Edward Van Lanschoot

A tragic end in Paterson, New Jersey, in December 1900

In the early morning hours of 21 December 1900, tragedy struck in the industrial city of Paterson, New Jersey. Edward Van Lanschoot, a thirty-eight-year-old Belgian immigrant living at 9 Alabama Avenue, died after throwing himself beneath a train.

According to the report, the event followed a quarrel with his wife. Shortly before five o’clock in the morning, Edward left his home dressed only in his underclothes and work overalls. Before departing, he told his wife that he would never return.

He walked to the nearby Erie Railroad line, where he deliberately lay down on the tracks and awaited death. A westbound train passed over him, causing fatal and terrible injuries. The discovery was made by William Richardson, a laborer on his way to work, who stumbled upon the remains near the railway. The scene was so shocking that several of the bystanders became physically ill.

Behind this brief but dreadful newspaper account lies a family tragedy: a wife left widowed, and two young daughters who would grow up in the shadow of their father’s sudden and violent death. Such stories remind us that the emigrant experience, so often told through journeys and new beginnings, could also end in hardship, loneliness, and despair.

Edward was buried at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Paterson. Today, no surviving gravestone marks his resting place.

Letter to the Municipality of Maldegem

A later letter, sent from Paterson and preserved without further source reference, gives the family context behind Edward’s death and its legal consequences. It was written on behalf of his widow and addressed to the civil authorities in Maldegem.

Sources: contemporary newspaper report from Paterson; family letter to the Municipality of Maldegem, dated 11 February 1901; burial at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Paterson.