Grayson County TXGenWeb

The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, June 21, 1891
pg. 4

HIS NECK BROKEN
W.E. GRIMES LEAPED FROM A TRAIN INTO DEATH

Just after the arrival of passenger train No. 3 on the M.K. & T. from the north, Tuesday morning at 4:15 o'clock, a Pullman sleeping car porter, who came down with the train, called to one of the night yard switchmen and asked him to bring a lamp, stating that a man badly hurt was lying between the tracks and needed attention. The summons was obeyed, and the prostrate form of a white man was found lying up against one of the water boxes encasing the water service tubes. He was still breathing but as his neck as broken it was evident he could last only a short time. The body was placed on a litter and conveyed to the freight depot building where the unfortunate man gasped and sank into his long sleep. From letters on his person it was learned that his name was W.E. Grimes and that he was a resident of the Indian Territory. In one of the letters was a check drawn by Joel Nail, of Wolf City, for $12.50. Later in the day his remains were removed to the undertaking house of H. Harriman, and in the afternoon a man by the name of W.A. Shattick, who came in on the noon train from the north, visited the morgue and fully identified the dead man as his neighbor, W.E. Grimes, residing 8 miles northwest of Durant. Soon after this a lady called at the undertakers and stated that she was Mrs. Grimes and that the dead man was her husband. The family had resided in the Territory but at present were living in a tent southwest of Denison. On the following morning the remains were interred at Oakwood.
The general supposition is that Grimes came to Denison on the blind baggage of train No. 3, and wishing to avoid detection jumped from the train wile it was still making fast time and that in the fall he had struck the box encasing the water tubes, as stated above.