Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1911-03-04
JURY OF INQUEST
8. e. o. Railroad Employees Exonerat-
ed From Blame Fof Death Of Con-
ductor Murray Wednesday Night


Coroner w. r. Kline held an inquest
at s O'Clock last night in w. II. VII
ems undertaking rooms ever the re
mains Of Charles A. Murray, of Bruins.
wick, the b. & O. freight conductor
who was run over and killed by en-.
CINE 789 Wednesday night at the
QUEEN street crossing.
The coroner empaneled the fellow.
ing jury r. D. Gardner, T r Lemen
! George L. Lambert. F. y. Staley, c.
c. Cutler and c. L. Sencindiver. Mr..
Gardner took down the testimony
The first witness was John w. Man
ford, 3D. e o. yard conductor. He tes-
tilted that his stone train drawn by
yard engine SEQ followed Conductor
murray's westbound freight train No.
50 up the yard: that when he passed
4 the Queen street crossing be
noticed an object lying along the
1 tracks about ten feet from the east
side Of the crossing When his train
stopped some distance beyond. he
said, he went back and found the
headlsss body of man whom he af-
forwards discovered to be Conductor
Murray. He reported the find to his
engin er, Marshall S. Devers. This
was about 1880 O'Clock.
Engineer Devens Of the stone train
was the next witness. He corroberat-
ed the testimony Of Conductor Man
ford as to the movement Of his train
abe ut five minutes behind that Of
Conductor Murray and the finding Of
the body, etc.
G. J. Mercer, a machinist in the b.
& o. shops was next called. He tss-
titled that he and F. A. Boyd. boiler
maker in the B. e O. shops, took en-
gines 789 and 1924, coupled together
from the round house up to the "Y"
to turn them and then slowly backed
down the west bound siding Said he
/ blew the whistle for the crossing &C.
ing UP and coming back. Said he had
one marker 0ight) on the left cor
ner of the tender of engine 7S9 which
was in front of the ether engine as
he was backing down the track. Said
he knew nothing of the accident till
he returned to the round house when
II was reported that man had been
killed at the crossing. Then he exam
ined the tender CT 7S9 and found
blood and something that looked like
bra ms on the trucks. Asked if he
could have seen a man standing on
the crossing beside the tracks from
his place on the engine he answered
that he did1't believe he could.
f. A. Boyd then testified. He zorro.
borated the statements of Mr.. Mercer.
Asked If ne was accustomed to run
engines in the yards he said be did
he saw no one on the track as be was
backing down from the ''Y" about
.1:20 o'clock that night
c. r. Holland, engineer CT freight
train SO, was then called. He said he
pulled out from the station at 1:25
o'clock, westbound. Said Mr.. Murray
got on his engine at the station and
rode up to the Queen street crossing
where he left the engine. Said he
saw 2 engines slowly backing down
from the ''Y" west c. the crossing.
One light was on the tender OF the
backing engine. he said He said he
looked out of his cab and watched for
Mr.. Murray to board the cab0ose
when it would reach the crossing
where he was standing. Said he cons
hA lrsnIro1tt for Mnr.
ray until the crossing was hidd n
from view, but still supposed the con-
ductor had gotten on. Said he didn't
learn of Conductor Murray's death till
he reached North Mountain.
The next and last witness was s. r.
Butts, fiagman of ght train 50. He
said the last time he saw Mr. Murray
was when he left the cabcose near the
Burke street bridge. This was short
ly after one o'clock. Asked if he
hadn't missed Mr. Murray after he
passed the crossing, he said he did,
but supposed he was riding on the en-
gine, even after the train passed the
Queen street crossing about 1920
C'clCck. He stated that when the
train reached b ssemer it stopped a
few minutes, and that by this time
he had become uneasy about Mr. Muir
ray At North Mountain he went for
ward from the cab to the engine and
then learned from Engineer Holland
that Mr. Murray had been killed
Jury Returnes Verdict.
After celebrating a while the jury
of inquest returned the following YER
dict:
I'VE, the jury, find that Charles A.
Murray came to his death early in the
morning of February of % 1911, by
being struck by engine 7S9 a. the
Queen street crossing while On duty
locking after his train; that said en-
CINE 7S9 was backing east from the
~" on the westbOund siding We be-
lieve that said accident was unavoid-
able and the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-
read employees are exonerated from
any blame for said accident