Crushed by the Cars.

THOS. O’BANTON was killed at the switch of the W. & A. road, just south of the Union Passenger Depot, Wednesday evening, about 4:30 o’clock.  He was brakeman on the passenger train which was switching preparatory to backing into the depot.  Mr. O’Banton had opened the switch and then, in making an effort to get on the platform of the rear car, slipped and fell in front of the wheels and was run over by the trucks.  Mr. Lombard, who was near, hastened to him and found him dead, his body being horribly crushed and mangled.

His family reside near Cartersville, Ga.  He was 20 years old and was a nephew of Mr. Richard Hargis, conductor on the train which killed him.

Mr. Anderson, agent of the road, was in the depot and immediately sent for a coffin and a burial suit.  The body was dressed at the scene of the accident, encoffined, placed on board the train, and started to Cartersville within an hour of his death.  The train that was to take him living, bore his lifeless remains. – [Chattanooga Commercial.]

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November 28, 1878
Page 3.

IN MEMORIAM.

On the evening of the 31st ultimo, the friends and relatives of THOMAS O. BANTON, in the vicinity of Cartersville, were startled and grief-stricked (sic) to learn, by telegram from Chattanooga, that he had been killed by the cars, and that his remains would be brought home on the evening train.  Tom (as he was familiarly called) had gone on the Western & Atlantic Railroad only one week previous to that time, as a train hand.  No one saw him when he fell under the cars, so it is not positively known how came him to fall.  The train was backing into the car shed, he was standing on the platform of the car, and was soon discovered under the moving train, crushed to death.  He was generous, candid and warm-hearted, which endeared him to his associates.  His conduct towards his mother (who, before his death, had been sadly bereaved) was attentive and respectful.  He done much to cheer her sad heart.  He was twenty years old, a professor of religion and member of the Baptist church at Oak Grove.  His relatives and friends have good grounds to believe that he is now happy with those who have been redeemed by the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  May we, then, feel reconciled to this sad dispensation of Providence, trusting to meet our friend when our spirit, too, has been disembodied.

G. S. T.

[It is unclear whether this person's name is Thomas O'Banton or Thomas O. Banton. Name is spelled differently in these two articles.]