Son of Gideon Cousino and Mary Dusseau Cousino
Husband of Mayme Navarre Cousino (Married Nov 16, 1904)
Father of Verdon, Donald, Ashton, Henrietta, Marie (Thomas) Keegan and James Cousino
Grandson of Gilbert Cousino & Lucy Morrin Cousino
Rudolph Cousino was a Farmer
Rudolph was killed in a car vs train accident along with his children Verdon, Donald and Henrietta, his brother, LaFayette Cousino and two women who were friends of the Cousino Family. His wife, Mayme who was 6 months pregnant and his daughter, Marie, age 1 survived the crash. The accident occcured on Locust Drive approximately 1/2 mile east of Dixie Highway in Erie, Michigan
****Monroe News by Dean Cousino 7/29/2012
******A TRAGIC RIDE*****
Martina Hileman calls it miraculous that her mother, Marie (Cousino) Keegan, was one of two survivors of one of the most horrific traffic accidents in Monroe County history. It was on July 28, 1912, that the car-train wreck in rural Erie Township killed seven people, including five members of the Gideon and Mary Cousino family.
With the 100th anniversary of the crash Saturday, Mrs. Hileman recalled how the family was laughing and chatting during a Sunday afternoon ride from LaSalle to Toledo in a new family car when tragedy struck. Marie was a baby, just two days shy of her first birthday and sitting on her mother's lap when the E.M.F. five-passenger car left the Cousino farm off Kelly Rd. about 3:30 p.m.
On the return trip home along S. Dixie Hwy., the occupants were "laughing and chatting" as the vehicle turned east on Lotus Dr. near the Ohio line and crossed two railroad tracks. The car safely passed over the first crossing on Lotus, but never made it through the second one as a southbound Michigan Central (now Conrail) train rammed it broadside. The vehicle was crushed and the bodies of all nine passengers were thrown upon impact in every direction and strewn along the tracks for about 100 feet.
When the train came to a stop, the engineer and his assistant lifted the mangled bodies of six of the dead and two injured passengers onto the train so they could be taken to several funeral homes, or "undertaker rooms" as they were called then, and to St. Vincent Hospital in Toledo. The engineer was about ready to leave when he decided to look one last time. He found Marie lying in a field, not moving and with a broken arm, leg and collarbone.
"There were so many bodies, he wanted to be sure," Mrs. Hileman recalled her mother telling her. "She was bounced into a corn field and just lying there. He went out to look one more time and found her. If not, we would not be having this conversation."
Seven killed
The names of those killed and the extent of their injuries were listed in the Monroe Record-Commercial newspaper (a forerunner of today's Evening News) on Aug. 1, 1912:
• Rudolph Cousino, 29, of Erie, a farmer and father of Marie. He suffered a fractured skull, broken right leg in two places and internal injuries.
• Verdon Cousino, 7, Rudolph's son, skull fractured, back broken, scalp torn off, both legs crushed and hurt internally.
• Donald Cousino, 5, Rudolph's son, top of head crushed, right leg broken in three places, left leg crushed and injured internally.
• Tootsie Cousino, 4, Rudolph's daughter, skull fractured, left leg nearly severed at the thigh and body crushed.
• Lafayette Cousino, 25, of Erie, farmer, driver and Rudolph's brother, head injured, legs crushed and badly hurt internally. He died Wednesday morning at St. Vincent, where he underwent surgery the night of the accident.
• Eva Navarre, 23, of Monroe, a sister-in-law of Rudolph, skull fractured, both legs crushed and hurt internally.
• Lottie Jaeck, 19, an employee of the Rudolph Cousino family, crushed forehead, both arms broken in several places, left leg cut off below the knee, every rib on both sides of her body broken and internal injuries.
Marie was riding on the lap of her mother, Mayme Cousino, 28, who was the other passenger who survived. Mrs. Cousino was almost six months pregnant at the time. She suffered a fractured skull, broken pelvis, bruised legs and internal injuries. At first, the engineer didn't think she would make it. Both she and Marie were taken to St. Vincent for treatment. Mrs. Cousino remained hospitalized for up to a year. Despite her extensive injuries, she gave natural birth to a son, James, on Nov. 16. He suffered a broken foot in his mother's womb from the accident that left him with a pronounced limp, Mrs. Hileman said.
IDENTIFYING THE DEAD
Gideon Cousino, a prominent LaSalle farmer, and his wife, the former Mary Dusseau, lost two sons and three grandchildren in the accident. Gideon owned the vehicle, which he loaned to Lafayette that day. The son enjoyed driving the family to church on Sunday mornings and taking "joy rides" in the afternoon, according to a family member's account of the tragedy.
Roy Cousino Jr. of Ida, a great-grandson of Gideon Cousino, researched the accident for about a year and read accounts from the engineer and authorities who investigated the crash. Mr. Cousino said that corn planted high on both sides of the tracks might have been a factor in reducing visibility for Lafayette and his brother, who sat in the front seats. More importantly, he said the engineer saw the car coming, but could do little to avoid the collision.
"The engineer said he saw the vehicle approaching and try to get across," Mr. Cousino said. "It was fruitless to stop ... there wasn't enough time and (the train) slid right into it."
According to the Record-Commercial, the engineer saw the vehicle "approach the track at a high rate of speed and when the (car) was within about 50 feet of the track the driver increased the speed of the car and apparently endeavored to cross the rails ahead of the onrushing train." The engineer said that "in his opinion the driver of the auto misjudged the speed of the train."
The vehicle was struck "almost squarely in the center by the locomotive," the article said. The engine collided "with such horrific force. The body of the machine was hurled more than 50 feet and other portions of the car ... were carried for 100 or more feet along the track" and landed in a ditch a "heap of broken, twisted wreckage." The occupants were "thrown in every direction."
None of the victims was positively identified until nearly four hours after the accident. The only clues before then were the license plate and a prayer book that were found, both belonging to Gideon, father of Rudolph and Lafayette. It was Gideon who had the painful task of going to various morgues to identify the bodies and make arrangements for their burial.
"Tears streamed down (his) face as he gazed at the mangled forms of his relatives, his grief increasing at each stage of the gruesome errand," the family account said. "When he saw the mutilated bodies of his (grandchildren) lying side by side on a slab in the Birkenkamp morgue, he broke down and, bowing his head on the shoulder of (a friend), wept and sobbed convulsively."
"I cannot understand how this accident happened," he told a reporter as he paced a corridor in the hospital. "My son has been used to automobiles for several years and is an experienced and careful driver ... he had been promising for a long time to give Rudolph's family a ride."
Accompanying Gideon was his wife, Mary. They went first to the hospital to the bedsides of their son, Lafayette, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. Mrs. Cousino was so overcome by grief she collapsed.
Mary (Cousino) Morrin of Temperance, a granddaughter of Gideon Cousino, recalled that was probably the saddest day of his life.
"It was terrible for him to see that," an emotional Mrs. Morrin, 91, said last week. "Pipi was a very proud man. Can you imagine how much you love your children and grandchildren and have to do this? He was just so grief stricken and gravely (ill) after identifying all those people."
THE FUNERALS
There could have been even more fatalities had Lafayette's wife, Louise, and Rudolph and Mayme's other son, Ashton, accompanied the family. Louise was not feeling well that day and Ashton, 3, was visiting his grandparents.
James Navarre came the next day to take charge of the body of his daughter, Eva. He had to make inquiries at several morgues before he found her, according to the newspaper. Her funeral was held Wednesday, July 31, at St. Mary Catholic Church, Monroe.
The funeral for the five Cousino family members — held four days later at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Erie — was just as memorable. An estimated 3,500 people attended, with vehicles lining the streets in the small town and an overflow crowd filling the church, according to the Commercial. Father Emil Wolfstein, the pastor who had provided grief counseling to the family the night of the tragedy, presided at the liturgy. After the service, the five caskets were placed side by side in front of the rectory.
Mourners had one last opportunity to pay their respects to the dead. For a half hour, "there was a constant stream of sorrowing friends" who passed by the caskets. The caskets were then loaded into hearses and the sad, solemn procession began to St. Joseph Cemetery, located about three miles west of Erie. The five were buried all in a row in the Cousino plot located just north of the large crucifix in the center of the cemetery. Today, the five headstones plus that of Mayme Cousino, who died in 1933 at age 39, lie in the shade of a catalpa tree.
the survivor
Marie Keegan remembered how her mother never blamed the engineer for the accident.
"She wished she could have spoken with him and tell him not to blame himself," Mrs. Hileman remembered. "She said it was an accident and not anyone's fault."
In 1947, Marie Cousino married Tom Keegan and the couple had four children. She worked for years at First District Court at the Monroe County Courthouse. Out-of-town visitors sometimes would stop by her office saying they wanted to see "Baby Marie" who survived the awful crash in 1912.
Mrs. Keegan lived to be 91 before her death on May 30, 2003. According to her daughter, she was "never sick a day in her life," except for the accident.
"That one day, I got my whammy and survived," she told her daughter.
Husband of Mayme Navarre Cousino (Married Nov 16, 1904)
Father of Verdon, Donald, Ashton, Henrietta, Marie (Thomas) Keegan and James Cousino
Grandson of Gilbert Cousino & Lucy Morrin Cousino
Rudolph Cousino was a Farmer
Rudolph was killed in a car vs train accident along with his children Verdon, Donald and Henrietta, his brother, LaFayette Cousino and two women who were friends of the Cousino Family. His wife, Mayme who was 6 months pregnant and his daughter, Marie, age 1 survived the crash. The accident occcured on Locust Drive approximately 1/2 mile east of Dixie Highway in Erie, Michigan
****Monroe News by Dean Cousino 7/29/2012
******A TRAGIC RIDE*****
Martina Hileman calls it miraculous that her mother, Marie (Cousino) Keegan, was one of two survivors of one of the most horrific traffic accidents in Monroe County history. It was on July 28, 1912, that the car-train wreck in rural Erie Township killed seven people, including five members of the Gideon and Mary Cousino family.
With the 100th anniversary of the crash Saturday, Mrs. Hileman recalled how the family was laughing and chatting during a Sunday afternoon ride from LaSalle to Toledo in a new family car when tragedy struck. Marie was a baby, just two days shy of her first birthday and sitting on her mother's lap when the E.M.F. five-passenger car left the Cousino farm off Kelly Rd. about 3:30 p.m.
On the return trip home along S. Dixie Hwy., the occupants were "laughing and chatting" as the vehicle turned east on Lotus Dr. near the Ohio line and crossed two railroad tracks. The car safely passed over the first crossing on Lotus, but never made it through the second one as a southbound Michigan Central (now Conrail) train rammed it broadside. The vehicle was crushed and the bodies of all nine passengers were thrown upon impact in every direction and strewn along the tracks for about 100 feet.
When the train came to a stop, the engineer and his assistant lifted the mangled bodies of six of the dead and two injured passengers onto the train so they could be taken to several funeral homes, or "undertaker rooms" as they were called then, and to St. Vincent Hospital in Toledo. The engineer was about ready to leave when he decided to look one last time. He found Marie lying in a field, not moving and with a broken arm, leg and collarbone.
"There were so many bodies, he wanted to be sure," Mrs. Hileman recalled her mother telling her. "She was bounced into a corn field and just lying there. He went out to look one more time and found her. If not, we would not be having this conversation."
Seven killed
The names of those killed and the extent of their injuries were listed in the Monroe Record-Commercial newspaper (a forerunner of today's Evening News) on Aug. 1, 1912:
• Rudolph Cousino, 29, of Erie, a farmer and father of Marie. He suffered a fractured skull, broken right leg in two places and internal injuries.
• Verdon Cousino, 7, Rudolph's son, skull fractured, back broken, scalp torn off, both legs crushed and hurt internally.
• Donald Cousino, 5, Rudolph's son, top of head crushed, right leg broken in three places, left leg crushed and injured internally.
• Tootsie Cousino, 4, Rudolph's daughter, skull fractured, left leg nearly severed at the thigh and body crushed.
• Lafayette Cousino, 25, of Erie, farmer, driver and Rudolph's brother, head injured, legs crushed and badly hurt internally. He died Wednesday morning at St. Vincent, where he underwent surgery the night of the accident.
• Eva Navarre, 23, of Monroe, a sister-in-law of Rudolph, skull fractured, both legs crushed and hurt internally.
• Lottie Jaeck, 19, an employee of the Rudolph Cousino family, crushed forehead, both arms broken in several places, left leg cut off below the knee, every rib on both sides of her body broken and internal injuries.
Marie was riding on the lap of her mother, Mayme Cousino, 28, who was the other passenger who survived. Mrs. Cousino was almost six months pregnant at the time. She suffered a fractured skull, broken pelvis, bruised legs and internal injuries. At first, the engineer didn't think she would make it. Both she and Marie were taken to St. Vincent for treatment. Mrs. Cousino remained hospitalized for up to a year. Despite her extensive injuries, she gave natural birth to a son, James, on Nov. 16. He suffered a broken foot in his mother's womb from the accident that left him with a pronounced limp, Mrs. Hileman said.
IDENTIFYING THE DEAD
Gideon Cousino, a prominent LaSalle farmer, and his wife, the former Mary Dusseau, lost two sons and three grandchildren in the accident. Gideon owned the vehicle, which he loaned to Lafayette that day. The son enjoyed driving the family to church on Sunday mornings and taking "joy rides" in the afternoon, according to a family member's account of the tragedy.
Roy Cousino Jr. of Ida, a great-grandson of Gideon Cousino, researched the accident for about a year and read accounts from the engineer and authorities who investigated the crash. Mr. Cousino said that corn planted high on both sides of the tracks might have been a factor in reducing visibility for Lafayette and his brother, who sat in the front seats. More importantly, he said the engineer saw the car coming, but could do little to avoid the collision.
"The engineer said he saw the vehicle approaching and try to get across," Mr. Cousino said. "It was fruitless to stop ... there wasn't enough time and (the train) slid right into it."
According to the Record-Commercial, the engineer saw the vehicle "approach the track at a high rate of speed and when the (car) was within about 50 feet of the track the driver increased the speed of the car and apparently endeavored to cross the rails ahead of the onrushing train." The engineer said that "in his opinion the driver of the auto misjudged the speed of the train."
The vehicle was struck "almost squarely in the center by the locomotive," the article said. The engine collided "with such horrific force. The body of the machine was hurled more than 50 feet and other portions of the car ... were carried for 100 or more feet along the track" and landed in a ditch a "heap of broken, twisted wreckage." The occupants were "thrown in every direction."
None of the victims was positively identified until nearly four hours after the accident. The only clues before then were the license plate and a prayer book that were found, both belonging to Gideon, father of Rudolph and Lafayette. It was Gideon who had the painful task of going to various morgues to identify the bodies and make arrangements for their burial.
"Tears streamed down (his) face as he gazed at the mangled forms of his relatives, his grief increasing at each stage of the gruesome errand," the family account said. "When he saw the mutilated bodies of his (grandchildren) lying side by side on a slab in the Birkenkamp morgue, he broke down and, bowing his head on the shoulder of (a friend), wept and sobbed convulsively."
"I cannot understand how this accident happened," he told a reporter as he paced a corridor in the hospital. "My son has been used to automobiles for several years and is an experienced and careful driver ... he had been promising for a long time to give Rudolph's family a ride."
Accompanying Gideon was his wife, Mary. They went first to the hospital to the bedsides of their son, Lafayette, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. Mrs. Cousino was so overcome by grief she collapsed.
Mary (Cousino) Morrin of Temperance, a granddaughter of Gideon Cousino, recalled that was probably the saddest day of his life.
"It was terrible for him to see that," an emotional Mrs. Morrin, 91, said last week. "Pipi was a very proud man. Can you imagine how much you love your children and grandchildren and have to do this? He was just so grief stricken and gravely (ill) after identifying all those people."
THE FUNERALS
There could have been even more fatalities had Lafayette's wife, Louise, and Rudolph and Mayme's other son, Ashton, accompanied the family. Louise was not feeling well that day and Ashton, 3, was visiting his grandparents.
James Navarre came the next day to take charge of the body of his daughter, Eva. He had to make inquiries at several morgues before he found her, according to the newspaper. Her funeral was held Wednesday, July 31, at St. Mary Catholic Church, Monroe.
The funeral for the five Cousino family members — held four days later at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Erie — was just as memorable. An estimated 3,500 people attended, with vehicles lining the streets in the small town and an overflow crowd filling the church, according to the Commercial. Father Emil Wolfstein, the pastor who had provided grief counseling to the family the night of the tragedy, presided at the liturgy. After the service, the five caskets were placed side by side in front of the rectory.
Mourners had one last opportunity to pay their respects to the dead. For a half hour, "there was a constant stream of sorrowing friends" who passed by the caskets. The caskets were then loaded into hearses and the sad, solemn procession began to St. Joseph Cemetery, located about three miles west of Erie. The five were buried all in a row in the Cousino plot located just north of the large crucifix in the center of the cemetery. Today, the five headstones plus that of Mayme Cousino, who died in 1933 at age 39, lie in the shade of a catalpa tree.
the survivor
Marie Keegan remembered how her mother never blamed the engineer for the accident.
"She wished she could have spoken with him and tell him not to blame himself," Mrs. Hileman remembered. "She said it was an accident and not anyone's fault."
In 1947, Marie Cousino married Tom Keegan and the couple had four children. She worked for years at First District Court at the Monroe County Courthouse. Out-of-town visitors sometimes would stop by her office saying they wanted to see "Baby Marie" who survived the awful crash in 1912.
Mrs. Keegan lived to be 91 before her death on May 30, 2003. According to her daughter, she was "never sick a day in her life," except for the accident.
"That one day, I got my whammy and survived," she told her daughter.
Son of Gideon Cousino and Mary Dusseau Cousino
Husband of Mayme Navarre Cousino (Married Nov 16, 1904)
Father of Verdon, Donald, Ashton, Henrietta, Marie (Thomas) Keegan and James Cousino
Grandson of Gilbert Cousino & Lucy Morrin Cousino
Rudolph Cousino was a Farmer
Rudolph was killed in a car vs train accident along with his children Verdon, Donald and Henrietta, his brother, LaFayette Cousino and two women who were friends of the Cousino Family. His wife, Mayme who was 6 months pregnant and his daughter, Marie, age 1 survived the crash. The accident occcured on Locust Drive approximately 1/2 mile east of Dixie Highway in Erie, Michigan
****Monroe News by Dean Cousino 7/29/2012
******A TRAGIC RIDE*****
Martina Hileman calls it miraculous that her mother, Marie (Cousino) Keegan, was one of two survivors of one of the most horrific traffic accidents in Monroe County history. It was on July 28, 1912, that the car-train wreck in rural Erie Township killed seven people, including five members of the Gideon and Mary Cousino family.
With the 100th anniversary of the crash Saturday, Mrs. Hileman recalled how the family was laughing and chatting during a Sunday afternoon ride from LaSalle to Toledo in a new family car when tragedy struck. Marie was a baby, just two days shy of her first birthday and sitting on her mother's lap when the E.M.F. five-passenger car left the Cousino farm off Kelly Rd. about 3:30 p.m.
On the return trip home along S. Dixie Hwy., the occupants were "laughing and chatting" as the vehicle turned east on Lotus Dr. near the Ohio line and crossed two railroad tracks. The car safely passed over the first crossing on Lotus, but never made it through the second one as a southbound Michigan Central (now Conrail) train rammed it broadside. The vehicle was crushed and the bodies of all nine passengers were thrown upon impact in every direction and strewn along the tracks for about 100 feet.
When the train came to a stop, the engineer and his assistant lifted the mangled bodies of six of the dead and two injured passengers onto the train so they could be taken to several funeral homes, or "undertaker rooms" as they were called then, and to St. Vincent Hospital in Toledo. The engineer was about ready to leave when he decided to look one last time. He found Marie lying in a field, not moving and with a broken arm, leg and collarbone.
"There were so many bodies, he wanted to be sure," Mrs. Hileman recalled her mother telling her. "She was bounced into a corn field and just lying there. He went out to look one more time and found her. If not, we would not be having this conversation."
Seven killed
The names of those killed and the extent of their injuries were listed in the Monroe Record-Commercial newspaper (a forerunner of today's Evening News) on Aug. 1, 1912:
• Rudolph Cousino, 29, of Erie, a farmer and father of Marie. He suffered a fractured skull, broken right leg in two places and internal injuries.
• Verdon Cousino, 7, Rudolph's son, skull fractured, back broken, scalp torn off, both legs crushed and hurt internally.
• Donald Cousino, 5, Rudolph's son, top of head crushed, right leg broken in three places, left leg crushed and injured internally.
• Tootsie Cousino, 4, Rudolph's daughter, skull fractured, left leg nearly severed at the thigh and body crushed.
• Lafayette Cousino, 25, of Erie, farmer, driver and Rudolph's brother, head injured, legs crushed and badly hurt internally. He died Wednesday morning at St. Vincent, where he underwent surgery the night of the accident.
• Eva Navarre, 23, of Monroe, a sister-in-law of Rudolph, skull fractured, both legs crushed and hurt internally.
• Lottie Jaeck, 19, an employee of the Rudolph Cousino family, crushed forehead, both arms broken in several places, left leg cut off below the knee, every rib on both sides of her body broken and internal injuries.
Marie was riding on the lap of her mother, Mayme Cousino, 28, who was the other passenger who survived. Mrs. Cousino was almost six months pregnant at the time. She suffered a fractured skull, broken pelvis, bruised legs and internal injuries. At first, the engineer didn't think she would make it. Both she and Marie were taken to St. Vincent for treatment. Mrs. Cousino remained hospitalized for up to a year. Despite her extensive injuries, she gave natural birth to a son, James, on Nov. 16. He suffered a broken foot in his mother's womb from the accident that left him with a pronounced limp, Mrs. Hileman said.
IDENTIFYING THE DEAD
Gideon Cousino, a prominent LaSalle farmer, and his wife, the former Mary Dusseau, lost two sons and three grandchildren in the accident. Gideon owned the vehicle, which he loaned to Lafayette that day. The son enjoyed driving the family to church on Sunday mornings and taking "joy rides" in the afternoon, according to a family member's account of the tragedy.
Roy Cousino Jr. of Ida, a great-grandson of Gideon Cousino, researched the accident for about a year and read accounts from the engineer and authorities who investigated the crash. Mr. Cousino said that corn planted high on both sides of the tracks might have been a factor in reducing visibility for Lafayette and his brother, who sat in the front seats. More importantly, he said the engineer saw the car coming, but could do little to avoid the collision.
"The engineer said he saw the vehicle approaching and try to get across," Mr. Cousino said. "It was fruitless to stop ... there wasn't enough time and (the train) slid right into it."
According to the Record-Commercial, the engineer saw the vehicle "approach the track at a high rate of speed and when the (car) was within about 50 feet of the track the driver increased the speed of the car and apparently endeavored to cross the rails ahead of the onrushing train." The engineer said that "in his opinion the driver of the auto misjudged the speed of the train."
The vehicle was struck "almost squarely in the center by the locomotive," the article said. The engine collided "with such horrific force. The body of the machine was hurled more than 50 feet and other portions of the car ... were carried for 100 or more feet along the track" and landed in a ditch a "heap of broken, twisted wreckage." The occupants were "thrown in every direction."
None of the victims was positively identified until nearly four hours after the accident. The only clues before then were the license plate and a prayer book that were found, both belonging to Gideon, father of Rudolph and Lafayette. It was Gideon who had the painful task of going to various morgues to identify the bodies and make arrangements for their burial.
"Tears streamed down (his) face as he gazed at the mangled forms of his relatives, his grief increasing at each stage of the gruesome errand," the family account said. "When he saw the mutilated bodies of his (grandchildren) lying side by side on a slab in the Birkenkamp morgue, he broke down and, bowing his head on the shoulder of (a friend), wept and sobbed convulsively."
"I cannot understand how this accident happened," he told a reporter as he paced a corridor in the hospital. "My son has been used to automobiles for several years and is an experienced and careful driver ... he had been promising for a long time to give Rudolph's family a ride."
Accompanying Gideon was his wife, Mary. They went first to the hospital to the bedsides of their son, Lafayette, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. Mrs. Cousino was so overcome by grief she collapsed.
Mary (Cousino) Morrin of Temperance, a granddaughter of Gideon Cousino, recalled that was probably the saddest day of his life.
"It was terrible for him to see that," an emotional Mrs. Morrin, 91, said last week. "Pipi was a very proud man. Can you imagine how much you love your children and grandchildren and have to do this? He was just so grief stricken and gravely (ill) after identifying all those people."
THE FUNERALS
There could have been even more fatalities had Lafayette's wife, Louise, and Rudolph and Mayme's other son, Ashton, accompanied the family. Louise was not feeling well that day and Ashton, 3, was visiting his grandparents.
James Navarre came the next day to take charge of the body of his daughter, Eva. He had to make inquiries at several morgues before he found her, according to the newspaper. Her funeral was held Wednesday, July 31, at St. Mary Catholic Church, Monroe.
The funeral for the five Cousino family members — held four days later at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Erie — was just as memorable. An estimated 3,500 people attended, with vehicles lining the streets in the small town and an overflow crowd filling the church, according to the Commercial. Father Emil Wolfstein, the pastor who had provided grief counseling to the family the night of the tragedy, presided at the liturgy. After the service, the five caskets were placed side by side in front of the rectory.
Mourners had one last opportunity to pay their respects to the dead. For a half hour, "there was a constant stream of sorrowing friends" who passed by the caskets. The caskets were then loaded into hearses and the sad, solemn procession began to St. Joseph Cemetery, located about three miles west of Erie. The five were buried all in a row in the Cousino plot located just north of the large crucifix in the center of the cemetery. Today, the five headstones plus that of Mayme Cousino, who died in 1933 at age 39, lie in the shade of a catalpa tree.
the survivor
Marie Keegan remembered how her mother never blamed the engineer for the accident.
"She wished she could have spoken with him and tell him not to blame himself," Mrs. Hileman remembered. "She said it was an accident and not anyone's fault."
In 1947, Marie Cousino married Tom Keegan and the couple had four children. She worked for years at First District Court at the Monroe County Courthouse. Out-of-town visitors sometimes would stop by her office saying they wanted to see "Baby Marie" who survived the awful crash in 1912.
Mrs. Keegan lived to be 91 before her death on May 30, 2003. According to her daughter, she was "never sick a day in her life," except for the accident.
"That one day, I got my whammy and survived," she told her daughter.
Husband of Mayme Navarre Cousino (Married Nov 16, 1904)
Father of Verdon, Donald, Ashton, Henrietta, Marie (Thomas) Keegan and James Cousino
Grandson of Gilbert Cousino & Lucy Morrin Cousino
Rudolph Cousino was a Farmer
Rudolph was killed in a car vs train accident along with his children Verdon, Donald and Henrietta, his brother, LaFayette Cousino and two women who were friends of the Cousino Family. His wife, Mayme who was 6 months pregnant and his daughter, Marie, age 1 survived the crash. The accident occcured on Locust Drive approximately 1/2 mile east of Dixie Highway in Erie, Michigan
****Monroe News by Dean Cousino 7/29/2012
******A TRAGIC RIDE*****
Martina Hileman calls it miraculous that her mother, Marie (Cousino) Keegan, was one of two survivors of one of the most horrific traffic accidents in Monroe County history. It was on July 28, 1912, that the car-train wreck in rural Erie Township killed seven people, including five members of the Gideon and Mary Cousino family.
With the 100th anniversary of the crash Saturday, Mrs. Hileman recalled how the family was laughing and chatting during a Sunday afternoon ride from LaSalle to Toledo in a new family car when tragedy struck. Marie was a baby, just two days shy of her first birthday and sitting on her mother's lap when the E.M.F. five-passenger car left the Cousino farm off Kelly Rd. about 3:30 p.m.
On the return trip home along S. Dixie Hwy., the occupants were "laughing and chatting" as the vehicle turned east on Lotus Dr. near the Ohio line and crossed two railroad tracks. The car safely passed over the first crossing on Lotus, but never made it through the second one as a southbound Michigan Central (now Conrail) train rammed it broadside. The vehicle was crushed and the bodies of all nine passengers were thrown upon impact in every direction and strewn along the tracks for about 100 feet.
When the train came to a stop, the engineer and his assistant lifted the mangled bodies of six of the dead and two injured passengers onto the train so they could be taken to several funeral homes, or "undertaker rooms" as they were called then, and to St. Vincent Hospital in Toledo. The engineer was about ready to leave when he decided to look one last time. He found Marie lying in a field, not moving and with a broken arm, leg and collarbone.
"There were so many bodies, he wanted to be sure," Mrs. Hileman recalled her mother telling her. "She was bounced into a corn field and just lying there. He went out to look one more time and found her. If not, we would not be having this conversation."
Seven killed
The names of those killed and the extent of their injuries were listed in the Monroe Record-Commercial newspaper (a forerunner of today's Evening News) on Aug. 1, 1912:
• Rudolph Cousino, 29, of Erie, a farmer and father of Marie. He suffered a fractured skull, broken right leg in two places and internal injuries.
• Verdon Cousino, 7, Rudolph's son, skull fractured, back broken, scalp torn off, both legs crushed and hurt internally.
• Donald Cousino, 5, Rudolph's son, top of head crushed, right leg broken in three places, left leg crushed and injured internally.
• Tootsie Cousino, 4, Rudolph's daughter, skull fractured, left leg nearly severed at the thigh and body crushed.
• Lafayette Cousino, 25, of Erie, farmer, driver and Rudolph's brother, head injured, legs crushed and badly hurt internally. He died Wednesday morning at St. Vincent, where he underwent surgery the night of the accident.
• Eva Navarre, 23, of Monroe, a sister-in-law of Rudolph, skull fractured, both legs crushed and hurt internally.
• Lottie Jaeck, 19, an employee of the Rudolph Cousino family, crushed forehead, both arms broken in several places, left leg cut off below the knee, every rib on both sides of her body broken and internal injuries.
Marie was riding on the lap of her mother, Mayme Cousino, 28, who was the other passenger who survived. Mrs. Cousino was almost six months pregnant at the time. She suffered a fractured skull, broken pelvis, bruised legs and internal injuries. At first, the engineer didn't think she would make it. Both she and Marie were taken to St. Vincent for treatment. Mrs. Cousino remained hospitalized for up to a year. Despite her extensive injuries, she gave natural birth to a son, James, on Nov. 16. He suffered a broken foot in his mother's womb from the accident that left him with a pronounced limp, Mrs. Hileman said.
IDENTIFYING THE DEAD
Gideon Cousino, a prominent LaSalle farmer, and his wife, the former Mary Dusseau, lost two sons and three grandchildren in the accident. Gideon owned the vehicle, which he loaned to Lafayette that day. The son enjoyed driving the family to church on Sunday mornings and taking "joy rides" in the afternoon, according to a family member's account of the tragedy.
Roy Cousino Jr. of Ida, a great-grandson of Gideon Cousino, researched the accident for about a year and read accounts from the engineer and authorities who investigated the crash. Mr. Cousino said that corn planted high on both sides of the tracks might have been a factor in reducing visibility for Lafayette and his brother, who sat in the front seats. More importantly, he said the engineer saw the car coming, but could do little to avoid the collision.
"The engineer said he saw the vehicle approaching and try to get across," Mr. Cousino said. "It was fruitless to stop ... there wasn't enough time and (the train) slid right into it."
According to the Record-Commercial, the engineer saw the vehicle "approach the track at a high rate of speed and when the (car) was within about 50 feet of the track the driver increased the speed of the car and apparently endeavored to cross the rails ahead of the onrushing train." The engineer said that "in his opinion the driver of the auto misjudged the speed of the train."
The vehicle was struck "almost squarely in the center by the locomotive," the article said. The engine collided "with such horrific force. The body of the machine was hurled more than 50 feet and other portions of the car ... were carried for 100 or more feet along the track" and landed in a ditch a "heap of broken, twisted wreckage." The occupants were "thrown in every direction."
None of the victims was positively identified until nearly four hours after the accident. The only clues before then were the license plate and a prayer book that were found, both belonging to Gideon, father of Rudolph and Lafayette. It was Gideon who had the painful task of going to various morgues to identify the bodies and make arrangements for their burial.
"Tears streamed down (his) face as he gazed at the mangled forms of his relatives, his grief increasing at each stage of the gruesome errand," the family account said. "When he saw the mutilated bodies of his (grandchildren) lying side by side on a slab in the Birkenkamp morgue, he broke down and, bowing his head on the shoulder of (a friend), wept and sobbed convulsively."
"I cannot understand how this accident happened," he told a reporter as he paced a corridor in the hospital. "My son has been used to automobiles for several years and is an experienced and careful driver ... he had been promising for a long time to give Rudolph's family a ride."
Accompanying Gideon was his wife, Mary. They went first to the hospital to the bedsides of their son, Lafayette, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. Mrs. Cousino was so overcome by grief she collapsed.
Mary (Cousino) Morrin of Temperance, a granddaughter of Gideon Cousino, recalled that was probably the saddest day of his life.
"It was terrible for him to see that," an emotional Mrs. Morrin, 91, said last week. "Pipi was a very proud man. Can you imagine how much you love your children and grandchildren and have to do this? He was just so grief stricken and gravely (ill) after identifying all those people."
THE FUNERALS
There could have been even more fatalities had Lafayette's wife, Louise, and Rudolph and Mayme's other son, Ashton, accompanied the family. Louise was not feeling well that day and Ashton, 3, was visiting his grandparents.
James Navarre came the next day to take charge of the body of his daughter, Eva. He had to make inquiries at several morgues before he found her, according to the newspaper. Her funeral was held Wednesday, July 31, at St. Mary Catholic Church, Monroe.
The funeral for the five Cousino family members — held four days later at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Erie — was just as memorable. An estimated 3,500 people attended, with vehicles lining the streets in the small town and an overflow crowd filling the church, according to the Commercial. Father Emil Wolfstein, the pastor who had provided grief counseling to the family the night of the tragedy, presided at the liturgy. After the service, the five caskets were placed side by side in front of the rectory.
Mourners had one last opportunity to pay their respects to the dead. For a half hour, "there was a constant stream of sorrowing friends" who passed by the caskets. The caskets were then loaded into hearses and the sad, solemn procession began to St. Joseph Cemetery, located about three miles west of Erie. The five were buried all in a row in the Cousino plot located just north of the large crucifix in the center of the cemetery. Today, the five headstones plus that of Mayme Cousino, who died in 1933 at age 39, lie in the shade of a catalpa tree.
the survivor
Marie Keegan remembered how her mother never blamed the engineer for the accident.
"She wished she could have spoken with him and tell him not to blame himself," Mrs. Hileman remembered. "She said it was an accident and not anyone's fault."
In 1947, Marie Cousino married Tom Keegan and the couple had four children. She worked for years at First District Court at the Monroe County Courthouse. Out-of-town visitors sometimes would stop by her office saying they wanted to see "Baby Marie" who survived the awful crash in 1912.
Mrs. Keegan lived to be 91 before her death on May 30, 2003. According to her daughter, she was "never sick a day in her life," except for the accident.
"That one day, I got my whammy and survived," she told her daughter.
Family Members
Siblings
