03/24/2026
I have not found too many memorial postcards for Michigan rail accidents and here is an example of a tragic event on the Pere Marquette. This postcard is in memorial of Pere Marquette engineer James Hinds, who was killed in an accident outside of Midland on March 20, 1909. The wreck occurred on a caboose hop to Midland with the locomotive running in reverse and the caboose in the lead. The conductor of the run was J. Parker and the fireman was Arthur Cuningham. James Hinds was the only casualty of the wreck, being pinned in the cab of the locomotive, the other crew were able to escape without injury. He was pulled from the wreckage alive but later succumbed to his injuries in Midland.
James Hinds was born in Ontario in 1856 and moved to Bay City as a boy with his family. He started working for the Pere Marquette at a young age as a fireman. Mr. Hinds had been an engineer for twenty-five years at the time of the wreck, said to be the first of his career, working on both freight trains and passenger trains across the division. Due to his longevity and the many areas in which he worked, he was well known, well liked and known for his reliability. He had been married for 27 years and had six kids. Evidence of his popularity is that news articles on the wreck talk more about him than the actual event.
The wreck occurred at 0330hrs, two miles east of Midland. The locomotive involved was #356, a Consolidation built by Brooks in 1903. The wreck was attributed to spreading rails. During the clean-up, passenger trains detoured over the Michigan Central’s Midland branch. These memorial cards could be produced to raise funds for surviving family members or out of remembrance the individual memorialized.
