John Woolley of Matawan, a grandson of Justice Edmund T. Woolley of Red Bank, was run over by a locomotive at Red Bank last Thursday night and was instantly killed. He was a brakeman , and his run was between Red Bank and Bridgeton. He was tending switch while the freight cars were being drilled, and after his work at the switch was completed he went to climb on the tender of the locomotive as it was backing down to the train. His foot slipped and he fell backward. The tender and the locomotive passed over his chest killing him instantly. The body was cut almost in two. Coroner Tetley was notified and Undertaker R. T. Smith took charge of the body. The next day the body was taken to Matawan. A funeral service was held at Matawan on Sunday morning, and another was held at West Long Branch on Sunday afternoon. The burial was in the family plot in the West Long Branch cemetery.

Mr. Woolley was twenty-one years old and was unmarried. He had been employed on the railroad about two years. His father, Albert Woolley of Matawan, is a conductor and has been employed by the railroad for nearly thirty years. On Thursday afternoon young Mr. Woolley saved the lives of several children at Matawan. A boy with a wagon load of small children was about to drive across the railroad track and did not see an approaching passenger train. Woolley ran to the team and backed them off the track just as the train thundered by.

Source: Red Bank Register, Wednesday, Oct 17, 1900

Some additional excellent resources for your research are:
• New Jersey Census, 1772-1890 - Ancestry.com

• Calendar of New Jersey Wills, 1670-1760 - Ancestry.com

• Interment.net ~ Cemetery Transcriptions on the net.

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