Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1884-02-06

morning, made it's last stop at Broad
Ripple before reaching the city, and was
just getting under Roadway when it be-
gan to cross the bridge over White
River. The train consisted of an en-
car, and ladies' coach. Conductor W. S.
Losey was In charge and John Bremen
was engineer. The latter, after leav-
ing the station, however, had gone
into the baggage-car for a drink of
water, leaving James Nonan, fireman, in
charge of the engine. The bridge was
of the ordinary Howe truss pattern, con-
sisting of two spans, each $50 feet in
length. a speed of about fifteen miles
per hour had been attained, and the
train had pulled It's full length on the
bridge, when NOnan felt the baggage
car sinking. He had his hands on
the Unbelievable at the moment,
and instinctively pulled her wide
open. As the engine shot forward
the baggage-car plunged down
ward and the tender was sepa-
rated at both ends from It's connections,
and the engine fairly climbed into a
position of safety on the remaining
rails, and it ran short distance on the
ties and st1ingers without leaving the
bridge. The first break in the bridge
occurred directly under the baggage
car, which seemed to be pressed down
by some supernatural power, and
it dropped like lead into the water be-
low. The smoker forged ahead few feet
and dropped squarely upon the forward
cars. The rear coach went down
through a second break in the span,
and, the channel being choked with the
debris of the bridge and of the forward
part Of the train, all the occupants es-
capped death. Inside of an hour after
the accident wrecking train was st the
scene. The sight that presented itself
to the rescuers was q narrowing one.
Half the bridge was down, and, with the
debris of the cars, was in flames, which
originated from the stoves in the
coaches. Nothing but the wheels and
other iron work remained. A dozen
men were endeayoring to quench the
fire with buckets of water. Soon large
bucket brigade was formed and the
burning wreck was rapidly cooled so as
to permit the work of recovering the
bodies to begin. The dead and seri-
ously injured were all confined in the
ruuis of the smoker and baggage car, and
these, lying one on top of the other,
were In deep water near the pier. The
river was high and the current strong
and icy, adding to the difficulties of the
search, which was quite tedious, there
being only one skiff to work in. It was
a s1ckening and heartrending labor.
Fiveformless and almost unrecogniz-
able trunks or other portions of the hu-
man body were taken from the shoulder
ing pile.
Following are the names of the dead
John Fl. Brewer, engineer, Lafayette.
j. E. Ricketts,, baggagemaster, MonOn.
Abe Smith, American Express messenger.
Madison, Ind.
George Lawry, brakeman Buena Vista.
John Bray, Deming. Ind, passenger.
The names of the injured, all of whom
were passengers, save two, are:
Lynn Clark, We8tfeld, supposed to be fatally
hurt.
W. P. HauE, Westfeld, Ind, head cut and
bruised.
William A. Semons, ex-sheriff of Hamilton
County, arm broken, face cut and side bruised.
VIM. T. Swiggart, Carmel, skull fractured and
hip hurt.
B. J. White, bridgeman, bruised.
Charles Parker, bridgeman, face and head
cut.
Mrs. Sullivan and baby, bruised.
J. B. Horton, slightly scorched and bruised.
Thomas Parr, superintendent of
bridge repairs Oh the road, who was
working on the bridge when it went
down, is missing, and it is believed his
body is underneath the wreck at the
bottom of the stream. Several others
are missing, among them Elwood Moon,
merchant of Hortonville, who is said
to have been on the train and has not
since been seen. He has wife and ten
children. Matt Hayes, of Louisville,
travelling agent of the Fairbanks Scale
Co., is also missing.
Lynn Clark, who is supposed to be
fatally hurt, had frightful experience.
He was pinned down to the burning car
by heavy stringer, and was abandoned
to his fate after strenuous efforts by the
lucky survivors, owing to the rapid ad-
vance of the flames. When all hope for
him had been abandoned he crawled
from the fire, the flames having eaten
through the timber that pinned him
down.
A bridge repairer named White had a
miraculous escape. He was at work on
the bridge at the time and was carried
down by the wreck He was forced to
the bottom by the weight of the mate
rial that surrounded him, but by desper-
ate effort freed himself and came to the
surface. The current carried him to 8
point 100 yards below the bridge, where
he crawled out.
BLOWN TO RUIN.
ALLIANCE, o., February "a fright
full explosion occurred in the business
portion of the city, yesterday afternoon,
SCATTERING windows and enveloping the
vicinity of F. NJ Orr's brick block in a
cloud of dust. When those who hap.
pened to be near the scene recovered
from the shock, it was discovered that
the Orr block had been leveled
to the ground and the brick blocks
on either side badly riddled. In a
few moments flames arose from the ruins
and fire alarm was sounded, but the
fire had so much Roadway before the de-
partment arrived that it consumed near
" all of the debris and two adjoining