Knox County Republican
Wednesday, September 11, 1889
The funeral services of Mr. Josiah Gale was held at the residence on North Broad Street, Wednesday afternoon of last week in Galesburg. The surviving members of the family were all present. The members of the bar and the officials of Knox County were present in a body. Numerous friends from distant parts of the country were in attendance. The floral decorations were unusually elaborate and beautiful. Among these was the magnificent offering of the Knox County Bar and county officers. The members of the Veritas Lodge of Odd Fellows also contributed a beautiful tribute, a floral pillow. The services began with the singing of "Come unto Me, all ye Beloved," by a quartet, Reverend John Hood found his text in St. Matthew Chapter 4, 12. From this text Mr. Hood preached a sermon that was full of comfort and consolation. At the grave the exercises consisted of prayer and reading by the pastor, the singing of the hymns and the strewing of the flowers upon the casket after it was lowered into the grave. The grave was beautifully trimmed with flowers and evergreens, the work of lady friends.

The Ill-Fated Train
Mr. J. V. Henry, assistant postmaster at Quincy, who was on the ill-fated train that brought so much sorrow to Knox County in the loss of the esteemed officer, Josiah Gale, writes a graphic account of the accident which is published as follows in the Republican-Register on Monday: I was a passenger on the ill-fated train yesterday on the South Park line where one of your townsmen was instantly killed, and have thought the friends of the deceased might desire to know just how he met the grim messenger, death. It is sometimes a consolation in such bereavements to know how the accident occurred, so I will try briefly, but plainly to explain the attending circumstances. The train was on down grade, going around a sharp curve. There was about five feet of level ground outside the track. The embankment consisted of an almost perpendicular wall, nine feet high, at the bottom of which was a creek, the water being about eight inches deep. I learned that Mr. Gale had gone up on the morning train and was coming down to Denver on the afternoon train. He was sitting on the rear end of the last coach and on the inside of the curve next to the stream. Speed about 10 miles an hour. The trucks of the coach had jumped the track, going to the left and out, causing the coach to fall toward the stream and over the embankment, and so securely were the coaches fastened to each other that the rear coach, forward coach and engine were taken over bodily with it, and they all landed in the stream, bottom side up, reversed as complete as could have been done by any mechanical process. Another party was on the rear platform, but on the upper and outer side of the curve. He jumped to the left and rear, and was not injured. Mr. Gale jumped to the right. It being only five feet over the embankment he no doubt thought the rapidity of the train was so great he would avoid going over the embankment by jumping ahead, and the train would go so far ahead of him he would be free at last from danger on that account, but "Man proposes, God disposes. " About the time he must have jumped, the air brakes took firm hold, and all but virtually stopped the train's motion at once, while his momentum carried him forward abreast the coach, and there be no escape, he was knocked over by the coach as it fell into the stream and when found, was lying flat on his back, head down stream, with just head and shoulders caught by the middle peak of the gable roof. It must have been instantaneous death. I got in the last seat inside not five feet from him. The door was open the same as before the accident and I was one of the first to get out. It could not have been a minute after the truck left the track before I stepped out of the coach into the stream, and on turning around saw his lifeless body fastened so securely. Not a motion, breath or struggle. As soon as possible a jack-screw was secured, the coach raised, and his body removed from the water, and later on was brought to Denver on the relief train. There was no apparent cause for the accident. I trust this will enable you to advise the friends more fully than perhaps the railroad officials may do.