DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I wouldn't change a word — well, maybe the pacing. March 2, 1913. Evening settling over Lufkin.
And then — boom. An explosion destroyed the Houston, East and West Texas Railroad depot right here on this very site. Gone.
The town's vital source of transportation and trade, wiped out in one terrible instant. In the wreckage and the chaos, searchers turned up no body. Not a trace.
But the presumption — and it's a heavy word, presumption — was that a railroad employee had been killed in the mishap. No body. But a presumption.
And in the eyes of the law, sometimes a presumption is enough. He was declared legally dead. And his stepmother collected on his insurance.
Now, you might think that's where the story ends. Tragedy, paperwork, a widow of sorts moving on. But this particular story had three more years left in it.
Because in 1916, that railroad employee came back to Lufkin. Alive. Judge E.
J. Mantooth — a local attorney acting on behalf of the insurance firms — is the man who brought him back. And once he was back, well, the law had some questions.
The man stood trial for insurance fraud. Here's where the story takes one last turn and just leaves you standing there with your mouth open. He was acquitted.
No body in 1913. Declared dead. Insurance paid.
Returned alive in 1916. Tried. And walked out a free man.
Somewhere between that explosion and that courthouse, the full truth of what happened at this depot is still, as the marker puts it, a mystery.
What the marker says
On the evening of March 2, 1913, an explosion destroyed the Houston, East & West Texas Railroad depot at this site, disrupting the town's vital source of transportation and trade. Although a body was not discovered, it was presumed a railroad employee had been killed in the mishap. He was later declared legally dead and his stepmother collected on his insurance. In 1916, however, he was returned to Lufkin by Judge E. J. Mantooth, a local attorney acting on behalf of the insurance firms. The railroad employee stood trial for insurance fraud, but was subsequently acquitted. (1982)