Allegheny County PA Archives- Obituaries: Stack, John, 10 Feb 1879 Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Martha Little, , Jun 2010 Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/allegheny/ ________________________________________________ from The Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette dated Tuesday, February 11, 1879 (page 4): FATAL ACCIDENT A fatal accident occurred between two and three o'clock this morning at the Twenty-eighth street crossing on the Allegheny Valley railroad. John STACK, who lives on Spring alley, between Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth streets, attempted to jump on a freight train at the corner of Smallman and Twenty-eighth streets, and slipped and fell under the cars. The wheels passed over his head, crushing it to an almost unrecognizable mass and completely severing it from the body. He was a young man and not married. At three o'clock this morning the remains were still lying at the point where the accident occurred, his brother being there also and awaiting the arrival of the Police Lieutenant of the district before removing the body. from The Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette dated Wednesday, February 12, 1879 (page 4): An inquest was held at 11 o'clock yesterday forenoon on the body of John STACK, who was found dead yesterday morning on the track of the A V R R at the corner of Twenty-eighth and Smallman streets. A heavy poker was found near the body, and it was suggested that the deceased had been beaten by some one and thrown on the railroad track. A sister of the deceased testified that STACK was intoxicated on Monday night, and that about eight o'clock he went into his house on Spring alley and got a heavy poker, saying he was going to kill a one-armed German, formerly a switch-tender who had his brother-in-law discharged from the service of the railroad company. The name of this German is William JOSS. Other witnesses testified that the deceased quarreled with a German in H--- saloon on Penn avenue at a late hour on Monday night, but there was no evidence to show that STACK was assaulted by any one. The jury rendered a verdict to the effect that STACK was run over and killed by a train on the Allegheny Valley Railroad. (found under an article titled, Violent Deaths) from the City of Pittsburgh Death Records: John STACK, age 23 years, single, laborer, died February 10, 1879, railroad accident on Allegheny Valley Railroad; born in Ireland; lived at 1067 Penn Avenue; burial in St Mary's Cemetery on February 12, 1879.