OBIT: John STONEBEISER, 1880, Cambria County, PA

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Found Dead on the Railroad.

  At daylight yesterday morning the body of John Stonebeiser, a 
quarryman employed in the stone quarry of Mr. John Brown, at 
Summerhill, was found lying close to the rail of the south track, and 
from appearances he had been dead for several hours.  The night before 
the deceased left the store of Mr. Brown, in that village.  He had been 
sitting near the stove for almost an hour and fell asleep.  The 
proprietor noticed that when he came in he was under the influence of 
liquor but concluded to let him remain until closing-up time.  At the 
hour stated he awoke Stonebeiser and told him it was time to go to his 
boarding place.  The latter staggered out and moved off in the 
direction of the house where he had been making his home lately.  The 
road to his boarding house leads along a steep embankment, and, at a 
point where there is at least thirty feet of a fall to the track of the 
Pennsylvania railroad, he tumbled over.  Whether he was killed by the 
concussion, or by the wheels of a passing freight train, will never be 
known, but it is altogether probable that to the former can be ascribed 
his taking off, for the reason that the only injury about his body was 
a crushed arm, which rested upon the south rail of the track, a portion 
of the member being badly ground up.  His remains were removed to the 
watch-house at Summerhill, and properly prepared for burial, when a 
telegram was sent to his brother in Ebensburg to learn what disposition 
to make of the remains.  Deceased was aged about 40 years, and his 
parents reside in Carrolltown.  He was unmarried.

Morning Tribune, Altoona, Pa., Wednesday, March 3, 1880