
“Lewis Stevens met with a horrible death Monday evening, on the railroad track, a short distance above the Junction Hotel. He was struck by the engine of the Sciotoville commuter, of the CP and V railway1, dreadfully mangled, and almost instantly killed. He was section foreman of the Sciotoville extension of the CP and V, and had just put the hand car away at the watchman’s house and started up the track to his home, on Tenth street, just east of Offnere. He had not preceded far when the commuter left the depot on its evening trip to Sciotoville, the engine running backwards. Stevens had stepped off the track temporarily. He seems not to have been aware of the approaching train, for he stepped back upon the track right in front of it and was struck on the head by the break beam of the engine and thrown over upon the south rail. The engine and coach passed over his right leg and arm, dragging him some forty feet and horribly mutilating the body. The train crew knew nothing of the accident til their return from Sciotoville. The engine was backing, and the engineer and the fireman could not see what was going on ahead of them. A back engine inside of the city limits, and among a maze of tracks, as at that particular place, is always a dangerous thing. The accident took place almost on the same spot where Henry Griffith was killed last fall, by the same train.”

“Dr. Halderman, the company’s physician, was summoned, but the poor man was beyond the need of surgical skill. He died in a few minutes. The mangled remains were tenderly carried by brace arms to the stricken wife and children.”
“The unfortunate man was the son of William Stevens, of near Wait’s Station, was about twenty-nine years of age, and a most excellent young man and faithful and efficient railroad man. He had been foreman of the Sciotoville section about ten months. He was greatly beloved by his fellow workmen, and fully trusted by the company. He leaves a wife2 and three small children3.”
“The train crew naturally feel very badly over the affair. This is the second fatal accident for the Sciotoville commuter.”
“The remains were taken to Wait’s Station for burial Wednesday.”4
- Cincinnati, Portsmouth & Virginia Railroad
- Lena “Lennie” May Corriell Stevens Perry
- Mabel Ella Stevens, Jennie Evelyn Stevens, Dennis Samuel Stevens
- The deadly commutor. (1892, April 16). Portsmouth Times, p. 1.