Last Saturday morning Blair was visited by a frightful railroad accident in which Paul Elsner, a brakeman on the M. & O., whose home is Sioux City, was killed. It seems that the morning freight from Omaha was making a flying switch and brakeman Elsner was attending the switch, but stepped in front of the car to attend to a coupling. His foot, it seemed, got caught in the rails somehow, and while pinned down, the car passed over him severing both limbs above the knee and horribly mangling his right arm.

Little is known here of Mr. Elsner. Rumor has it, and it seems to be well founded, that on the 16th of this month he was to have been married and that his household furniture was on the train.

Coroner Pierce at once summoned a jury who after hearing all the evidence both of the train crew and B. M. Mohr, who witnessed the accident from the hotel north of the depot, rendered a verdict completely exonerating the train crew.

Two brothers of the unfortunate brakeman came down from Sioux City in the evening and returned with the remains Sunday morning.

Mr. Mohr was the principal witness to the accident. He was sitting on the hotel porch within 300 feet of the car. In his testimony, he stated that when Elsner was caught, he grasped wildly at the on coming car, first throwing himself inside the car, then outside as far as possible. Mr. Elsner lived about forty minutes after the accident and was conscious up to the very last.

#2 Printed in the Thursday, August 16, 1900 Courier, Blair, Nebraska About 9 o’clock last Saturday morning Paul Elsner, a brakeman, was run over while in discharge of his duties, by freight train No. 16, in charge of conductor Hopkins. The train was the regular way freight and was making up its train preparatory for getting out of town. Some switching was being done just opposite the old Dixon hotel north of the tracks on the M. & O. and Mr. Elaner stepped between the cars to spread a knuckle on one of the patent couplers, presumably running along with the train, when his foot must have been caught between the two rails just this side of the switch, throwing him under the wheels, which passed over his legs close up to the body and crushing his left arm in two places. His left leg was completely ground to a pulp and bits of flesh were strewn along the track for a short distance. Dr. Bedal was immediately summoned, but the injury was too great for human skill to master and death relieved the sufferer in about twenty-five minutes after the accident. Deceased was about 24 years of age and was a resident of Sioux City, where he resided with his parents. He was a sober, industrious, young man and was to have been married in a short time, having already purchased his household furniture. As soon as death had claimed its own, willing hands carried the remains to the depot, where an inquest was held, the verdict rendered in accordance with the facts set forth above. The remains were taken to Sioux City the following day.

~~~Obituaries courtesy of Washington County Genealogical Association; newspaper clippings on file at the Public Library, Blair, Nebraska ~~~