She Knows But She Ain’t Tellin’

One of the most famous things in Grabill history, every now and then someone mentions it, in event that was hurt around the world, even Hitler talked about it. 

I believe it was January 1932, a train hit a car at the crossing and killed 12 people in the car. Many people wondered if it could have been murder, suicide. They had no food in their home, but he stopped to get a bit of candy for the kids at the gas station. They were at his sister’s house in Fort Wayne that day for a good meal. But there was a blinding snowstorm the entire day, the tracks are on a nasty grade, and there was a depot on a south side of the road and was impossible to see the train coming. 

There was a man from our church killed years ago, and people wondered if it might have been suicide. When they put the Cedarville dam in they took nearly his entire farm. Beautiful sandy soil. This was at the crossing north of Grabill. It’s a nasty crossing and to this day there is a crossing without a gate. A train going south is behind you. Probably 160° angle. A bit more than a normal 90. So he could have simply not seen the train. There are many things we will simply will not have an answer. 

The 12 people that were killed in one accident are buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in New Haven. A couple years ago I had another man decided he’d like to see that mass grave. Turns out it is a huge cemetery and we couldn’t find a grave, but by that time we really didn’t care. We did find a couple hundred other people that also had a story to tell. 

But we also found there is an angel watching over them, it knows all of their stories, but she ain’t tellin’. She knows everybody’s stories, be they good, or bad but she simply ain’t tellin’. There are many things in this life that we will simply not know. And maybe that ain’t all bad. 

It’s a good thing that we don’t know the future. If we knew we were going to die tomorrow what would we do. It’s simply best that we don’t know. It really does no good to worry cuz it just makes worse. We can’t rely on plans, because we have no idea what the future holds.

—James Neuhouser