Jack Meglone, Public Works Employee

This Jack Meglone was involved in an accident with an interurban trolley car and died from his injuries. Multiple reports in the newspapers covered the story and the inquest to determine if the trolley car driver had been at fault.

The Morning Herald, 18 Nov 1903:
"CLUTCHED AT CAR
Interurban Car Was Running at Full Speed.
MADE NO SIGNAL TO STOP
Jack Meglone Was Hurled Twenty Feet Away When He Attempted to Board a Paris and Lexington Car- Brought to Hospital and Will Probably Die.
While attempting to board a swiftly moving Paris interurban car last night Jack Meglone was knocked down and fatally injured. His left leg was broken between the knee and thigh, and the bone protruded through the flesh. His left eye was badly cut, the gash extending from the nose across the eye and eyebrow, and it is thought the skull is fractured. His body was severely bruised in several places.
The accident occurred about seven miles from the city. The car which is due here at 7 o'clock, No. 22,in charge of Conductor Davis and Motorman Metcalf, is the one that struck Meglone. From all accounts Mr. Meglone attempted to board the car while it was going at full speed, and was hurled twenty feet by the momentum of the car, which was going at a rate of fifteen miles an hour. The motorman said last night: 'I saw the man standing by the pole, but he made no sign by which I could guess that he wanted to get on the car. When the car got near him, before I realized what he intended, he hurled himself at the front of the car and was thrown about ten feet away. The car went probably fifty yards before I could stop it, when we went back and picked him up.'
The accident occurred at the regular place at which the cars stop when flagged.
The ambulance was telephoned for and met the car at the corner of Main and Limestone streets. The injured man was lifted from the car into the ambulance in a stte of insensibility and was taken to the St. Joseph's Hospital. His leg was set by Drs. Barkley, Owens and McGuire, but owing to the great shock he had received no attempt was made to see how badly his head was hurt, and it was dressed temporarily. As soon as he is able to bear an operation an examination will be made and an operation performed if one is necessary. The physicians think the skull is fractured. They say that he has small, if any, chance for recovery. He did not regain consciousness last night. Father O'Neal arrived at the hospital simultaneously with the ambulance and administered the last sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church, of which Mr. Meglone is a member.
Mr. Meglone was employed on the turnpikes and had gone home in his buggy and had intended coming back to Lexington on the Paris car. He is unmarried and lives with his mother about seven miles from Lexington on the Paris pike. He is an uncle of Richard Colbert, Deputy Circuit Court Clerk."

In the Bourbon News, 20 Nov:
"Injured By Interurban
While attempting to board a car on the Paris & Lexington interurban line, going at a rate of twenty miles an hour, Tuesday night, Jack Meglone, a workman on the pike, was thrown and probably fatally injured. His left leg was fractured and the bone protruded through the flesh. His skull was also fractured and his body was fearfully bruised. He was taken to the hospital in Lexington, and it is said he cannot survive. George M. Davis, of this city, was the conductor on the car. No blame is attached to the motorman or conductor.
Last evening Mr. Meglone was reported as sinking very rapidly."

Another account of the accident in the Morning Herald, 20 Nov 1903, provides more clues about Jack Meglone's immediate family:
"MEGLONE
DIED FROM INJURIES
ATTEMPTED TO BOARD A STREET CAR WHILE RUNNING AT FULL SPEED AND WAS FATALLY INJURED
Jack Meglone, who was struck by a Paris interurban car Tuesday night, which broke his left leg between the hip and knee and fractured his skull, died yesterday afternoon at 5:30 o'clock at the St. Joseph's Hospital. Mr. Meglone was hurt in an attempt to board a Paris car about seven miles from here, while the car was going at the rate of fifteen miles an hour. He was brought in on the car and taken in the ambulance to the St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died yesterday. The family was at the bedside when the end came. He never regained consciousness from the time he was struck till he died. He leaves an invalid mother, four brothers and three sisters. His brothers are Robert, Edward, Charles and Thomas Meglone, and his sisters. Mrs. Maggie Douglas, Mrs. Wm. Colbert, Mrs. Sarah Curtis.
Mr. Meglone was the son of John Meglone, who kept the middle toll gate on the Paris pike for twenty-five years. Mr. Meglone was forty-two years of age. he was born in Bourbon county, near Bethlehem, but the family moved to Fayette thirty-odd years ago. He was in the employ of W.W. Baldwin, the "turnpike king," when he had the turnpikes under contract, and when they came under the control of the county he was retained, and has been in the employ of Fayette county in that capacity since.
He was a man who was universally liked, and possessed such sterling qualities as endeared him to all with whom he came in contact. He has never married but lived on the Paris pike with his mother who has been an invalid for twenty years.
The funeral will take place from St. Paul's Catholic Church Saturday morning at 9 o'clock, interment in the Catholic cemetery. The pall-bearers will be James Colbert, Richard Colbert, Clarence Curtis, Thomas Gill, William Colbert, Michael Schannahan."

This report connects this Jack Meglone to the Curtis family of Jessamine County as well as the Kate and Edward Meglone who appear in the Fayette census records. It also connects him to the Irish John and Mary Meglone of Bourbon county.

There is no known connection between this line of Meglones and our Lexington Meglones.