The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1881-08-11
4 HORRIBLE DEATH.
Switehman Williams Crushed Uader a
Wreck of Cars and Held There
Over an Hour.

Wreck of Cars and Held There
4 Over an Hour.
Friday afternoon, while the gloom
attending SpilIman's dreadful death was
at its deepest, our citizens were Mortified
beyond measure to learn that an acct
dent had occurred At the Santa Fe
junction by which an employe of the
y railroad had met with frightful death
UNDER THE WHEELS.
i The circumstances attending The fatal
acciten: were horrifying in the extreme.
It seems the victim, Evan Williams,
was engaged in the switch yards beyond
the junction, in coupling some fiat cars.
The switch engine had been coupled 10
one car and was backing down with this
car 10 the next one. Williams was
standing on the platform of the switch
engine. When short distance from
the second car the rails spread out,
letting the fiat car down on The ties.
The engine was running at pretty high
ratio of speed at the time. and before
it could be stopped the derslled car
struck the standing car with tremendous
force, and was knocked cornerwise over
the end of the switch engine, crushing
Williams beneath the trucks. The tend
er of the engiAe had also gotten off the
track and Williams was
FASTENED BY HIS LEGS
under horrible mass of dead weight
Workmen near Immediately commenced
TO rescue him, but the wreck had TO be
cut TO pieces, and the work of removal
was necessarily very slow. The suffer
ings of the unfortunate man were fright
full As be lay in the hot sun, conscious
of certain death, slow and most fearfully
painful, approaching him, he could see
the efforts of his rescuers, but knew they
could give him no relief. Once he called
1 for drink of water to cool his parched
throat, which was given him by his com
rades, glad that they were able to do
lived something over an hour after the
accident, when death came as a grateful
relief About half an hour after his death
they succeeded in freeing his body.
Doctors had been summoned, the coro-
ner was aotified, and quite crowd had
collected about the place. A coroner's
jury was inpaneled anc the remains
were viewed, after which the body was
put in bus and taken to Clark's furni-
ture store, where it was dressed and put
into a coffin. He was found to be
| FEARFULLY MANGLED.
One of his feet was cut of, the bones of
both his legs were crushed, an arm was
mangled and there were abrasions on
his back. AT ten O'Clock last night the
remains were taken by an escort of his
friends TO his late home on Constitution
street, wherea
WIFE AND SIX CHILDREN
awaited in unutterabie sorrow the COM
ing of all that was left of their husband
and father.
Mr.. Williams was about thirty-five
years of age, and had been in the en-
ploy of the Santa Fe company for some
time He had lived in Emporia about a
year and half.
THE TESTIMONY
before the coroner's jury was quite
yolumino1s, but was chiefly remarkable
for what it did not disclose. The wit
nesses seemed afraid to state, at any rate
did not testify positively what caused
the accident, except that there was
general unanimity on the point that
rail had spread. But as to what threw
the cars onto the engine tank and cross
wise of the track nobody seemed to
know. and nobody saw Williams at the
moment he was crushed. The engineer
testified that he was not running above
four miles an hour at the time of the ac-
cident, and didn't feel the engine
strike the cars. Another wit
ness said they were probably going at
the rate ofsix miles an hour, and others
couldn't say just how car could be
smashed and thrown several feet unless
the engine was going pretty fast. On
thesquestiop. of the condition of the track
on the switch where the accident occurred
there was also wide difference of opin-
ion, como Of the witnesses claiming that
it was bad and others that it was fully
up to the average side track. The coro-
ner's jury did not go into these minute
details, and it may be justice to declare
nobody to blame" 1t looks bad, how
ever, especially in the face of
unofficial reports of recklessness among
engineers on the switch engine, to see
such wreck of cars where there is lit
tie excuse for being off the track at all.
| 1t is growing to be a monotous tale to
recount fatal accidents on the Santa Fe
railroad.
The corOner's jury brought in the fol-
lowing
State of Kansas, Lyon county;
l. An inQuisition holden at Emporia, in
Lyon county, on the 9Th day of August,
A. D. 1881, before me, w. w. Hibben,
coroner of said county, on the body of
Z. Williams there lying dead, by the
persons whose names are hereto sub
scribed. The said persons, upon their
oaths, do say that on the afternoon of
the 9th day of August, A. d. 1881, the
said E. Williams was killed by rail-
road accident that occurred in the yards
| of the A. T. s. s. F. railroad company
at Emporia, Lyon county, and that the
accident occurred by q spreading or
| widening of the railroad track, causing
the wheels to leave the track.
THos. F. DAVENPORT,
l. d. Fox,
/ JACOB TAYLOR,
- ID. KING,
J. @. KIsER,
Z. MACLENNAN.
The Bismarck Jubilee.
Topeka Commonwealth: Prof Leslie