CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Here at the heavily traveled intersection of Eighth and Ocoee streets, a pair of skinny, stone monuments compete for the attention of passersby.
“Don’t forget Cleveland’s lost sons,” the taller one reads – those “known and unknown” boys who died fighting the Union during the Civil War.
But there’s another tale represented here: a tragic story of three prominent young Cleveland businessmen who were killed July 2, 1889, 126 years ago, in a fiery train wreck near the tiny commonwealth town of Thaxton, Va.
Photo by Jones ManagementCleveland businessman Allan Jones unveils a historical marker at the site of the 1889 train crash in Thaxton, Va.In the year following that train wreck, a monument to the three victims – John Hardwick, Will Marshall and Will Steed – was erected in Cleveland.
Meanwhile, 360 miles away in Thaxton, no monument or marker was ever placed, leaving the site of one of Virginia’s worst train crashes to fade into memory.