In Part I of last week’s story, workers on the Cleveland, Akron & Columbus Railroad were alarmed to discover evidence that one of their locomotives had encountered an accident between Millersburg and Mount Vernon, unbeknownst to the crew onboard the train at the time. By this point, horrified members of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity at Kenyon College, in Gambier, had already discovered that their hazing stunt had gone horribly awry.
Just before 10 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 28, 1905, a contingent of Delta Kappa Epsilon (also known as “Dekes”) left the fraternity building and headed south through Gambier toward the railroad trestle.
They split into two groups to approach the trestle from both ends, with a special whistle signal agreed upon. After all, the point of putting 18-year-old pledge Stewart Lathrop Pierson on the railroad bridge was to intimidate him before the staged “rescue” by his brothers-to-be, which would be followed by his initiation into the fraternity.
They wouldn’t reveal themselves until they were gathered on the bridge.
Newspaper accounts vary about just who was where at this point, but the most consistently identified members of the eastern group were Fred Tschan, Andrew York, and J. Herbert Brown.
They walked south down Middle Path, past Old Kenyon, and most likely down the hill and across the wagon road (today Ohio 229) to the C. A. & C. Railroad tracks (today the Kokosing Gap Trail). Walking eastward along the tracks, it wasn’t long before they reached the eastern embankment of the bridge.
A picnic basket had been left there. Stu had been mysteriously instructed to load the following items into the basket: a rope, a package of cigarettes, a small bottle of chloroform, and a razor.
The items were supposedly to be used in the initiation ceremony, so the frat brothers picked up the basket and walked onto the bridge.
It is unknown what, if any, source of illumination the young men had. But it was quickly obvious to them that Stu was not where they had left him, on the eastern end of the bridge. They walked forward, onto the bridge. Sixty feet down the tracks, they were stunned by what they found.
Stewart Pierson was dead. His head had been crushed and his right hand was nearly wrenched off the arm. His left knee had separated and his jacket had disappeared entirely. The trio had no time to recover from their shock, for at precisely that moment, the whistle of a fast-approaching train was heard.
The students quickly grabbed Stewart’s body and rushed toward the east end of the bridge, toward the approaching train, because the distance to the west end of the double-span bridge was far too great. They had to beat the train to the east end of the bridge, or they would have gotten run over trying to make it to the west end.
The students were attempting to run on railroad tracks, while carrying a body, no less. They somehow made it off the trestle and onto the embankment just seconds before the train — another engine and caboose sent through for maintenance — roared through.
Coming down the road on the west side of Gambier, the other fraternity group consisted of Stu’s father, Newbold Pierson, and another pledge, Roland Aves. On the wagon road that is today Ohio 229, they encountered a passing farmer who held up his lantern, looking curiously at the two.
Apparently satisfied that the duo was harmless, the farmer continued on. Newbold and Roland continued up Laymon Road to where the tracks crossed, today adjacent to the Brown Family Environmental Center.
At this point, Pierson, Sr., must have been startled to hear the whistle of the approaching train.
Obviously, he wouldn’t have sent his son out to a desolate railroad trestle on a pitch-black fall night if he thought the boy would be put in danger. Actual trains were never part of the plan.
As soon as the engine passed, Newbold gave the agreed-upon signal whistle three times, peering through the darkness down the tracks toward the trestle, which was well over a quarter of a mile southeast of the Laymon Road crossing.
On the other side of the bridge, the eastern group, clutching Stu’s mangled body and panting for breath after their near-obliteration by the train, panicked when they heard Newbold’s signal.
They didn’t want to be found by Mr. Pierson holding his son’s corpse, so they panicked and ran, carrying the body as best they could, up the tracks, then up onto College Hill, passing Old Kenyon, where Stu’s room was marked by the bullseye window at the western end of the dorm.
The students made a beeline to the college president’s residence, but sent one of the three ahead to awake Dr. Peirce and tell him to call a physician, though it was clear that Stewart Pierson was dead.
Newbold Pierson, still rattled by the train, was puzzled that he got no answering whistle. He concluded that since they had to walk a greater distance, he and the pledge had fallen behind the eastern group, who must have already gathered Stewart and taken him back into town.
Thus, Newbold and the pledge turned around and headed back up the hill into town. They soon found out that the night had taken a horrible wrong turn.
NEXT WEEK: A grieving father decides to take his son’s body home before the local officials have even been advised of the incident, creating a split between college and community that has never been formally healed.
Photo Details:
2-1 Stewart Lathrop Pierson Portrait:
Stewart Lathrop Pierson died on the C.A.&C. railroad trestle outside Gambier during a fraternity hazing ritual gone awry in 1905. (Submitted image.)
2-2 Map of Gambier:
This period map of Gambier shows the location of the railroad trestle just southwest of the village in a red circle. The location of the Old Kenyon dorm is marked in a green diamond. (Submitted image.)
2-3 Railroad Bridge:
The railroad trestle known as four-mile bridge on the Kokosing Gap Trail was the site of the hazing death of Stu Pierson in 1905. (Image source: KnoxCountyOhio.com.)
2-4 Stu’s room:
When the fraternity brothers brought Stu Pierson’s mangled body back into town, they passed very near his living quarters in the Deke rooms at Old Kenyon. Pierson lived in the room with the “bullseye” window on the west end of the building. (Photo by Mark Jordan.)
2-5 President Peirce:
Dr. William Foster Peirce was the president of Kenyon College during the Pierson incident. He was awakened by panicked students after Pierson’s body was discovered on the railroad bridge. (Submitted image.)
