Boone Teague and Four Relatives Were on Way to Mill
Hickory, Dec 17-Five members of an Alexander county family were killed here this afternoon when a Southbound passenger train struck their automobile. The dead:
Boone Teague 50, driver of the car; Mrs Boone Teague, 45; their daughter Miss Christine Teague, 16; Mrs Woodrow Teague, 25, daughter-in-law of Mr and Mrs Boone Teague; Marie 4, daughter of Mrs Woodrow Teague.
Three of the victims were killed almost instantly, but Teague lived until a few minutes until after he was taken to a local hospital. Mrs Woodrow Teague died of internal injuries about an hour and a half after the crash.
Apparently Did Not See Train Witnesses said Teague, a farmer, apparently failed to see the onrushing train as he drove southward over a narrow crossing near the Shuford Mills plant in Highland. The car lodged on the cowcatcher of the locomotive and was carried more than 200 yards down the track before the train came to a stop.
Two ambulances hurriedly were summoned to the scene, took all five of the victims to the hospital.
Car Demolished The impact of the crash crumbled the body of the car like tinfoil. Blood was splattered over the rear seat. Shoes of several sizes were scattered about the floor, indicating the passengers were litterally thrown out of them when the train struck. Bits of a pumpkin were spattered grotesquely over the upholstery.
C. A. Newton, of Hickory, who said he was a former acquaintance of Teague's, reported he had hailed the Alexander county man as the latter drove down the road toward the crossing.
"The next thing I knew, " he said , " I heard a grinding crash, and somebody said a train was carrying a car down the track. I called an ambulance right away."
On Way to Shuford Mill The Teagues were all residents of the Bethlehem School farming comunity in Alexander county, about 10 miles from Taylorsville. It was reported they had come to Hickory to visit the Shuford Mills section.
The bodies were to be taken to Taylorsville tonight. Funeral arrangements and names of survivors had not been learned here.
The train had left the Hickory station at 1:35 o'clock, five minutes behind schedule. It was traveling along the Southern Railway tracks which the C. & N. W., a subsidiary line, uses between Hickory and Newton. The train was bound from Lenoir to Chester, SC, T L McCarley, of Hickory was the engineer and J T Walton also of Hickory , was conductor. The wreck was the worst in the history of this county from the standpoint of the number killed. A similar crash at Oyama Station December 13, 1936 took the lives of four members of the Fred A Cline family of that community and injured anothers. Their car was struck by Southern passenger train 16.
Family Dies in Grade Crossing Accident TEAGUES AUTOMOBILE AFTER IT WAS HIT BY TRAIN
Mr & Mrs Boone Teague
Five members of the Boone Teague family of Alexander county met death as their car was struck by a southbound Carolina and Northwestern passenger train on the outskirts of Hickory at a narrow crossing.Shown above is a view of the wreckage taken a short time after the crash. Three of the victims, Mrs Boone Teague, 45, her daughter, Christine, 16, and granddaughter, Marie, 4, died instantly. Boone Teague, 50, a farmer, his daughter-in-law, Mrs Woodrow Teague, 25, mother of Marie, died shortly after being taken to a hospital. There were no other persons in the car.
(Journal State Photos)
Article:
Contributed by Jerry Dagenhart
Extracted by Elsie Arcuri
