What began as a Labor Day excursion for a young Cedar Rapids man ended in a mysterious and violent death that remains unresolved more than a century later.
Alexander McArthur, a 22-year-old laborer from Cedar Rapids, left home on Labor Day, September 4, 1899, carrying about $60 he had earned from work. Despite his father’s advice to put the money in the bank, McArthur boarded an excursion train bound for Davenport, planning to enjoy the holiday and visit the Johnson County Fair in Iowa City before returning home.
He never made it back.
On the evening of September 5, McArthur was killed on railroad tracks near the Davenport train depot. A witness, Lena Aldine, reported seeing two men on the rear platform of a westbound passenger train and claimed she saw one man push the other from the train and into the path of an eastbound freight engine. She said the second man then jumped from the train and fled.
McArthur’s badly damaged remains were initially unidentified. Among the belongings recovered were a return ticket to Cedar Rapids and a shirt collar bearing the initials “J. McA.” Authorities contacted officials in Cedar Rapids, eventually leading McArthur’s father, Martin, and sister, Catherine, to travel to Davenport and identify him.
Investigators suspected robbery may have played a role in McArthur’s death. Reports indicated he had been seen with another man while in Davenport and may have openly displayed or spent some of his money. Authorities investigated several people, including a train porter, but conflicting witness accounts complicated the case. The porter was eventually cleared.
A coroner’s jury determined that McArthur died after being run over by a Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific freight train but did not determine whether his death was an accident, suicide or homicide.
McArthur’s father continued searching for answers and hired a private investigator to look further into the circumstances surrounding his son’s death. Despite those efforts, investigators were never able to conclusively establish how Alexander McArthur ended up beneath the train.
More than 125 years later, the circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery.
Source Credit: This report is based on historical research by Nancy Bowers, written in September 2011, for Iowa Unsolved Murders: Historic Cases.
