Junction City, Wisconsin
Train Accident
August 4, 1913
MAN MEETS DEATH UNDER SOO FREIGHT
James Wade, Lowell, Massachusetts,
Instantly Killed at Junction City.
JOHN WADE [sic], a laborer with a Soo line
extra steel gang at Withee was run over and
instantly killed by northbound local freight
train No. 37, in charge of Conductor John Ray
and Engineer C. E. Gardineer, just west of the
depot at Junction City, at about 7 o'clock this
morning.
According to an eye witness of the accident,
Wade attempted to board the train as it was in
motion. He fell beneath the wheels and his body
was severed at the haps. Coroner Boston of this
city was called and brought the remains here
this afternoon. No inquest will be held as from
all indications Wade's death resulted entirely
from his own carelessness. It is said that he
had been paid his wages on Saturday night and
had come to this city, where he drank a
considerable quantity of liquor. He beat his way
to Junction, City on the same train under which
he met death, leaving the train there to secure
a lunch.
Letters found in Wade's clothes lead to the
belief that his home is in Lowell,
Massachusetts, where he has a mother and a
sister. He was about twenty years of age.
Stevens point daily Journal, Stevens
Point, WI 4 Aug 1913
THE FATALITY AT JUNCTION CITY
Name of Unfortunate Young Man Was James
Ward Instead of James Wade.
The similarity in the names "James Wade" and
"James Ward" occasioned a number of mis-statements
in the article relating to the fatality that
occurred at Junction City Monday morning and
which was contained in that evening's Journal.
James Wade was a laborer employed with a Soo
lone steel gang having rails at Withee. He was
paid off on Saturday evening and of course had
Sunday to himself.
When the news of the death of the young man
under freight train No. 37 was received over the
wires the local Soo officials quite naturally
took it for granted that the victim was James
Wade. Instead the man's name was James Ward and
he was in no way connected with the Soo line,
except that he had been riding on that company's
trains. When the accident occurred Ward was in
company with Thomas Pickering Both were from
Lowell, Massachusetts, but until June of this
year, when they met at Detroit, they had never
know each other. Pickering, according to the
deposition taken by Coroner Boston, was employed
in a motor shop at Detroit, while Ward had a
position in a creamery in the same city. They
left Detroit together on Friday, August 1, and
went to Chicago, by way of Gary Indiana. They
reached Chicago in the evening of the same day
and went to the yards of the Chicago, Milwaukee
& St. Paul railway. On Saturday afternoon they
left for Milwaukee on a freight train, reaching
there at 11 o'clock in the evening. At 12:30
o'clock Sunday morning they boarded a Soo line
freight out of Milwaukee and arrived in Stevens
Point at 5 o'clock in the afternoon.
They slept in the grass, probably near the
local yards, until 6:30 o'clock the next morning
when they boarded local freight No. 37. They got
off at Junction City and purchased a cup of
coffee and a sandwich each at a restaurant and
attempted to board the train as it started out.
Pickering caught the train in safety but Ward
fell beneath the wheels His left leg was severed
at the hip and he was bruised on other parts of
his body, death being instantaneous.
From all that can be learned Ward was a clean
liver, not addicted to drink. In his clothes
were found letters sent from Lowell, in which
mention is made of his parents and other
relatives. One letter was dated July 29 and was
from his mother. In it she stated that she was
sorry that he had lost his position in the
Detroit creamery and that she would miss the $3
he had been sending home each week
A telegram was sent to the chief of police at
Lowell, Massachusetts, Monday night asking him
to notify the relatives of the young man. As yet
no reply has been received.
The Stevens Point Journal, Stevens
Point, WI 9 Aug 1913
Transcribed by
Tammie Miller. Thanks Tammie!
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