TRAIN KILLS TWO

Everett Wallace, aged about 21, and Aleck Hineline, aged about 16, were instantly killed at the DeSoto crossing yesterday noon and Frank Wallace and another son about 6 years old were seriously injured while attempting to cross the track in an automobile.

From what can be learned Frank Wallace was driving the car, and from the report of those who witnessed the accident must have heard the train whistle because he slowed down his car, but just as he was about to stop started it up again, getting the front wheels across the track. The rear wheels were hit, and the occupants thrown out, Everett Wallace and Aleck Hineline being thrown high into the air and instantly killed.

Mr. Wallace and the younger son were so badly injured that they were placed on board the train and taken to Omaha for treatment.

At the time of the accident a northbound freight train was standing on the side track at DeSoto and its conductor yelled at Wallace to inform him of their danger, but he kept right on going. It is thought that Wallace figured that he could make the crossing, not dreaming that the passenger train was so close.

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 wended 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 on the railroad for a time. He was well liked and highly respected by all who knew him.

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.

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