The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-11-14

LEWISTON, Nov. 14.-Sunday morniug, about
9o'clock, Mr. John T.. Peabody and his little
boy were riding from Lewiston to Leeds When
they reached Trips Crossing, half mile this
side of Greene Depot, the lad exclaimed:
"Fsther, there's dead man on the track"
e Mr.. Peabody looked over the back of his
buggy and was lying on the railroad an object
resembling mangled body He pulled up his
horse, alighted from his carriage and walked
to the spot. There he saw spectacle that
made him shudder.
Lengthwse on the track extended the dead
man whom the lad had discovered. The head
of the corpse was toward the east. One foot
was separated from the leg. One hand had
been cut clean off, and laid six inches from the
arm. A seam yawned the whole length of the
trunk, beginning at the hip and ending at the
shoulder The entrails were exposed.
The body laid face downward. The skull
was crushed, and the brains were oozing out.
1t seemed as if the car wheels had run over
him longitudinally, beginning at one heel. AT
the feet of the corpse was a cnlyert, to viii III,
apparently, the fatality was due.
Mr.. Pettingill drove to the nearer houses,
and aroused the people. crowd of thirty or
forty people gathered at Trips Crossing and
examined the terrible object. The mans hat
was found six feet distant.
An hour passed and no person, of all who
came, recognized the dead man. Meanwhile
Mr.. G. M Washburn had driven to this city
and notified Coroner Brooks. The coroner
drove to Tiipp's Crossing as speedily as possi-
BILE. He removed the body from the track TO
the baggage room of the depot. The face was
washed and the features were these of young
and good looking man. His clothes were near
ly W. For long time, no clue to the iden-
of the body was found The coroner
tho The would have TO bury it. AT length,
man came in WHO, with pallid ace and
startled expression exclaimed:
II know him. it's Willis Ward,n
His words proved true. Willis Ward was a
young man of nineteen years, who worked in
the Lewiston Foundry, and whose mother, now
Mrs. Boston, resides at Keene's Corner. Greene,
having been married second time. A courier
was dispatched TO Mrs. Boston. She was hor-
rified by the nsws OF eoursey and could hardly
believe it. She said it was Willis custom to
come home every Saturday night. She had
waited for him the previous night, till II
ocl OK, when she concluded her boy was too
tired to come, and went to bed, still thinking
of him and worrying about Kim. She was con-
Quoted 10 the Greene depot where. at the sight
of her sons mutilated remains, her sobs and
meanings were piteons.
Coroner Brooks summoned the following
jury: FL. H. Burbank, Fred P rker, L. D.
Manson, Eli Hodgkins, Geo. w, Parker. An
inquest was held in TIE baggage-room Of the
depot. An examination of the road bed of the
railroad discovered number of footprints
along the side of the track for several rods,
pointing toward the east and terminating at
the spot where The remains were found. The
foot prints were at SO great distance apart
that the person who made them must have
been running or leaping, apparently. All the
circumstances confirmed the jurors in the fol-
lowing view: That Ward, while walking to
his mothers home from Lewiston, Saturday
night, had attempted 10 board the EASTERN
bound train; that be ran till he reached the
culvert, when his foot slipped into it and he
was flung under the cars in the darkness and
thus met his death.