Ed S. Westcott 1853-1890

WESTCOTT, GRACE

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 7/26/2010 at 11:45:42

A Horrible Death!
Ed Westcott Falls Under a Freight Train
Is Mangled Into an Unrecognizable Mass

The people of the town were shocked Wednesday morning to hear of the death of Ed Westcott and doubly so when they learned the distressing details of his untimely end. Like all who are human Ed Westcott had his weakness and with him it was a fondness for liquor. Since the 4th he had been somewhat unsteady and on Tuesday night, being yet so intoxicated, he took the train to Spirit Lake. While there several acquaintances urged him to go home on the 8 o’clock passenger, but having no money he concluded to wait for the 10 o’clock freight train and steal a ride down. While waiting he became more and more intoxicated but managed to get on the flat cars when the train came in. This was the last seen of him alive, excepting that a brakeman saw someone sitting on that car on the trip down but supposed it was a train man. It was left for the train man on the north bound freight to discover that a sad accident had befallen Westcott. While the roundhouse engine and crew were pushing the 12 o’clock freight over the grade west of town (about three miles out) they felt the engine pass over something, and feeling it coming back they stopped and investigated. A man’s remains, horribly mangled were found strewn along the track. They were hastily collected together, dumped into a box and brought to town where they were identified as the remains of Ed Westcott. An inquest was held which substantiated the above. No blame was attached to anyone for the accident. The funeral services were held at the home of the mother of the deceased and were taken charge of by the Fire Co. boys. Ed Westcott was born in Andover, N.Y., in 1853 and came with his parents to Estherville in 1863 where he has since lived. He was married to a Miss Grace fifteen years about who died in 1885. They leave four children two girls aged 13 and 5, and two boys, 11 and 8 years of age, all dependent upon the mercifulness of friends for a living. [Note: the two oldest children were Inez and Clyde}

There was nothing bad about Ed Westcott but his weakness for drink. A better hearted fellow never lived. (Emmet County Republican, Estherville, IA, July 10, 1890)

A Terrible Accident

One of those horrible accidents concerning which we do not like to speak, occurred Tuesday night on the track of the B.C.R. & R. R’y, a short distance west of town. Ed Westcott it seems, had gone to Hotel Orleans on the evening passenger train, and was seen to get on the night freight at the hotel, to return. One of the brakemen saw him on a flat car soon after leaving the hotel. Another saw him leaving Superior. That was the last seen of poor Ed alive. No one saw him fall from the train and when the train arrived in Estherville it was supposed that he had got off in the yard somewhere. The freight train that goes west at 2 o’clock a.m. passed over him with two engines attached, and not until the pusher engine returned was the mangled remains discovered. The body and face was so completely mangled and disfigured that it was almost impossible to identify the remains. The clothing, hat and boots, aided by the circumstances of the case, however, enabled the jury to fully identify the body, and hence the following verdict was rendered by the coroner’s jury Wednesday morning:

An inquisition, holden in Estherville, Emmet county, on the 9th day of July 1890, before E. B. Myrick, coroner of said county, upon the body of Ed Westcott, there lying dead, by the jurors whose names are herby subscribed:

The said jurors upon their oaths do say, the body is that of Ed Westcott, that he came to his death on the 8th day of July, 1890, by falling from a train of moving cars and was run over and crushed beneath the wheels of the moving train on the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railway, in Estherville township, Emmet county, Iowa. E. L. Brown, W. H. Foote, A. O. Peterson: Jurors

No one saw him fall, and as a result nothing is known of the circumstances, surrounding and immediately preceding the fatal fall. Two brakemen saw him a short time before he fell, otherwise the inquest developed no new facts. The funeral was held at 5:30 o’clock Wednesday afternoon, Rev. Webster conducting the services. The remains were interred in the old cemetery east of town. (Northern Vindicator, Estherville, IA, July 11, 1890)

Ed Westcott of Estherville was returning from Hotel Orleans last Tuesday night and was on a freight train. It was supposed that he got off in Estherville, but afterwards the body was found in a terribly mangled condition on the B.C.R. & N. railway track. Two engines and some cars must have passed over him. (LeMars Sentinel, LeMars, IA, July 15, 1890)