Sculpture memorializes 1901 train crash

Sep 25, 2016 446

by David Patch

They remain unknowns, but the scores of Italian immigrants believed to have died in a fiery train collision near Adrian 115 years ago now have a monument to mark their grave site in a local cemetery. Kyle Griffith, who inspired a search for records of the unidentified victims' burial site, said during a memorial ceremony Saturday at Oakwood Cemetery that the crash victims could finally be properly honored. "No one will ever have to ask, 'Where are they?' And no one will ever have to answer, 'I don't know,' " he said.


Mr. Griffith, an assistant superintendent in the Lenawee Intermediate School District and former history teacher, said he became fascinated by the Thanksgiving Eve train disaster when he led field trips to the collision site while teaching about Industrial Age immigration to the United States. Inevitably, he said, a student from each year's class would inquire about what became of the victims' remains, and he couldn't tell them.

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Source: http://www.toledoblade.com/

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