Fatal Railway Accident at Ocosta
A longtime construction worker was killed instantly after falling between cars on a gravel train.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Tuesday morning, Michael Lenoard, one of the Northern Pacific construction gang, was standing on the front end of a car of the gravel train outside of Ocosta. The train started up with a jerk and the man was thrown down between two cars, where he was struck on the neck and head by a breakbeam and almost instantly killed. The deceased was a man of about 50 years of age and had been working, at intervals, for the Northern Pacific during the past ten years, having come here from Montana. He had with him at the time of his death a soldier's certificate. Nothing is known of any of his people.
“The train started up with a jerk and the man was thrown down between two cars, where he was struck on the neck and head by a breakbeam and almost instantly killed.”
Railroad construction was the engine of Aberdeen's early growth, but as this account shows, it was a lethal industry that chewed through workers with little record left behind. Today, Ocosta is a quiet unincorporated community, but its history as a busy rail terminus remains visible in the landscape of Grays Harbor.
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