The last time an Oak Park police officer died in the line of duty, before Det. Allan Reddins died Nov. 29, was in 1938.
Officer Chauncey Esch was struck and killed by a North Western commuter train while escorting a 16-year-old purse snatcher from the train station near Marion Street and North Boulevard to the Oak Park police station, then located at Lake Street and Euclid Avenue. In 1938, the Chicago and North Western Railroad train tracks were on ground level.
Esch was walking 16-year-old Joseph McCombs along the railroad tracks, according to an article in the Jan. 27, 1938 issue of Oak Leaves. He was struck from behind by a train which was being backing up from Elmhurst to Chicago.
Five cars and the tender passed over him, fracturing Esch’s skull and cutting off both legs, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page. McCombs was not injured, sought help for the gravely injured officer and said he had not seen or heard the train until Esch disappeared underneath it.
The lights on the train were also found to be “inadequate” according to ODMP.
Esch served in the Oak Park Police Department for 10 years and worked mainly in the “Lake-Marion-Harlem” district as a beat cop. The Oak Leaves article said, “he was known to thousands.” The newspaper also wrote that Esch was “possessed of pleasant manners, he was a man of stalwart build, unflinching courage and devotion to duty.”
Esch was married to Adeline Vasey Esch, and they had three children, John, 12, Jeanne, 8 and Joan, 4.
Esch was buried beside his parents in Elm Lawn Cemetery in Elmhurst.
Information for this article was provided by the Village of Oak Park, the Officer Down Memorial Page and The Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest.