A Logging Train, a Fallen Tree, and Two Deaths in the Dark
On the Washington Southern's first run near Shelton, a tree bridging a sand cut killed a brakeman and a tender man before the engine could stop. The town mourned two young workers.
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.
SHELTON, Nov. 23.—Early this morning at dark, while a logging train on the Washington Southern, making its first trip, was backing up to the camp to be loaded, the empty trucks encountered a tree which had fallen across the track during Sunday, in a sand cut ten miles from here. The tree lodged on each side of the cut, forming a bridge. As the train backed the cars went under safely, but Brakeman Baptiste did not discover the danger until it was too late. He was struck a terrible blow, thrown between the cars and horribly mangled. James Leisure, who was standing on the foot-board of the tender, was attracted by the short quick cries from his unfortunate companion, but he no sooner heard him than he too was struck. The velocity of the train and the force of the collision knocked him against the tender and he was crushed beyond recognition. The obstruction was too great for the engine and brought it to a standstill. Baptiste was brought to Shelton by the coroner, but the mangled remains of Leisure were so cut up that they could not be extracted until later, when they were brought in on the train.
The accident has thrown a cloud of sadness over the entire town. The two men were well known and stood high in the community. Leisure was a young married man, and his grief-stricken wife is frantic. Baptiste is a young single man, and has just returned from a trip around the world, visiting relations in China and England. This was his first trip as brakeman. Both young men were steady and industrious, and there is gloom in every household. The remains will be interred tomorrow.
“The accident has thrown a cloud of sadness over the entire town.”
Logging remained one of the Pacific Northwest's most dangerous industries, and the death of two young workers in a single dark morning shows why safety rules were fought for. Modern workplace fatalities in forestry and construction still turn on the same questions of training, visibility and speed.
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