OBIT: Mahlon PUGH, 1942, Meyersdale, Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

Copyright 2009.  All rights reserved.
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MAHLON H. PUGH

Track Foreman Mahlon Pugh is Ground to Death

Maintenance Crew Was Working on East Side Allegheny Mountain

  After shouting warning of an approaching train to the men in his crew, B. & O. 
maintenance foreman Mahlon M. Pugh, on Tuesday morning, stepped in front of an 
east-bound fast freight and was ground to death beneath the wheels.
  Mahlon M. Pugh, aged 60, of Meyersdale, R.D. 2, a veteran trackman and 
maintenance foreman on the B. & O. railroad, with his gang, was unloading new 
rails in the vicinity of Mance, east of the Sand Patch tunnel, when the accident 
occurred.
  At least six men of the crew had a narrow escape as the on-coming east-bound 
train, on the west-bound track, mowed down their boss.
  A crane was being used to lift the heavy rails from a railroad car.  The men 
in Foreman Pugh's gang had guide ropes attached to the rails to steer them into 
their destination.  Several of the men stood on the tracks while pulling on the 
ropes attached to the rails that were being unloaded.
  Foreman Pugh spied the on-coming train from the west and shouted to his men to 
clear the track.  The fact that the eastbound fast freight was traveling on the 
regular west-bound track is believed to have confused the men and caused them to 
seek safety in the path of the on-coming locomotive.
  Two men, still clinging to a guide rope, stepped off on opposite sides of the 
track as the locomotive was upon them.  The rope was severed as the train passed 
between them.  Other men in the crew were scarcely in the clear as the giant 
locomotive rushed by at their heels.
  It is believed that Mr. Pugh's concern about the safety of his men, at a 
critical moment, caused him to lose his own life.  The engineer of the train 
applied the brakes immediately but the locomotive and fourteen cars had passed 
over Mr. Pugh's body before the fast freight could be brought to a stop.
  Mr. Pugh's head was crushed and decapitated, his left arm severed, left leg 
crushed and his body otherwise mangled.  The remains were in such condition as 
to make it impossible to prepare the corpse so that it can be viewed by the 
family and friends.  The casket in which rests the remains of Mahlon M. Pugh 
will not be opened before burial in Union Cemetery, Friday afternoon at 2:30 
o'clock.
  Mr. Pugh was born in Somerset County, June 10, 1882, and was aged 60 years and 
20 days.  He was a son of Daniel and Elizabeth Shultz Pugh.  He was a member of 
the Meyersdale Church of the Brethren.
  Surviving are his widow, Mrs. Ida Alberta Bittner Pugh and the following 
daughters: Mrs. Eugene McClarry, Detroit, Michigan; Mrs. Richard Lindeman, State 
College, and Misses Ada and Ruth Pugh, both at home.  Also surviving are five 
grandchildren and the following sisters: Mrs. Peter Brown and Mrs. Carrie 
Schrock, Meyersdale; Mrs. Edward Lehman, Pittsburgh; Mrs. William Brown, 
Shanksville, and Mrs. Joseph Day, Detroit, Michigan.
  Funeral services will be conducted at the home Friday afternoon, by Rev. 
DeWitt L. Miller.  Arrangements are in charge of W. C. Price & Son, local 
morticians. 

[Note: Not sure which middle initial is correct, H. or M., since both were 
listed in the transcript].

Meyersdale Republican, July 2, 1942