The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-26
KILLED ON A BRIDGE.
An Indianapolis Woman and Her Two Chill
dren Run Over by q Freight Train.

News was brought to the city yesterday by
DR.. F. A. Austin, of North Salem, regarding the
killing near there of a woman and two little
girls, by an l., d. & S. freight train. The acct
dent occurred on Wednesday evening, but the
particulars about it are very meagre. Near the
town is a bridge across Eel river, and on the
west side of it there is a sharp curve in the track.
The woman and children were seen on the bridge
as the east-bound freight. running at full speed,
came around the curve, but it was too late for
the engineer to stop the train before it struck
them. They were knocked from the bridge, and
the two children were instantly killed. The
woman was badly injured. Several bones were
broken and she suffered conclusion Of the brain.
She was unconscious during the whole of
Wednesday night, but recovered sufficiently
yesterday morning to talk, and said that her home
was in this city. The children were
her daughters, and they were named Retta and
Grace, being respectively ten and four years Of
age. From inquiries in this city last night, it
was found that the unfortunate woman and her
children made their home. if it could be said
that they had one, in a wretched little howell on
Locke street, near Indiana avenue. They lived
in the most abject poverty, and for their cloth
ing and subsistence depended chiefly upon char
ity. The husband of the woman is named
Stephen Wilson, who gets a pre-
carious Lying by doing little or nothing
chiefly the latter. When a reporter
Wilson only an hour or two before had started
on a fishing trip with his brother. Whether or
not he was aware that his family had been
killed was not known, but from what informa-
f5nr 1Nxx11 hA 4 Au1l -1..l L. L. -
tons of the family, it would probably not have
made much difference. The woman is known to
as Sarah Jane Wilcox. She lives
in Indianapolis usually during the winter,
and gets an existence by begging. During the
spring and summer months She tramps about
the country with her two little girls, living on
the wild fruits of the woods and whatever they
could get by begging, sleeping in sheds or under
any convenient and accessible shelter. They
had been seen in the vicinity of North Salem
only on the day that the fatal accident occurred,
and doubtless were on an aimless
journey at the time. There is
supposed to have something of the Gypsey in
position. The children were trained in the
habits and tricks of vicious poverty. The sud-
den death of the poor creatures ends an existence
that promised little but misery.
Mrs. Martha j. Ishmael, a sister Of the un-
woman, was found at the
Affections of her own, rendering her unable to
give any particular information about the fam
lily, further than that Mrs. Wilson left with the
two children on Tuesday morning, without
having any definite idea of where she was going.
John Wilson, who lives at No. 141 Elizabeth
street, and is a brother-in-law of the injured
woman, was called upon by the undertaken for
the purpose of learning if the family desired to
have the remains brought here. His brother, he |
said, had no money, and if the dead family |
should be brought, the funeral of the remains |
would have to be at the expense of the county.