Shadeland, Indiana Train Wreck
September 9, 1910
Soldier Ground to Death by I.U.T. Car
A soldier, practically identified as
Private William J. Hengen,
Company F, Twenty-sixth United States Infantry,
was struck and instantly killed last night at
8:15 o’clock near Shadeland crossing, a short
distance this side of Fort Benjamin Harrison, by
an inbound Muncie car on the Indiana Union
traction line.
Although the body of the soldier was so badly
mangled that it was impossible to distinguish
the features, it was almost positively
identified by the color of the hair as that of
Private Hengen by
Corporal A. E. Coates and
Private James Henderson, who belong
to Company F. Private Hengen was missing from
the Maneuver Camp last night.
The car which killed the soldier was in charge
of Motorman John
Matheney of Indianapolis, who said
that he sounded a warning, but was unable to
check the car’s speed before it struck the man.
A train was passing on the Big Four tracks,
which run parallel to those of the I.U.T. and it
may have been that
Hengen did not hear the whistle. He
was walking toward the car, which was running at
a high rate of speed.
Both legs were severed and the chest was
crushed.
ON WAY TO MEET SISTER.
Hengen left
the Maneuver Camp at 1 o’clock, having said that
his sister, Miss Rose
Hengen, would arrive during the
afternoon from Chicago, Ill., and that he wished
to meet her. At the camp last night it was said
that Hengen was a man of good habits and that he
rarely drank. He enlisted Sept. 16, 1908, and it
was his first enlistment. His regular station
was at Sault Ste, Marle, Mich. His home was on
East Union street, Lafayette, Ind.
The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, IN 22
Sept 1910
Transcribed by
Loraine Jordan. Thank you, Loraine!
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