Thirteen Persons Killed When Truck is Struck by Fast Passenger Train
Unknown Newspaper
August 1929
Thirteen persons were killed at a crossing on the Texas and Pacific track about three miles west of Forney when the truck in which they were riding was struck by the fast Sunshine Special passenger train. The party of fourteen had spent the afternoon in Dallas at a zoo and had just left the Dallas-Forney highway to go to the Badgett home which is only a short distance from the scene of the disaster. According to reports the truck stopped a few feet from the track and then moved forward into the path of the oncoming train which demolished the truck and scattered the bodies of the occupants for several hundred yards down the track, eleven of them apparently being killed instantly and two others mortally wounded. The dead are:
MRS. IVA BADGETT, 55
VERA and ERA BADGETT, twins, 22
EMMA BADGETT, 19
TEXAS BADGETT, 16
BIRDY BADGETT, 9
JESSIE BADGETT, 7
MARY JO BADGETT, 3
E.F. McHENRY, 53
MRS. ANNIE McHENRY, 43
BEULAH McHENRY, 14
EMMA McHENRY, 10
BILLIE McHENRY, 4
Mary Lee McHenry, 7 years, was the only surviving member of the party. She was carried to a sanitarium in Dallas where it was said that her injuries likely would not prove fatal.
Funeral services for eight members of the Badgett family were held Tuesday at 9 a.m. at the First Baptist church at Mesquite, the Rev. L.B. Jenkins, pastor, officiating, assisted by the Rev. Robert Curl, Methodist minister.
The eight bodies were buried in a single grave in the Badgett family cemetery at Long Creek, eight miles east of Mesquite.
The bodies of the five members of the McHenry family were also buried in the Long Creek cemetery in one grave. The original plans of sending these bodies to Oklahoma for burial were changed Tuesday morning and interment was made Tuesday afternoon.
The following are the surviving members of the Badgett family: Sherwood P. Badgett, 48, the father; Bennie, 13; Rufus, 25; William, 21; Wilson, 23; Alex, 28; and John, 18.
Survivors of the McHenry family are Charles, only married son, and two married daughters, Mrs. Viola Welch of Seminole, Oklahoma, and Mrs. Lillie May Cleghorn of Allan, Arkansas, and Mary Lee McHenry.
J.T. Vawter, engineer and G.F. Martin, conductor, of the Sunshine Special are both residents of Fort Worth. Engineer Vawter brought the train on to Forney where he was relieved.
The Badgett and McHenry families were well and favorably known in this section and had numerous relatives and friends here. The annihilation of this happy picnic party has cast the shadow of gloom and sorrow over our city, and every heart is filled with sympathy for the surviving members of the once happy families. Everything has been done for them that loving hands and hearts could accomplish and in this as on other occasions, the kind hearted people of Forney and Mesquite have demonstrated their willingness to reach out a loving hand to all who are in distress, and by their friendship to make life’s pathway easier for those in sorrow.
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Bury Thirteen In Two Graves At Long Creek
Hundreds at Mesquite Services for Grade Accident Victims
Dallas Morning News
Wednesday, 14 August 1929, Pages 2-15 and 2-21
Eight caskets containing members of the Badgett family killed in the grade crossing accident near Mesquite, Dallas County. Sunday night, were buried Tuesday morning in one grave in the Badgett family plot in Long Creek Cemetery.
A few hours later another grave a few feet away received the bodies of the five members of the McHenry family, victims of the same accident.
The thirteen were killed when an eastbound Texas & Pacific train struck a gravel truck in which the Badgetts and McHenrys were returning from a day’s outing at Marsalis Park zoo. The collision happened in a private lane about 150 yards from the Badgett home.
The Rev. L.B. Jenkins, pastor of First Methodist Church at Mesquite and the Rev. Ben F. Hearn, cousin of the Badgett family and pastor of Central Christian Church at Mineral Wells, conducted the funeral services for the Badgett family.
Hundreds of automobiles which had brought people from Dallas, Kaufman, Forney and other nearby towns, besides those from Mesquite and community, lined the streets for blocks near the First Baptist Church, where the services were held.
Miss Nora Lively, church pianist, played sacred music for the services. Mr. Jenkins’ burial sermon took forty-five minutes for delivery.
The Badgett family grave was thirty-two feet wide. It was dug by fifty volunteers from Mesquite.
The dead are Mrs. Iva Badgett, 46, the mother; Vera and Era Badgett, twins, 22; Emma Badgett, 19; Texas Badgett, 16; Birdie Badgett, 7; Jesse Badgett, 6; Mary Jo Badgett, 2; John McHenry, 52, and Mrs. Annie McHenry, 43, father and mother; Beulah McHenry, 14; Emma McHenry, 10, and Billie McHenry, 4.
Pallbearers for the Badgett funeral were Henry Hall, Wylie Morris, Eddie Lawrence, Frank McKenzie, John Keef, J.A. Freeman, Tom Freeman, Earl Williams, Luther Futrell, Willie Thompson, Lee Redden, Ozie Ragland, Van Briscoe, H.H. Garner, Dewey Weatherford, Jess Badgett, E.D. Stanglin and Eastman Goss.
The McCullough Undertaking Company of Mesquite, assisted by the Loudermilk-Sparkman Company of Dallas and the Eubanks Company of Kaufman had charge of funeral arrangements. Six hearses were used to transport the caskets.
Services for the McHenry dead were held in the Methodist Church at Mesquite, with Mr. Jenkins delivering the prayer, a Scripture reading by the Rev. R.F. Curl, pastor of the Methodist Church. Pallbearers for the McHenry funeral were the same as those for the Badgett funeral.
A.J. Trible and Wylie Morris were in charge of the volunteers who dug the two graves.
