YOUNG MAN MET DEATH AT WATTS FLATS
Benjamin L. Blanchard the Victim of a Fatal Accident Some Time Monday Night — No One Saw the Accident and the Particulars Can Only Be Conjectured
Sometime during Monday night Benjamin L. Blanchard, an 18-year-old boy, residing with his uncle, H. J. Lopus, about one mile south of Watts Flats, was killed by an Erie train and his body terribly mutilated. Monday evening he told his uncle that he would go to Watts Flats for the mail, promising to return immediately after securing it. He did not return, however, but spent the evening with several young men in the village, but none of them can remember seeing him after 11 o’clock, the time that a westbound Erie freight passed through the place.
It appears that the young men have been in the habit of riding on freight trains from the village to the signal tower, a short distance beyond. The supposition of Coroner Bowers is that the young man was making one of these trips and in trying to alight from the moving train he struck the snowbank and rolled beneath the train. The snowbanks at this place are about four feet high, packed solid and are but a short distance from the rails.
An employe [sic] of the tower found the mangled remains early this morning when returning from working and shortly after 8 o’clock Coroner Bowers received a telephone message appraising him of the discovery. He left on train 7 and after examining the remains, gave a verdict of accidental death by the cars. A burial permit was issued and the body will be taken to Sugargrove for interment. Aside from a father, Henry Blanchard, at present in the Soldier’s home at Levenworth, Kan., the young man leaves seven brothers and two sisters.
Source: Jamestown Evening Journal, Jamestown, NY. February 18, 1902