J.F. McCOY
Sep 6, 1896


J.F. McCOY left Prescott at 4 o'clock on the morning of Wednesday 
August 26 on the northbound train for Athens, Alabama where his 
wife has been visiting and where he expected to remain, says the 
Journal-Miner. Since that nothing has been heard from him by his 
relatives until yesterday when a telegram was received announcing 
his failure to arrive at his destination.  His relatives here as 
well at Athans, Alabama, immediately commenced an investigation 
by telegraph and the first definite news was received this 
morning from St. Louis saying that he had left St. Louis at 
9:25 pm Friday, Aug 28.  The conductor thought that he had 
left the train at Mousactah, Illinois and that section men 
had found his crutch, hat, a small bundle and his ticket to 
Athens, near Belleville, Illinois. Later this afternoon 
another telegram was received saying that his body had been 
found in a cornfield near Belleville today in a badly 
decomposed condition.

Mr. McCoy was accidentally shot in the leg sometime since at 
Chaparral and had never fully recovered from the effect of it 
and walked with a crutch.  The only plausible theory is that 
while in a dazed condition after leaving St. Louis, he walked 
off the train and wandered into the corn field, where he died 
and where his dead body was found today.  He had resided for 
three or four years in Prescott but told the writer of this 
at Ash Fork that he intended remaining in the east.


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