OBITUARY - JOHN WILLIAM HARRISON

Submitted by: Cathy Cadd, cathycadd at aol dot com

Source: "Longview Dailey News," Longview, Cowlitz Co., Washington, 31 Dec 1930.
Page 1 and 5:8.


KELSO MAN IS HIT, FATALLY HURT BY TRAIN
 
J. W. Harrison, 72, Crossed Track in Front of One Locomotive Only to Step Into
the Path of Another.
 
PASSENGERS WATCH
 
Horrified Occupants of First Train Try Frantically to Warm Victim, But Noise
Drowns Cries.
 
Stuck by a northbound passenger train in the sight of horrified passengers of
another train, J. W. (Dad) Harrison, 72, was fatally injured at about 12:30
today in an accident at a grade crossing just outside the north city limits of
Kelso.  He passed away shortly afterward at Kelso General hospital. 
 
Harrison, who lived in a small house near the Kelso Floral company greenhouse,
was returning across the railroad tracks to his home with a sack of cabbage
obtained from the garden of a neighbor.  Passenger trains, under full steam,
were coming from both north and south, but Harrison apparently noticed only the
southbound train.
 
He successfully negotiated the track in time to avoid the southbound locomotive,
and then stepped directly into the path of the northbound carrier.  Frantic
passengers and trainmen aboard the southbound train tried desperately to warn
him, but the noise made by the two trains made their efforts futile.
 
The northbound train was operated by the O. W. R. and N. company and the other
train was operated by Northern Pacific.  Both were halted by their engineers
following the accident, and the southbound train was consequently about 15
minutes late in its arrival at Kelso.
 
The Ditlevsen Funeral home ambulance carried the injured man to Kelso hospital
where he succumbed about 25 minutes after arrival.
 
Harrison was somewhat feeble, neighbors said, and this fact probably accounted
for his failure to see the train that caused his death.
 
The dead man is survived by his widow, and a daughter in law who lives not far
from Harrison's home.
 
Funeral arrangements have not yet been made.