Ticonderoga Sentinel
Thursday, February 25, 1915
KILLED BY HIS OWN TRAIN
D & H Fireman Ground to Pieces
Under Cars Near Clemons
Stephen LaRose of Willsboro, a fireman in the employ of the Delaware and Hudson Company, on Saturday morning was ground to pieces by the train on which he was usually employed as a fireman. The accident occurred less than a mile south of Clemons, the first station north of Whitehall, shortly after nine o’clock in the forenoon, the unfortunate man being asleep between the rails at the time he met his death.
LaRose had on Friday night gone from Whitehall to Clemons to attend a dance and during the night he had engaged in a fight. Saturday morning he went to the Clemons station and not finding the ticket office open he broke the window with his fist and offered to fight all persons in sight. Later he started to walk to Whitehall and when about a mile south of Clemons he evidently became tired after his night of gaiety and without realizing his danger lay down between the tracks for a sleep.
He had been asleep but a short time when passenger train No. 1 came along. The engineer saw two men up the track a considerable distance ahead, and when within a short distance from where LaRose lay between the rails he noticed what appeared to be a coat on the track. For an instant he paid but little attention to the object, thinking it was a coat that one of the men farther along on the track had dropped, but almost instantly he realized that the object was a man. He then tried to stop the train to avoid the accident but it was too late.
LaRose was practically ground to pieces under the wheels of the cars and his death was instantaneous. The unfortunate man was married and had for several years been the fireman on the train which caused his death.