Notebook of Ghosts

I have been traveling to every corner of Indiana for my second book, The Grave Hunter’s Road Map to Indiana (coming Fall 2027). I have been to A LOT of cemeteries and whenever I enter one, I run directly towards the first tree-stump tombstone I see.

Tree-stump tombstones (also called treestones) are gravestones shaped as a tree stump and can represent a life cut short. There’s more than 2,400 in Indiana, so I see them often! I talk about these interesting markers in past posts if you are interested.

I was recently in Huntington, Indiana to visit Pet Hill Cemetery, which is attached to Mount Hope Cemetery. The first treestone I noticed had a unique feature. The gravestone reads:

Calvin W. Lyon

Killed May 17, 1891

Aged 40 Yrs. 8 Mo. 4 Ds.

Kate His Wife

Apr. 3, 1859

Sept. 29, 1926

The word “killed” caught my attention, because the word “died” is used more often. I knew there had to be a story there.

I headed to the newspaper archives when I got home!

I found his obituary printed in the Dunkirk Evening Observer of Dunkirk, New York (May 20, 1891). He was working as an engineer on the “fastest train” on the Chicago and Atlantic. When he was pulling his train into the depot at Huntington, he hit an engine that was waiting to take its train along but could not due to the air brakes not working. Lyon was caught between the tender and the engine, dying within minutes.

He left his wife, Kate, and three small children.

In August of the same year an article titled “Wants Pay for Her Husband’s Death” appeared in the Logansport Daily Tribune of Logansport, Indiana. According to the article, Calvin’s widow Kate sued Chicago and Erie railway for $10,000 in damages for the loss of her husband. I am not sure if the family received the money. More research is needed.

It was not until I was editing the photos that I realized there was a train carved into the tree trunk. What a fascinating feature.