Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-09-06
HOW He WAS KILLED.
THE LATE KANSAS NJ. FIELEs,
His Widow Journeys to ths Scene OF His
Accident.

formerly a resident of Lancaster county,
who was killed near Somerset, Ky, on
August 18th, while performing his duty
as conductor on the Cincinnati Southern
railway, the funeral taking place from the
Keystone house in this city and the inter-
ment being made in Leacock cemetery.
AS stated in our issue Of August 18th,
the facts attending his death had not been
ascertained, and finding it impossible to
obtain satisfactory account otherwise,
the widow, Mrs. Irene E Fieles, deter
mined to make a journey to the place Of
the accident and ascertain the facts.
Mrs. Fieles left this city the following
Thursday morning, August 18th, proceed
ing direct to Cincinnati. Here the gen.
eral superintendent of the Company, in
whose employ her husbhnd lost his life,
gave her pass to Somerset. 15S miles
south, and return, after vainly tryn. to
persuade her to relinquish her purpose
Spending Friday in Cincinnati without
learning anything. she started on Satur
day morning. arriving at Somerset that
afternoon. Somerset she found to be il
small town of about 600 inhabitants 10
Gated in wild and broken country, as
may be inferred from the 6nct that the
universal mode of conveyance. both for men
and women, Is on horseback. She here
found two employees of the company who
We're with her husband when the accident
happened, and one Of them being the first
to pick him up thereafter. Other en-
ployees who had known erhusband were
also there, and it was arranged to send her
tho next day, Sunday, in the only car
riase the town afforded, to Norwood, the
place Of the accident, six miles up the
road. The journey next day was under
trying circumstances the road being ex-
tremely rough and over i mountainous
country. One episode on the way was the
stop at rough 10y house for shelter from
a heavy thunder storm, where two little
children cried over the loss of
their good friend, the conductor, who
often gave them rides. Their destination
reached at last and the scene viewed, sad
farewell was taken and the return to Som
erset made. Careful inquiry elected the
facts as follows: Mr.. Fieles had a con.
structiOn train, Allen Billctcr engineer,
employed in hauling gravel loaded by a
steam shovel in charge OF MI. Thomas II.
Donnally. At Norwood, where his train
was lott every night upon sidings of the
railroad track, there remained about ten
minutes in which to clear the track BY
placing his cars upon unoccupied spaces !;
he had detached all but one car and while
in the act of uncoupling the last car to
the left he stepped backwards while the
car was still in slow motion, his right foot
falling in tho frog of connecting rail,
holding him fast. He Immediately cried
out, but, unable to extricate himself, the
wheel forced him back and down, and
as it passed along cutting the leg terribly,
brake rod underneath the car then strk.
ing his body, breaking his abdomen and
crushing tho watch in his vest pocket
deeply into his body. The engine was i'm
mediately reversed, stopping within eight
feet. Mr.. Donnally ran to his assistance :;
he had drawn himself out and was partly
raised upOn his hands and feet. He was
carefully placed upon bed in the caboose.
Although suffering terrible agony his pres
ence of mind did not desert him and he
told his brakeman to go back and flag the
train No. II, which was coming and would
soon be there. BY his directions the en-
gine and caboOse then Immediately pro.
cccded to Somerset where, upon his re =.
quest, his wife and child were telegraphed
for. His first thought had been of them,
he saying his in iuries were mortal and
that he could not live. After an hour Of
extreme suffering he became unconscious
and SO rem lined to the time Of his death,
which took place in two hours.
The engineer and train men, also the
people of Somerset, were exceedingly kind
to Mrs. Fieles, paying all her expenses
during her stay of four days, but the
place appeared wild and almost lawless.
No inquest had been held, the coroner
living six miles out in the country and
incompetent to perform his duties. An
evening incident of her stay was the lclib-
crate shooting of one man by another in
the street before the eyes of herself and
others sitting on the porch of the house in
which she was stopping and not over forty
feet distant. No attention was paid to
the matter, no arrest being made, as it was
only 4 man shot. She was assured if a
horse We're shot the perpetrator of the
deed would bc iynchcd for the destruction
of such valuable property. The gentleman
who took her to Norwood told her not to
be alarmed at the heavy revolver in his
hip pocket as it was only carried as a
necessary means of protection. At the
depot boarding house, where she took her
dinner on the day OF her departure, the
proprietress, u fine looking woman of 81
or 10, carried a revolver in IN open pocket
of her dress exposed and ready for instant
use.
Upon Mrs. Ficles' return to Cincinnati
the railroad company refused her the pay
due her husband until iudemnified against
loss J.: this having been accomplished and
his personal effects secured after much
trouble, she returned to Baltimore after
an abserce of just two weeks.
by the cOnsidcrate kindness of officials;
Of the Baltimore Il Ohio railroad she was
furnished passes to Cincinnati and return
and received many kind attentions from
railroad employees on the way. many of
whom knew her husband who was univer-
sail beloved by all who knew him. Her
little girl, about two years old so closely
resembling its father, Won their sympathy
at once by her sunny disposition, and Oh
her arrival at Somerset she was ilnmedi-
ately recognized as his and was made well
come by his friends.
Mrs. Fieles remembers with gratitude
the many kind attentions received from
the good people of Lancaster. She will
for a time with her husbands
parents at the General Wayne hotel in
Baltimore.
Burned by Issnzine.
Yesterday afternoon, at Millcrsville, $.
Ii. haines, of that place, brother of A.
ID. Haines. the dru 'gist ut the corner of
Prince and Chestnut streets, this city, was
engaged in cleaning hot air engine. He
4 ladder for the purpose, and
with a sponge saturated with ben
zine WAS vigorously rubbing the
inside of the hot air chamber. lie held
4 small 1iUhtod Iamn atf,cJ,od 70 , lo.,.