Published in The Pilot, 3/18/1897

Last Tuesday W.F. Cochran, a deaf and dumb boy, was run down and killed by the Lincoln passenger train, about one-half mile west of the Blair passenger depot. The young man was twenty-two years of age and was visiting his uncle of this place. His father arrived from Council Bluffs in the evening of the same day. The remains were taken to the Bluffs for interment. The finding of the coroner’s jury, composed of W.W. McKenney, J.R. Smock, M. Buchanan, Jacob Short, E. Gilliam, John J. Cooper, and Wm. Quinlin, exonerates the train men from all responsibility in connection with the accident.