Knight Family
© The Eufaula Indian Journal, Eufaula, OK
Thursday, December 2, 1920
Submitted by: A
WIPES OUT FAMILY OF FIVE WHEN TRAIN CRASHES INTO AUTO
Five persons were killed Monday night at 11:45 o'clock when Katy passenger train No. 3, traveling at the rate of nearly 60 miles an hour, ran into an automobile in which they were riding, at a crossing at Onapa, a small station on the Katy several miles north of Eufaula.
The dead are Mr. and Mrs. Walter Knight, Tom and Chester Knight, ages 16 and 20, sons of the Knights, and John Allen, a farm laborer about 35 years of age, a friend of the Knights. All lived at Brush Hill, a farming community about 12 miles northwest of Eufaula, and were returning home after spending the day here attending district court.
The wreck occurred when the automobile driven by John Allen, one of the dead, started to cross the railroad track and did not see the approaching train until the car was on the track. It is thought he attempted to throw the gears of the car into reverse and back away from the coming engine when the automobile went dead. The coming crash caused instant death to four of the occupants of the car, while one of the Knight boys did not die for several hours later. . . . The bodies of the dead were prepared for burial and carried to Brush Hill by the Plock Undertaking establishment of this city, where they were laid to rest Thursday surrounded by hundreds of friends and relatives who were present to pay their rites to the dead friends.
Seven little children were told Tuesday they would never see their father and mother alive again. It was to the home of their mother's parents that the seven surviving children were taken Tuesday morning. There are four boys and three girls left. The eldest is Frank, 15; the youngest is George, 2. Between these two come Leonard, 4; Leona, 6; Fred, 9; Edna, 19, and Grace, 13.
Somewhere in Texas is the father of John Allen.
Mr. Knight was a son of Mrs. Edna Knight, who lives near Brush Hill. Mrs. Knight was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Tom Williams who live on a farm about five miles west of Onapa.