Ross County OH Obituaries

Thomas LEWIS

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This file was contributed for use in the OHGenWeb Ross County by: Leonard Lewis, great-grandson.

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MYSTERY ENSHROUDS THE DEATH OF THOS. M. LEWIS

Richland Furnace Man Found Along the N. and W. Tracks

DIED IN HOSPITAL

Within Half an Hour After Being Taken There
Autopsy Disclosed Ruptured Liver and Cerebral Hemorrhage
Last Seen Going Down Sugar Street - Found Near N. and W. Bridge over Paint Creek.

 

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A brakeman on a north bound N. and W. freight train at about 8 o'clock found a man lying along the track at a point just this side of the bridge over Paint Creek. The man was alive and feebly struggling but unconscious. He was brought into the city and rushed to the hospital, where it was found that he was Thomas M. Lewis, of Richland Furnace. He died half an hour after arriving at the hospital without regaining consciousness.

His injuries consisted of a deep cut under the chin, another on the forehead, a small cut resembling a stab wound above the right temple, and a slash three inches long diagonally across the right shin.

None of the injuries could be accounted for, on the ground that he had been struck by a train, or to the fact that he had fallen from a train. A freight train passed south a short time before he was found, but the absence of any broken bones or any abrasions of the skin, that his clothing was not torn and was only dirty on the back where he laid, seemed to indicate that his injuries had been received in some other manner than by coming into contact with a train or being hurled from one.

Lewis, who is a saw mill man, married and the father of five children, came here Thursday and was with quite a number of men. He had been drinking some during the day, but evidently not to excess, for he was at Lapp and Palmer's saloon at 7 o'clock and got a glass of beer and talked about taking the C. H. and D. train east, instead of waiting for the east bound B and O train. He took a time card from his pocked and pointed out the train and time to the bartender, and told a man who was with him, who was under the influence of intoxicants, that he had better stay sitting where he was until the east bound train came in. This his companion did.

Lewis left the saloon and evidently started to walk down Sugar street tot the C. H. and D. junction with the N. and W., to take the C. H. and D. train, for that was where he was last seen.

No evidence has been secured that he stopped at the junction, and so far none has been secured to show how he got to the point where he was found, a mile beyond the junction. While he had been around the railroads all his life, he had never been know to jump on a freight train and his friends do not think he tried to board a south bound freight train on Sugar street.

When found, he had a few cents more than $5 in his pocket, along with papers and letters. His right hand seemed bruised along the knuckles as though he had been striking something with his fist, but the skin showed no abrasion, such as would result from scraping along in cinders along the track.

This morning, Coroner Franklin, who took charge of the body and had it removed to the Grohe Mortuary, received a telegram from Hamden signed by Bert Woltz, telling him to get one Charles Miesse of Hamden, as a witness, as he was with Lewis when he was killed, and the coroner issued a subpoena for Miesse and Sheriff Stoker sent after him this afternoon.

A post mortem examination to determine the cause of death, was also ordered at the request of relatives, in order to clear up the case, for Lewis carried considerable life insurance, and it was thought best to have this data correct.

Dr. Walter Scott, who attended King in the hospital, said that he could not accurately give the cause of death otherwise, as the indications pointed to concussion as the cause, or a ruptured artery resulting from a fracture of the skull. The postmortem showed a badly ruptured liver and internal hemorrhages and hemorrhage of the brain. The physicians have withheld their verdict as to what caused death, for the time being.

Lewis was 35 years of age, ordinarily a temperate man, and on Thursday the evidence did not show him to be intoxicated. He was a man who often carried considerable money with him, but it is not know how much money he had on Thursday. He had many friends in Vinton, Jackson and Athens county, and a sister, Mrs. George Slack, resides in the East End.

The remains will be shipped to Richland Furnace for burial.

 

Scioto Gazette, Chillicothe OH; 05 Jul 1912