Southampton County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Allen, William H., 1939 

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WILLIAM HENRY ALLEN

FRANKLIN MAN KILLED WHEN HIT BY SOUTHERN TRAIN ON MONDAY A.M.

William H. Allen Dies Instantly When Struck by The 6:32 Passenger Train

   William Henry Allen, 62-year old carpenter of Franklin, was instantly 
killed Monday morning when struck by the 6:32 Southern Railway eastbound 
passenger train about one-half a mile from the station on Middle Street 
here.  Allen was walking on the right-hand, going in a westerly direction 
and facing the train, when it stuck him at a point between the Sedley 
highway crossing and the Bradshaw crossing a short distance east.

   Allen’s head was crushed, both arms and both legs broken and several ribs 
fractured.  Edward Camp, a Negro walking along the tracks on the opposite 
side, ran to a nearby house where a physician was called Dr. T.A. Morgan 
answering the summons but finding Allen dead when he arrived.  The body was 
carried in the W.J.M. Holland & Sons ambulance to the Holland Funeral Home 
in Franklin.

   There were no eye-witnesses to the accident except the fireman on the 
train, who said he saw the man fall into the path of the locomotive when it 
was impossible for it to stop.  Blood was found on the cowcatcher of the 
engine, and an iron step on the front was bent apparently from the impact of 
the blow.  The body was knocked about 20 feet from the spot where it was 
stuck.  Mr. Allen was reported to have been partially deaf, and it is thought 
that perhaps he failed to hear the approaching train until it was right upon 
him and stumbled in the his confused efforts to get out of its path.

   Allen had been employed by the Farmville Manufacturing Company at Worrell’s 
Forks, where a new Negro high school is being built, and was in the habit of 
walking along the Southern tracks en route to his job.  It was thought that he 
caught an automobile ride at some point along the railroad to complete his 
journey to his place of work.

   Mr. Allen, a native of Poland, came to this country while a young man, and 
had worked at Wallace, N.C., before coming to Franklin.  He is survived by his 
wife and two children, a son, Leroy Allen, and a daughter, Miss Veronka Allen. 
Funeral services were held at the Holland chapel Tuesday afternoon at 3:30, 
conducted by the Rev. R.D. Stephenson of Franklin Baptist Church.  Interment 
was made in Poplar Spring Cemetery with the following pallbearers: John Beale, 
Percy Whitley, Sam Hayes, E.B. Sykes, Sam Mitchell, Fletcher Whitley, R.D. 
Rideout and Harry Steinhardt.


William Henry ALLEN, carpenter, of Franklin, formerly of Wallace, NC, 
native of Poland, struck by train 6 Mar 1939, Franklin, age 62, 
interred in Poplar Spring Cemetery (Annex 2, Plot 39*), Franklin, 
   7 Mar 1939, 
"The Tidewater News" (Franklin, VA), Mar. 10, 1939, p. 1 

*Southampton County Historical Society {SCHS} Cemetery Project, 
   Poplar Spring list: 
   http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/cemeteries/psanx2.txt 

His widow's obit ("Tidewater News," Nov. 8, 1946, p. 12) is posted at: 
   http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/obits/a450l1ob.txt 


Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by 
Mrs. Bruce Saunders (bs4403@verizon.net), 
and re-formatted by File Manager. 

file at: 
http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/obits/a450w1ob.txt