Wrong place, wrong time

It was no joke to him, even though the report of his lawsuit over the "very peculiar accident" appeared in the newspaper on April Fool's Day of 1904.

The Abbeville Meridional carried a small report about the incident at the time that it happened, calling it "one of the strangest accidents ever read about or heard about."

According to that account, as "the east-bound passenger [train], due [at Welsh] at 6:45, was coming into town it struck a big bull which attempted to cross the track ahead of the engine. The animal was knocked from the track and was thrown with great force against Sylvester Walker … who was walking several feet away, knocking him down and rolling over him."

According to the April 1, 1904,  report in the Welsh newspaper, Walker claimed in his lawsuit against the Louisiana Western Railway Company that he was entitled to $25,000 in damages "because that company threw a cow at him and hit him," a charge that is almost certainly unique in legal history.

In his petition, Walker claimed he "was walking along on the embankment of the switch of that company at Welsh, where the public generally passed both to and from the passenger and

freight depot, when, he was, without warning or opportunity to escape, struck upon the body by an ox or cow, the said ox or cow being at that moment struck by a locomotive or train of cars of the said defendant company, which was the cause of the said ox or cow being thrown against the body of your petitioner."

News accounts said Walker suffered a broken or dislocated ankle, bruises, and "other injuries." His lawsuit said he was hurt so grievously that he lost several days of work.

The editor of the Welsh Rice Belt Journal offered the opinion that, "this is indeed one more remarkable case, and should the plaintiff win his suit the company will undoubtedly recommend to its employees that the practice of throwing oxen and cows at pedestrians along the track be discontinued."

I've looked high and low but have yet to find any record of whether Walker collected anything from the railroad. I suspect that the suit was settled out of court,

Also, none of the accounts I could find give any indication of what happened to the bull. If animals had legal rights, it also would have had pretty good grounds for a suit against the railroad that "threw him several feet into the air" and onto a human.

You can only imagine the indignity of such a thing to a self-respecting bull.

 

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You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589,