JAMES MAXWELL 1821-1901

MAXWELL, ZAUCHE, BROSE, RIEVER, BENNETT

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 12/30/2016 at 23:38:30

Dubuque Daily Herald, June 3, 1901

HURLED TO DEATH
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JAMES MAXWELL OF
RICHARDSVILLE INSTANTLY
KILLED BY A TRAIN
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WAS CROSSING TRACKS AT TIME
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Head and Body Badly
Mangled-Horse Almost
Met Instant Death
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While driving across the Illinois Central tracks about midway between Epworth and Peosta yesterday afternoon at 2 o’clock, James Maxwell, a prominent resident of Richardsville, was run down and instantly killed by an east bound freight train. Mr. Maxwell was returning home after spending day with his married daughter, who resides near Peosta. He was driving leisurely along the road and just as he was about to cross the tracks a freight train came dashing around a curve and crashed into the vehicle, hurling the driver into eternity in an instant. The horse also met instant death and the buggy was smashed into a thousand pieces which flew about in all directions.

A man named Zauche, who was walking close to the tracks when the accident happened saw the engine dash into the vehicle but before he could reach the place where the driver was lying the latter had breathed his last. It is supposed that the dead man was killed instantly. His face and head were beaten into a shapeless mass and other parts of the body were so badly mangled that it was impossible to identify the dead man had it not been for his clothing.

Corner Bennett was notified of the accident and after reviewing the remains he ordered them removed to the home of the dead man’s son at Epworth, from whence the funeral will be held tomorrow morning. Interment will be made in Cottage Hill Cemetery.

The dead man had been a resident of Richardsville for a great many years and the news of his untimely end has caused deep sorrow throughout the community. James Maxwell was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1812, and came to this country with his parents when 16 years of age. He served in the Mexican War and afterwards and located in St. Louis where he came to this county and located at Richardsville, where he resided up to the time of his death. The surviving members of the family are five sons, namely; James A., of Epworth; Alexander, of Richardsville; James, of Chicago, George, of California; and Samuel, of Trinidad, Colo. Also two daughter, Mrs. E. Riever, of S. Dakota; and Mrs. Brose of Peosta.