OBIT: Michael & John CARSON, 1880, Huntingdon County, PA

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FATAL RAILROAD ACCCIDENTS.
Three Persons Run Over at Spruce Creek.

  At about 11 o'clock yesterday another accident took place in the 
tunnel resulting in the instant death of three persons.  At about 9:20 
o'clock in the morning two men named Michael and John Carson and a 12-
year-old boy named Samuel Benner walked from Spruce Creek intending to 
visit the wreck.  They were never afterward seen alive, but it is 
supposed that they walked into the tunnel just after Pacific express 
had passed east.  When part way through they met a freight train coming 
and stepped on the other track.  While standing there an empty engine 
came along as second Pacific express and struck and killed them all.  
The engineer did not see them and did not know of the accident as the 
tunnel was so full of smoke that he could see nothing.  The only reason 
to believe that this engine struck them was that a hat was afterward 
found on the pilot.  The bodies were all thrown between the two tracks 
where they lay undiscovered until about eleven o'clock, a number of 
freight trains passing through meanwhile.  A brakeman on a west bound 
freight saw them first.  The body of one of the men was badly mangled, 
while the disfigurement of the others was slight.  The elder Carson was 
a man of about 74 years of age, and was employed at the Pennsylvania 
furnace.  The younger was aged about 32 years and was employed on the 
railroad company's wood train.  Both were married.  The bodies of all 
three were taken home.

Morning Tribune, Altoona, Pa., Monday, October 11, 1880

? 1880 Franklin Township, Huntingdon County census -
Michael Carson 65 
Mary J. Carson 64 
Margaret Carson 30 
James S. Carson 25