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Betsy Mills and Ron Brothers. The Death and Cemetery Records of Lamar County, Texas, ReBroMa Press, 2008, http://www.lamarcountytx.org/cemetery. (12/15/2025)

THE DAILY FAVORITE, Bonham, Texas, Dec. 21, 1909: HUGH BLAKENEY DEAD -- Body Found Near Frisco Track Near St. Louis, Lived At Paris, Texas -- Paris, Tex., Dec. 20.--The body of Hugh Blakeney, 25 years of age, son of Mr. and Mrs. George W. Blakeney of Paris, was found today beside the Frisco Railway track near St. Louis. The cause or manner of his death is unknown to his parents here. Young Blakeney was a student in the medical department of Columbia College, New York, from which he would have graduated next year, and was returning home for the holidays. He was expected to reach Paris this afternoon, and his parents were at the station to meet him. When the train arrived they were told by the conductor that their son was missing and telegraphic inquiry was begun at once, resulting in locating the body some hours later. The Pullman porter said Mr. Blakeney got on the sleeper in St. Louis last night just before the train left at 9 o'clock and went at once to his berth. He gave the conductor his ticket and asked that he should not be disturbed until the train reached Hugo, Ok., where it was due about 2 o'clock this afternoon. He stated that he wished to get up then and dress preparatory to his arrival in Paris. When the train reached Hugo the porter went to the berth to call him and found it vacant. His clothes were there and a search of the train failed to find the young man. It was then that telegraphic inquiry was begun and the body, which had already been found, was identified. It was dressed only in pajamas and contained no clew [sic] to identity. The supposition is that he got up after leaving St. Louis and fell out of the vestibule or was thrown from the train by another person. His parents and friends here are plunged in awful grief. The young man was universally popular and had friends all over North Texas. The family came here several years ago from Ladonia.

From an undated-unnamed newspaper obituary clipping from "The Paris Scrapbook" donated by Skipper Steely: "Hugh Blakeney, a popular and well known young man of this city, the son of Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Blakeney, net his death Sunday night by falling from a train near Dixon, MO, while he was returning home from New York, where he was taking the medical course in Columbia University, to spend the holidays. The news of his death did not become known in Paris until after supper last night and it spread rapidly and caused much sorrow. His parents were at the union depot yesterday afternoon with bright and expectant faces in anticipation of meeting him and having him with them during the holidays. When the train arrived and he was not aboard they experienced a feeling of disappointment, but the full measure of their disappointment and sorrow was reserved until a few hours later. The unfortunate young man left St. Louis at 9 o'clock Sunday night, taking a berth in a Pullman car. He did not retire until a late hour, and he told the porter not to wake him up the next morning, that he was going to Paris and that he would get up when he got ready. His ticket from New York to Paris was given to the conductor and when the conductors were changed it was transferred from one to the other without disturbing the occupant of the berth. It was not discovered that he was missing until just before Hugo was reached, when the porter went to his berth to arouse him and found that he was not there, although all of his clothing, his shoes and his grip were in place and the berth was just like it was when he had occupied it. As soon as it was discovered that he was missing the train was carefully searched without finding him, and the conductor and other officials began wiring to stations all along the road in the effort to locate him. Meanwhile his dead body had been found yesterday morning lying by the side of the railroad track in his night clothes on Dixon Hill, 135 miles out of St. Louis. The finding of the body was reported at Dixon and Springfield and the railroad authorities had been trying all day to identify him, as there was nothing on his person by which he could be identified. They knew that he had fallen from a Pullman car, but they didn't know on what train. It was 7 o'clock last night before they succeeded in locating and identifying him, after messages had begun to be sent from this end of the line. The Fort Smith office notified the Springfield office that the passenger was from Paris. After the train reached Paris Conductor Hafley, who had been in charge of it from Monett, received a message asking if anyone was missing off his train, and he wired back that there was a man missing from No. 11. Later on W. H. Upton, the local agent, received a telegram from the train master at Springfield stating that a body had been found on Dixon Hill. A description of the missing young man was wired back and it answered that of the body found and the identification was complete. When the body was found it was only slightly disfigured. There was a contusion on the head and one of the arms was slightly injured. It is not known how the young man fell from the train. He was riding in an observation car and it has been suggested that possibly he might have been feeling bad, and walked out to get some fresh air and have fallen off; or that he might have walked in his sleep. The road is pretty rough at the place where the body was found. The deceased was twenty-five years old and was next to the youngest of five brothers. He has two brothers in business at Dallas, one at Hugo and one in Missouri. He had attended the medical school in New York three years and would have graduated this year. He was a young man of fine character and was liked by everybody who knew him. The remains will reach Paris on the 3:30 o'clock train this afternoon. Arrangements for the funeral have not yet been made, but the interment will probably be at Evergreen cemetery by the side of his only sister, Miss Willie Blakeney, who died a few years ago. A brother of the deceased living at Hugo left that place last night for Fort Smith to meet the remains and accompany them to Paris."

Buried next to Nannie S. Blakeney.