Saturday, July 20, 2019

Fatal Initiation: Pledge Tied to Railway Tracks (1905)



Historian of the Strange [Robert Damon Schneck]
20 July 2019

It sounds like the beginning of an urban legend, but it happened. No one was indicted and the only result was passing more anti-hazing laws and shutting down the Kenyon College chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon. ("The Herald-Ledger", Russellville, Kentucky, 10 Nov 1905.)

[“Stuart L. Pierson…was killed by a train…while waiting to be initiated into the Delta Kappa Epsilon society of Kenyon college….Pierson was tied to the railroad by fellow students and left to test his nerve.”]

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The complete Testimony before the Coroner in regard to the death of Stuart L. Pierson which occurred at Gambier, Ohio, Saturday evening, October 26th, 1905, along with the coroner’s finding (“Stuart Pierson was either tied fast to the railroad track or railroad ties…and while so tied…was run over by an engine”) and various dissenting opinions, can be found here. An overview of the case (Mark Ellis, “Death on the Tracks,” Kenyon College Alumni Bulletin, vol. 33, no. 3, Spring/Summer 2011) can be found here.


Included in the testimony of Dr. William Foster Pierce, President of Kenyon College, is a rumor about a fraternity pledge tied near a railroad track and temporarily forgotten (p. 102).




Legends of pledges tied to railways tracks and dying of fright are common (Simon Bronner, Campus Traditions, 318). Here’s an example posted to the Snopes message board in 2002:


Comment: I heard of this many years ago and have no doubt that it is only a "legend". However, I have never found anyone else who has heard of it.

This involves a college hazing ritual. A pledging student is told that his bravery and trust of his fellow "brothers" is being tested. The pledge will be tied to a train track and left until the train is closing in. The brothers will then untie the pledge who must jump up and run to avoid being crushed by the train. The pledge is lead blindfolded until the proper location on the train track is found. He is tied down to the track and all wait for the scheduled train. Soon enough, the ground begins to shake and it is obvious a train is approaching. As the locomotive closes in, a brother suggests that it is close enough and to untie the pledge.  The more senior members insist they must wait. This just increases the fear in the pledging brother. As the train is nearly on them, the senior brother screams to the others to untie the pledge. The brothers begin to untie the rope, then stop. They shout that the rope is tied too tightly and can not be removed! Other brothers are yelling and clearly everyone is in a full panic. The ground is shaking and the sound of the train horn is deafening. What the pledge does not know is that there is a parallel set of train tracks and that the train is NOT on the set of tracks where the pledge is tied. As it is obvious to the pledge that he is about to die, his "brothers" scream in a state of faked panic! Once the train goes by, the brothers go to untie their new member. However, he is dead from fright.

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