and the Wallace boy but 24 years of age.

Everett Hineline was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Hineline, old and respected residents of the DeSoto neighborhood, and was a bright young lad who was a favorite among the boys of that neighborhood. Aleck Wallace was born in Cuming City township and was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Wallace. He moved with his parents to DeSoto a number of years ago, and later followed the occupation of a brakeman n the railroad for a time. He was well liked and highly respected by all who knew him.

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~