Kate’s notes:  There isn’t much detail provided in this article, but I believe the Patrick Gilliland of this news report is the man listed in the Danville, Virginia Directory of 1892 as a conductor and in a later directory as a yardmaster, both railroad positions. If so, he was born a son of William H. and Nancy Gilliland in Bath County, Virginia and died in 1931; he was buried at the New Hope Cemetery in Amherst County, Virginia. Patrick’s wife was Ella Staples, whom he married in 1890.

The Alexandria Gazette
Alexandria, Virginia
29 February, 1888

ARM CRUSHED – Patrick Gilliland, employed on the Virginia Midland railway as a car coupler, met with a sad accident yesterday morning in North Danville. He was walking beside a moving train waiting for it to stop in order to uncouple cars, when he stumbled. In attempting to save himself from falling he threw his arms out, when his right arm fell on the track in front of the wheels and was so horribly crushed that amputation of the member was found necessary. The surgeon took it off near the shoulder.

-transcription by Kate Maynard, 2013