Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Baldwin, James 1902
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Marilyn Ransom mlnransom@chartermi.net June 29, 2010, 8:36 pm

The Belding Banner, Thursday, April 17, 1902
James Baldwin met a horrible death on the Pere Marquette track half a mile 
west of Lyons depot, Thursday afternoon.  A freight train ran over him, 
cutting off his head, both feet and one arm besides smashing the skull and 
terribly mangling the remainder of the body.  He had started toward Ionia on 
foot, fallen on the track and was unable to arise.  He had been drinking.

Baldwin was at the depot when the 4 o’clock train went to Ionia and tried to 
board, but was told by both the ticket agent and the brakeman that he was 
getting on the wrong train.  He was inclined to insist, apparently became too 
confused to comprehend what they were saying.  Ticket agent Vanderbilt led him 
into the depot after the train had departed and went about his work in the 
office after telling him that the Collins train, which he wished to take was 
due at 5:12.  Baldwin stayed there a few moments then started out, the agent 
supposing he was going over town.  Instead however, he went down the track, 
following the direction the train had taken. 

Twenty minutes later a local freight passed the station also bound for Ionia.  
When rounding the curve a few rods west, a brakeman caught sight of what 
appeared to be the body of a man lying at the center of the track between the 
rails.  He was but a car length from the engine and shouted to engineer Bolan, 
who was on the outside of the curve, and could not see the object ahead.  The 
engineer put on the air but not until his train, which was on the down grade, 
had struck the man and ground him to pieces, did the engine stop.  The head 
was picked up several rods distant from the trunk, and the whole presented a 
horrible sight.  He undoubtedly believed that he was going in the direction of 
his home in Collins.

His son is  a professional balloonist and he had made one of the balloons 
himself.  He usually accompanied his son on his trips.  He also leaves a widow 
and four brothers.


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