A Railroad Tragedy - The Death of Samuel M. Crawford

 

One of the challenges of researching the Crawford surname in the Dodge City area is determining whether every Crawford who appears in the records belongs to my family—or is simply another Crawford living in the same place at the same time.

Samuel M. Crawford is one of those people.

Samuel lived in the Dodge City area and worked for the railroad. In 1900, he married Carrie Tuttle, apparently a second marriage. His daughter Nellie Crawford, likely from an earlier marriage, died in Dodge City on March 6, 1901, at only 18 years of age. Just over a year later, tragedy struck the family again when Samuel himself was killed in a railroad accident in Mexico.

While I don't yet know whether Samuel connects to my Crawford family, four newspaper accounts of his death provide an unusually detailed picture of his final days.

From Dodge City to Mexico

Samuel was an experienced railroad man. According to the Journal-Democrat, he had worked for the Santa Fe until the railroad strike of 1894, when he was "let out." Afterward, he farmed for a time in Grandview Township before going to Arizona.

By about August 1901, Samuel had gone to work for the Mexican Central Railroad.

That timeline is particularly interesting in light of the death of his daughter Nellie. When Nellie became dangerously ill with spinal meningitis in early 1901, Samuel was working as an engineer in Winslow, Arizona. He was notified of her illness but did not reach Dodge City before she died.

By the following year, his railroad career had taken him even farther from Kansas—to Mexico.

An Accident at Torreon

On April 18, 1902, Samuel was working as a locomotive engineer for the Mexican Central at Torreon, in the state of Coahuila.

A report published in the San Antonio Express provides considerable detail about what happened. Samuel was engineer of local train No. 89, which ran between Jimulco and San Pedro. While the train stood in the Torreon yard and the conductor went to the station for orders, Samuel apparently decided to make a repair beneath his locomotive.

While he was underneath the engine, the yard crew moved several cars behind his train. The cars struck the caboose with enough force to move the entire train forward.

Samuel heard the commotion and attempted to get out from underneath the locomotive, but he was unable to escape. He was caught beneath the wheels and killed instantly.

Another newspaper account, published in the El Paso Herald, reported that Samuel had received orders to hold his freight train for a few minutes. He used that waiting time to crawl beneath the engine to repair a piece of machinery. According to that account, a switch engine struck his train, causing his locomotive to move.

Although the newspaper descriptions differ slightly in the details, they agree on the essential sequence of events: Samuel was underneath his locomotive making repairs when other railroad cars struck or moved his train, causing the locomotive to roll over him.

Carrie Receives the News in Dodge City

Back in Kansas, Samuel's wife, Carrie, learned of his death by telegram.

The Journal-Democrat reported that H. R. Nickerson of Mexico City notified her that her husband, "Sam'l M. Crawford," had been killed under his engine at Torreon.

Carrie immediately telegraphed Nickerson asking for additional information and requesting that Samuel's body be returned to Dodge City. She soon received another telegram explaining that his body could not be shipped out of Mexico because of Mexican law.

Carrie's brother, Scuyler Tuttle, subsequently traveled to Mexico to investigate Samuel's death and retrieve his personal belongings.

The newspaper also reported that Samuel carried two insurance policies—$1,500 through the Order of Locomotive Firemen and another $1,500 accident policy.

What Really Happened?

Several weeks later, Carrie received a letter from H. R. Nickerson, vice president and general manager of the Mexican Central Railroad. That letter, dated May 3, 1902, was published in the Journal-Democrat.

Nickerson explained:

"It seems that Mr. Crawford got under his engine while waiting at Torreon, before getting orders to proceed, and that two cars which were being handled by the switch engine were accidentally thrown against his train, moving it slightly and crushing him, causing instant death."

This explanation closely matches the account published in San Antonio.

The Journal-Democrat, however, went a step further. After printing Nickerson's letter, the newspaper concluded that Samuel had been performing his duties when he was killed and suggested that the accident resulted from carelessness by other railroad employees. The paper even speculated that Carrie might have a claim for damages, depending upon Mexican law.

A Family Struck Twice by Tragedy

Samuel's death becomes even more poignant when placed beside the death of his daughter Nellie.

In March 1901, Nellie Crawford became dangerously ill with spinal meningitis while staying at the home of E. B. Goodrich in Dodge City. Her father was then in Winslow, Arizona. Although he was notified, he could not reach Dodge City before Nellie died on March 6.

She was buried in Maple Grove Cemetery.

Only about thirteen months later, Samuel was killed beneath his locomotive hundreds of miles from his Kansas home. Because his body apparently could not be transported out of Mexico, the contemporary San Antonio newspaper reported that he would be buried at Torreon.

Thus, within a little more than a year, Carrie Crawford and the rest of Samuel's family experienced two deaths separated by great distances—Nellie in Dodge City while Samuel was in Arizona, and Samuel in Mexico while Carrie was home in Kansas.

But Who Was Samuel M. Crawford?

And that brings me back to my original question.

Was Samuel M. Crawford related to my Crawford family living in and around Dodge City?

At this point, I don't know.

The fact that he lived in the same area makes him worth investigating, but a shared surname and locality are not evidence of a family relationship. His marriage to Carrie Tuttle in 1900 appears likely to have been a later marriage since he already had an 18-year-old daughter when Nellie died in 1901.

Identifying Nellie's mother—and Samuel's parents—may be the keys to determining where this Crawford family belongs.

For now, Samuel remains one of those Crawford puzzles sitting on the edge of my family tree: perhaps a relative, perhaps not.

But thanks to several newspaper accounts from Dodge City, El Paso, and San Antonio, I now know much more about his life as a railroad engineer and the tragic accident that ended it.

And perhaps those details will eventually provide the clue that connects Samuel M. Crawford to—or separates him from—my Crawford family.

Note: A web search did not turn up reliable evidence identifying this Samuel M. Crawford or connecting him to a particular Crawford family; similarly named online records appear to concern other men. For that reason, I've kept the family relationship as an open research question rather than trying to force a connection.