Ray County, Missouri - W. A. Franken's Sad Tragedy unknown newspaper unknown date Franken W.A. Franken’s Sad Tragedy One of the saddest tragedies of recent years in Ray County occurred at Lexington Junction Thursday night when an engine caught Probate Judge W.A. Franken of Carrollton as he was alighting off the local passenger train preparatory to taking the train to his home. Judge Franken lost his right hand and both legs in the accident and at first it seemed that he was fatally injured. He was taken home at once and survived the surgical operations with outlook of recovery to health again. The engineer was backing east from the water tank on the first north track and was to blame for the accident; his engine was without guard or tail lights and be left his train without waiting to be expelled from the Santa Fe Company’s service. The branch train was standing on the second track north of the depot as it had during the station building. Judge Franken is an able lawyer and formerly lived at Norborne he was enroute from St. Joseph on the evening of the accident. Other persons narrowly escaped with their lives. Mr. Jno. R. Gant of Chillicothe was one of the witnesses. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Jenna Zunker USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free genealogical information on the Internet, data may be freely used for personal research and by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for profit or any form of presentation, must obtain the written consent of the file submitter, or their legal representative, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------