The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1886-11-05
AN OPEN SWITCH.
It Causes a Frightful Accident at
Rio, Wis.
A PASSENGER TRAIN DERAlLED.
The Wreck Fired by Overturned Stoves
Twenty Six Passengers Burned to
Death-EIeven Bodies Recovered
Story of the Disaster.
HUMAN BEINGS ROASTED.

Story of the Disaster.
HUMAN BEINGS ROASTED.
MILWAUKEE. Wis, Oct 29-The most ap-
palling railroad disaster that has ever &C.
Cured in Wisconsin resulted from the COL
lison shortly after midnight wednesday
| of a passenger train on the Chicago Mil
waukee & St. Paul railroad and freight
train at Rio, small station fifteen miles
| this side of Portage and seventy-fiv miles
| from Milwaukee. By the collision it is believed
| that twenty-six were either crushed or burned
to death, while number of others were in
| jured. Eleven charred corpses have been
| taken from the debris already
| The passenger train was a lightning express.
IL leit Chicago at seven p. m. for St. Paul, with
baggage and mail cars, one day coach and three
sleepers. At Rio two freight 0ins were side
| tracked to allow the express to pas One of
them had just drawn onto the siding when the
express came laundering down upon it. Either
| through negligence or because there
was not time to close it, the switch was left
| open, and the passenger train, rushing at the
rate of forty-fve miles an hour, dashed into it
and at once left the rails. The sidings are in
cut where the road curves so that the
sWitch-light can not be seen from the
east until a train is within few
rods, so the engineer of the limited
could not see the switch-light was turned
wrong until too late to stop. The engine left
the track, ran a short distance, and brought up
against the side of the cut, topping over The
baggage and express cars and the day coach
| followed. The sleepers did not leave the track
The persons in the coach were imprisoned by
the telescoping of the car Fire broke out in the
wreck and rapidly spread through the debris OF
all those thus caught in the awful trap all but
two children perished-those who were not
killed at once by the collision dying more
4 - l.AO@ IL
shrieking for aid, made desperate efforts to es-
cape the torture of the flames, but in vain.
Mrs. G. R. Scherer, of Winona, handed her
children to brakeman through window and
then fell a victim to the fiery destroyer. The
names of the dead so far as known are:
Mrs c. r. Scherer and Mrs. Rosina Johns, of
Winona, Mimi; Louis Brinker, Emil VOTERS
dorf and Wallace Stuart, of Columbus, Wis. |;
Mrs. L. Lowry, of Milwaukee, and - Dibble a
travelling man. In the pocket of one dead man
taken from the wreck was an envelope adj
dressed u. Tourin Lincoln, No. 2 Forty ninth
street, Chicago One of the victims is believed
to be Mrs. George A. Mari, of Chicago. Her
identity is, however, uncertain. Two other
bodies are those of sisters of charity, one of
whom is believed to be Mother Alexis, superior
of a convent at Winona, Mimi, who had been in
Milwaukee establishi1ga convent.
The injured are Conductor Lucl1s Searle of
Milwaukee, Wis; Wade Clark, of Oconomowoc,
Wis, leg broken Charles F. Smith, of Chicago,
arm and wrist broken; James Phillips, brake
man, cut about the head, and Thomas Little,
engineer, badly cut.
Conductor Searle of the passenger train SAYS
that the occupants of the car where the fright
full incineraton occurred did not exceed fifteen
altogether. He has lost his tickets and so there
is no record. The burning of the baggage also
hinders the Identification of the corpses.
District Attorney Armstrong, assisted by Cor
oner Allen and force of men, worked all day
at the ruins of the wrecked train hunting for
the remains ofthe dead or to find some Glow to
identify those who persisted. Up to late hour
last night they had succeeded in raking out
trunks and other fragments sufficient to make
up eleven bodies. All the bodies were burned
beyond recognition, and it will be days before
the names of all the victims are known. Con-
ductor Hankey, of the freight train, who fed to
the woods Immediately after the catastrophe
occurred, has been found wandering around in
raving condition. He is likely to become
hopeless maniac.
The scenes at the wreck were narrowing
Passengers from the sleepers gathered around
the blazing cars, but they were powerless to
render assistance. Men and women could be
seen tearing their hair in the agony of the mo.
nent, and frghtful screams issued from the
death-trap. One heavy woman in particular
tore up one of the seats with almost superhuman
strength and endeavored to break her way out OF
the flaming pyre, but her strength failed and
she fell to the floor and met horrible DEATH
A man forced his way through the ventilator
on top of the car, with all the clothing on his
BODY from the waist downward burned off, and
his flesh roasted and bleeding from cuts in
fiicted by broken glass. The wreck burned like
timber, and in less. than ten minutes all was
over and quiet, except the walls of the injured
and those VINO could not view the awful scene
without breaking down.
From all accounts there must have been
frlghtful scene in the car in which the fatalities
occurred The pressure caused the coach to
assume the position of the letter A. Lamps
were broken and the stove overturned, scatter
ing fire and fame in all directions through the
coach. Mangled and bleeding, nearly all
the passengers were pinned securely by
broken seats, many heaped one upon
the other. Their agonized shrieks told the
story OF fractured limbs to which was added
the horror of cremation. 1t is positive that
only three escaped. The hero Of the catastro-
phe was the engineer, who, in the face of seem
ing death, held his hand on the throttle AID
thus saved the lives of all the passengers in the
sleepers Then, when the train stopped, he
oraWled out from beneath his engine,
bleeding, and alarmed the seepers of the dam
ger from fire. All the coaches and cars were
burned except the last sleeper, 'Nashota"
ADout SILKY packs Oh paper mail IOf NInn6-
sofa and Dakota were destroyed. The agents
escaped themselves with numerous bruises.
The loss to the railroad company is placed at
$4,000. The track was cleared at six D. m.
Upon whom to place the blame for the appall-
ing disaster at Rio, if upon anybody, is a mat
ter of conjecture. There are two side tracks at
Rio, and at the time the train was due there
Wednesday night both were occupied by
freights, one by wild train and the other by
train No. Il, Conductor H. P. Hanl1ey of this
city, which had just pulled in from the West to
allow the limited to pass. No. IA was very
long, and the conductor was at the head
of the train. relying on the brakeman to
attend to the switch One report says the rear
brakeman, whose business it was to close the
switch after the train, for some reason neg
lected altogether to do so. The other and the
more probable story is that he started back to
close the switch, but before he could reach it
the limited, which does not stop at any except
large places, came tearing down upon him.
Bishop Whipple, of Faribault, Mimi, with his
aged wife, was on the train returning home
from the Episcopal convention in Chicago. The
venerable prelate rendered great assistance to
those in need, and is credited with having saved
the lives of two children. He did not cease his
efforts to rescue the poor passengers who were
being burned to death until the flames drove
him away.