This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Barnum Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/QFB.2ACE/785 Message Board Post: I am not related but found it on the same page as one of my family, so I thought I would send and help someone else. Vicki Tha Nashville News Friday, October 14, 1892 front page Around Home. A Fatal Jump. Henry L. Barnum Leaps from a Rapidly Moving Train to His Death. A sad accident occurred at the Michigan Central depot yesterday morning which resulted in the death of one of Nashville's most prominate and wealthy citizen's. Mr. Barnum, generally know as "Uncle Henry Barnum," had started for Hastings, where he expected to meet his brother, from Woodland, at the soldiers' reunion. He purchased his ticket and stood talking with friends on the depot platform when the train from the West pulled in, the train going to Hastings being then on a side track some distance east of the depot. Mr. Barnum got on the east bound train, probably not noticing which way it was headed, and the train started. It had got nearly opposite the other train when Mr. Barnum noticed the he was going the wrong way and rushed out. The brakeman saw him and shouted for him to wait, at the same time reaching for the signal cord, but Mr. Barnum paid no attention to him and jumped from the train, which by that time had got to moving quite rapidly. He struck on his feet and pitched headlong, turning as he fell so that the back of his head struck either the rail or one of the ties on the sidetrack. He lay perfectly still aft! er falling and a number of people ran up the track from the depot, while passengers and trainmen poured from both trains, the east-bound train having stopped. He was picked up in an unconscious condition and carried to the depot, and medical aid hastily summoned. Dr. R.P. Comfort was first upon the scene and after ascertaining that there was a fracture of the skull ordered him taken to his home. There Doctors Young and Weaver joined Dr. Comfort and a careful examination made, which revealed that there was a bad fracture of the base of the skull. Everything possible was done for the unfortunate man, but all was in vain and in about an hour from the time of the accident the injured man breathed his last, surrounded by his family and friends. Mr. Barnum will be sadly missed from Nashville, where his kindly face had become a familiar one and where he was respected and esteemed by all. He was a good citizen, interested in the progress and growth of the village, and always ready to assist in a material way any move which he deemed good to the town of his adoption. By his decease, Nashville loses one of her best citizens, the sorrowing wife a loving and faithful husband, and the children of a kind and indulgent father. Of him may well be said "Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joys of thy Lord."