Received the following via email.
It is not every day that trains lead to the untimely demise of former U.S. Congressmen on foot near their homes...
Mimi Filer, one of my email correspondents who lived here in Greenville for most of her life, notes that her fraternal grandfather, former Congressman Eugene Pierce 'E.P.' Gillespie, was struck and killed by a Pittsburg*, Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad train in Greenville while walking from his law office to his home on Mercer Street in December, 1899. Gillespie was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in the Fall of 1890 and served 1891-'93 in the Fifty-second Congress.
A local newspaper article remarked that the 47-year-old attorney was struck by the Bessemer's "5:30 up passenger train" ('up' referring to the 'northbound' train to Albion and Erie) at the Clinton Street crossing. He was walking down the tracks toward Clinton that evening when he said, shortly before he died, that he had noticed the approaching train. Though he thought he'd stepped in the clear, he was either not far enough to the side or he tripped or slipped (being mid-December, it would have already been dark and quite possibly icy). He was struck by the engine's front pilot and thrown thirty feet. He suffered multiple major bone fractures, lacerations, bruises and other injuries. He was removed from the scene to his nearby home, where he regained consciousness, but died a bit more than eight hours after being hit, leaving his widow with four children to raise. The newspaper editor remarked, "No event in our editorial experience of thirty years has brought such grievous sorrow to our sanctum as the announcement of the death of our friend and respected fellow citizen, Hon. E.P. Gillespie."
A very large funeral was held the following Tuesday, just five days before Christmas and a mere dozen days before the calendar changed to '1900'. Many dignitaries attended, including judges and attorneys from several counties surrounding Mercer County. A delegation of 25 members of the Crawford County Bar came down from Meadville by Bessemer passenger train (ironically) aboard the private railcar, CONNEAUT, belonging to Civil War Colonel and fellow ex-Congressman Samuel B. Dick, who was also Chairman of the Board of the PB&LE at the time.
The accounts of this accident all say that Mr. Gillespie was struck on Saturday, which would have been December 16, but that is not the date on which he would have died, since he passed after midnight. One newspaper specifically stated that, "...death came to his relief about 2 a .m. Sunday". That would put his actual date of death on the 17th, exactly two weeks from New Years Eve, 1899, even though the date of his passing that seems to have been 'set in history' is that of the evening of his tragic locomotive encounter.
*Note that in 1899, there was no 'h' at the end of the name of the City of Pittsburgh (it was officially dropped in 1891 and restored in 1911), as illustrated in several locations on this January, 1899 PB&LE RR public timetable / passenger schedule, the cover of which, interestingly, states that it is governed by Central Time: http://www.railsandtrails.com/PTT/B&LE/index.htm
BIOGRAPHIES OF NOTABLE AMERICANS, 1904:
Eugene Pierce GILLESPIE, b. Greenville, Pa., Sep 24 1852, son of Alexander DUMARS and Nancy R. LINN GILLESPIE., grandson of David GILLESPIE, and great-grandson of Thomas GILLESPIE, who in 1818 m. Hannah, daughter of Alexander DUNCAN, who came from county Tyrone, Ireland in 1800. Eugene m. Ella DAVIDSON of Sharon, Pa., Nov. 25 1880. Hit by a train at a crossing in Greenville, Pa., and d. Dec 16 1899.
http://www.gorichky.com/RESIDENTS13.htm
GILLESPIE, Eugene Pierce, (1852 - 1899) the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
GILLESPIE, Eugene Pierce, a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Greenville, Mercer County, Pa., September 24, 1852; attended the public schools, Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa., and St. Michael’s College, Toronto, Canada; studied law; was admitted to the bar in August 1874 and commenced practice in Greenville, Pa.; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-second Congress (March 4, 1891-March 3, 1893); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1892 to the Fifty-third Congress; returned to Greenville, Pa., and continued the practice of law until his death December 16, 1899; interment in Shenango Valley Cemetery.
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=G000195