Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-06-04
ACCIDENT on THE NASHVILLE
AND EORTHWEsTERN Il. r.
One Person Killed and Another Sc
vereIY Injured.
the Accident Caused by the Break
ing Of an Axle.

At half past 10 O'Clock Sunday morning
an accident occurred on the Nashville and
Northwestern Railroad, at Pegram's sta
ton nineteen miles from this city, resulting
in the immediate death of a woman named
Mrs. Elizabeth 81. Weatherby, the severe
wounding Of Mrs. Crazy Curtis and the
brusing of the sleeping car conductors knee,
Mr.. w. ID. Dorsay. The train consisted
of several freight boxes with a passenger
car and sleeping coach attached. Anaxle
under one Of the freight ears broke throw
ing the passenger and sleeping coaches from
the track. Being frightened by the irregu-
lar motion Of the car Mrs. Curtis and Mrs.
Weatherby jumped out of the sic ping car
window, thinking they would thereby avoid
danger. In doing this, however, one met
instant death andthe other sustained severe
injuries. As Mrs. Weatherly jumped out
the sleeping coach was thrown from the
track falling on the unfortunate wo-
man who was Instantly crushed to death.
Her head was almost scalped, while
hole was made through the skull into the
brain. The back part of the head was
crushed and face also cut. We under
stand that the Sleeping car had to be pulled
off the dead body by means Of the locomo-
/ tive. The other woman was also struck by
the coach as she jumped, by which her
| thigh was fractured and face cut, requiring
two stitches from the attending physician.
Both of these unfortunate persons resided
in Memphis. Mrs. Curtis was taken to st.
Vincent's Hospital and everything did to
render her condition comfortable. Yester-
day afternoon she was resting well, and
will no doubt recover. As soon as the ac-
cident was made known, Superintendent
Thomas, accompanied by a surgeon, left on
a special train for the scene of disaster, and
had everything done that was possible to
alleviate the wounded, and necessary for
the interment of the woman killed. The
body of Mrs. Weatherbey was carried to
the undertaker's shop ofER. b. Groomes q
Co., where it was neatly dressed and
placed in a metallic case. Superin-
tendent Thomas had every attention
shown that was proper and the body,
placed in charge of gentleman and sent
to Memphis for burial at the cost of the
railroad. The Coroner's jury, after taking
proper evidence, returned verdict to the
effect that the deceased come TO her death
from an accident on the above road. In
this connection we would state that neither
of the women would have received any in
jury had they not jumped out of the coach,
the other passengers who remained in their
seats having escaped all injury. The Sleep
| ing car conductor was bruised on the knee,
but not so badly as to prevent him resuming
his duties yesterday. Upon examination of
the trunk of the deceased it was found to
contain So, 900 worth of jewelry, consisting
of lady's gold watch and chain, two gentle
mans watches, one gold the other silver,
several diamond rings, pearl breastpins,
earrings, etc. These are now in possession
of Coroner Everett of this city, and will be
delivered to the proper persons whenever
demand is made for them. The jewelry is
marked Mrs. Elizabeth II. WeatheIby, and
| the trunk bears the name of Mrs. Fl. Wealth
erby. A deed to lot in Memphis ceme-
terry was also found in the trunk. We I'M
d0rstand that the husband of the deceased
died nine months ago and is buried there.
We give below the statements of passen-
gers who were on the train at the time Of
the accident:
| STATEMENT OF MR.. A. G. COUCH, OF LOU
ISvILLE.
was in the sleeping car when the acct
dent occurred.
This was a car which left Memphis last
Saturday evening at forty-five minutes after
! five O'Clock. 1t seems that in consequence
| of change of schedule, when we reached
Mckenzie the sleeping car was attached to
a freight train instead of a regular passen-
ger train. We were proceeding along at
the rate of about twelve miles an hour
when, four miles this side of Dixon Springs
we were suddenly dumped over on
one side. did not know, of course, what
was the cause Of the accident at that time,
but as soon as got ont, which ! did through
a window, us us with the sky, saw that
something had first broken loose under
meath one of the freight cars. On inquiry,
l found that one of the axles of the second
freight car ahead of the sleeper had first
broken, and that that had careened the car
on one side. Then the next car was
thrown off the track, and then the body of
the sleeper turned over. suppose we
were dragged along, after we were off the
track, about thirty or forty feet.
| STATEMENT OF MIR. ]. JOSEPHs, OF GIN
| CINNATI.
There were only five passengers in the
sleeping car when the accident occurred.
| Mr.. Couch another en- route to Louisville,
| the lady that was killed, the one injured
and myself. The conductor was also in
| the same car.
When the coach was first tumbling over
l caught hold of the arm of the seat on
which was sitting. The whole thing was
so quickly done that the next thing was
aware of was that some one was lying on
top of me.
AS soon as could get up exited through
one Of the windows on one side of the coach,
and that side was then as though it had
been the top Of the car. We went along
until we come to the platform which was
perpendicular, and jumped down to the
ground.
1 think that the lady killed and the one
whose arm is broken were thrown with
such force from the side on which they
were sitting to the one on the ground that
| the fall proved fatal in one case, and fOrtu-
nately only resulted in a broken limb in the
| Otf1ny