Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Erridge, Kenneth 1917
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Marilyn Ransom mlnransom@chartermi.net July 31, 2010, 7:24 pm

The Ionia Daily Sentinel, Friday, June 29, 1917
Kenneth, the eight-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Erridge of Prairie Creek, 
was instantly killed this afternoon at 1:15 by train No. 19, west bound on the 
Grand Trunk, on the trestle back of the Prairie Creek mills.

The boy, contrary to the warnings of neighbors, had been accustomed to playing 
and fishing about the trestle for some time, and was crossing it at the time 
of the accident.  Two other boys were said to have been with him, but had 
gotten off the trestle when the train came along.  When the boy discovered the 
train almost upon him, he did not attempt to get off, but lay flat on the 
ledge along the outside of the rails, in which position the train did not 
touch him.  However, he evidently believed the train had passed over him 
sooner than it did and raised his head and was struck by the last coach for 
when found he was lying on the track in the same position, with the top of his 
head crushed in and his neck broken.  There was not a mark of blood on the 
track.  Death had been instantaneous.

The engineer had seen the boy on the trestle and had tried to stop but could 
not soon enough.  The train was over an hour late at that time, evidently the 
reason why the boy had not expected it.

Coroner Boynton and Dr. Beckwith were summoned by telephone from the mills and 
questioned Conductor Scott and Engineer Campbell, who waited with the train 
until the coroner and doctor arrived.  The boy was taken to his parents’ home 
near the mills, the father being employed on one of the ice wagons.  There are 
four other children in the family.

Dr. Beckwith, who is the district surgeon for the railroad, in speaking of the 
accident, stated that he did not attach the least blame on the engineer of the 
train as the boy was clearly trespassing and had been repeatedly warned to 
keep off the tracks.

A rumor was circulated by the passengers that this was the second accident the 
train had had since it left Detroit, the story being that a man had thrown 
himself in front of the train and had been killed just outside of Detroit.


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