Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-07-04
A DEATH CRASH.

A Disregard for Orders Causes
Railway Collision Near Ashland. xiatN
A Train Loaded with Women ana IDS
dren Run n by an Accommodsu.au'
Train-Eight Employees Killed. 'oa
PHILADELPHIA, June 16.-There w.,
crash OIL the Camden g. Atlantic Railro,s
Saturday morning. Two trains cana a
getEer with terrible force. Eight naos,'
were killed, and of the nine wounded s n'
eral will probably die. At $3.50 a train '.
three cars left Camden, N. j., for LakesiSs
Park with children from the Second p,os
byterian Church on an excursion, A.
seven o'clock an accommodation train =.
seven cars left Atlantic City for Camdsn
and Philadelphia. The trains should h,rs
passed at Ashland station. Superintenda,.
Barnard sent a telegram to the operator ..
Ashland to hold the accommodation o.,
side track there until the excursion had
passed. Somehow the accommodation "a,
by Ashland, and about a mile this sid
rushed headlong into the excursion train,
James Anderson, a resident of Alton
reached Camden at noon, having come IN
from the scene of the accident in a carriage
He said: ct was sitting in the forward part
of the smoking car, when l heard the slrin
whistle of a locomotive, which was followed
by.similar signals from another locomotive
close by. l thought that something was
wrong, and 1 Immediately jumped to my feet,
At that instant the air-brakes were applied,
and the movement of the train was checked
suddenly with such force as TO-
throw me down on the floor of the car. I
quickly regained my feet, and on CHANGING
around l found that all the other
passengers, of whom there were about
twenty IN the car, had also been thrown
out Of their seats. This was all the work Of
a few seconds, and was followed by a terri.
Bile crash as the trains came together. The
smokingcar was the third from the loco,
motive, and was pretty well used Ill.,
Both engines were completely wrecked.
The passengers got out Of the win.
dows as best they could. After the
collision occurred we all Scrambled
out of the Car. some escaping by tls
windows. Both locomotives were com,
pletely demolished by the collision, and tie
escaping steam madeit impossible for some
time to approach within fifty feet of the
wreck. Great excitement existed among
the people in the two trains, especially
among the women and children composing
the excursion train. The sight presented
after the accident occurred was a terrible
one. The t%rain-hands and the male passer.
gers were running to and fro so much ex
cited that they were unable to render any
assistance to the injured and dying"
AS soon as partial quiet had been restored
the uninjured went to the assistance of thu
wounded. Fireman Nicholas Barber was
taken out''dead, with his entrails protruding
Mail Agent Winfield Hiles was, with great
difficulty, gotten out. He was lying dee|
under the debris, and it was ONE time be
fore he was discovered. He was heard to
call Here l am" and was thus found
When gotten out he could not give much
account of himself, as he was terribly i'll
jured internally, and died in a short time
Frank Fenton, the surveyor of the road
who was on the train, was taken out afte
about two hours work, mangled in q terri
Bile manner. Both engineers were killed
Conductor Albert Smith and the brakeman
Gustavus Edwards, of the Lakeside trail
were taken out dead. Smith was countin
his tickets in the front car. 1t was nearl
an hour and a half after the accideI
before medical attendance was gotten 0
the ground. The most affecting thin
of the affair was the fact that the dauyhte
Of Civil Engineer Fenton was on the eS
cursion train. She looked for her fathe
and was told that he was safe and had goa
ahead to flag the trains. She then waite
and walked to Haddonfield. In a few min
utes after she had gone her father wa
taken out of the ruins, his head almos
tiattened where it had been crushed. Bag
gage-master Vaughn was also killed. Til
wounded number nine, so far as ascertainel