KILLED BY CARS

On last Tuesday evening word reached town that a little girl, daughter of Wm. Hass, who lives on the Rathmann farm near Fort Calhoun, had been run over and killed by the south-bound train on the O. & N..N.R.R.

The trainmen sent Tim Daily, section boss at Fort Calhoun, up to Blair to notify the Coroner, and at the inquest held on Wednesday morning the following facts were elicited:

The girl, aged nine years, was engaged in herding cattle, while her father was plowing corn near by; her little brothers and sisters, who assisted her in herding, were over near where her father was. The engineers and fireman on the train testified that they first saw her lying on the track when within about two hundred feet of her, and the engineer says that he thought it “was a bundle of rags” and didn’t “slow up” the train (which was going at the rate of about 22 miles per hour) until the little one raised up. The engine was then within 100 feet of her and then he reversed his engine, too late, of course, to stop the train until it had passed over her body and considerable distance beyond.

Her father stated that she was in the habit of going onto the railroad track as the weeds and grass were kept down there and there was not so much danger of snakes and for the further reason that the track was elevated at this point and she could command a better view of the cattle.

From all the evidence it seems that the little one had lain down on the track and fell asleep.

Where the accident occurred there is a straight piece of track for nearly two miles and the weeds are kept cleaned off close so that it seems remarkable, almost, that she should have not been discovered long before the train reached the spot described by the engineer and fireman. The plea of the engineer that he “thought it was a bundle of rags” seems to be very thinnest of pretest and had better not have been made. For no careful engineer would take chances of running over even “a bundle of rags” in such a place without an effort to stop his engine.

It is evident, from all the circumstances in the case, that the engineer was guilty of gross neglect of duty or else he would have discovered on the track in time to have stopped his train and this seems to be the prevailing opinion of all who have heard the case stated.

We see the Omaha papers state that the verdict of the coroner’s Jury was that “no blame is attached to the company of employees.” This is not true; the verdict of the Coroner’s Jury is published below:

The Verdict. State of Nebraska, Washington County, At an inquest held at the farm of John Rathmann in Calhoun precinct, Washington county, Nebraska, on the 16th day of June 1880, before me, Est. Pierce, Coroner of said county, upon the body of Elizabeth Haas, lying dead, by the jurors whose names are hereto subscribed, the jurors upon their oath say the deceased came to her death by being run over by a passenger train on the Omaha division of St. P. & S. R. R. Theo Haller, T. S. Heck, W. D. Haller, F. W. Kenny, C. Steppler, John Rathmann

(Burial was in Fort Calhoun Cemetery.)

Find A Grave Memorial# 18175579