Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1889-10-03
A. HORRIBLE COLLISION.
SUBURBAN PASSENGERS TERRIBLY
MANGLED AND sCALDED.
Five Killed Outright and n Dozen Injured,
Some FataIIy-An Engineers Running
Ahead of Time the Cause of the Fatality
afno Goanaa

Five Killed Outright and n Dozen Injured.
Some FataIly-An Engineers Running
Ahead of Time the Cause of the Fatality
Distressing Scenes.
IChicago telegram.l
Through the wanton carelessnes of En-
gineer Seth Twombley five lives were sac
riiced in wreck on the Rock Island
Railway, near Auburn Junction, "a sub
urban station of Chicago. The passen-
ger train had just passed. the junction
station and was stopped by train Cross
ing on an intersecting line, when Twom-
bley's freight came rushing up from be-
hind and sent its engine crashing into the
passenger. Before it struck the passen-
ger train Twombley and his fireman
jumped off and made their escape:
All of the killed save one were from
Washington Heights. The following is
list of those instantly killed:
Mrs. Ward, Washington Heights; Mrs. Cap
tain Brown, Washington Heights Miss Sadie
Kelly Washington Heights; Fred Huebner,
Washington Heights; James w. McKinze, Au-
burn Junction.
The seriously wounded are:
Mrs. A. X. Steele, Washington Heights scald-
ed about the breast and face and internally in
jured, probably fatal; Gus Mulcahey, Seventy
sixth and Wallace streets, scalded about the
face and arms and two ribs fractured, also in
jured about the abdomen Mrs. Clark of WASH
ington Heights. daughter of Mrs. Captain
Brown, who was killed, scalded all over her body
and badly bruised about the head Parker Hard
ing and sister, Tracy avenue, scalded and
bruised about the head and face; Anton Shu-
berg, Washington Heights, terribly scalded
about head and arms and internally injured.
Others injured are Edward Smith, Jr., Daniel
Lawrence, q. Klein, John Tierney. Michael
Haggerty, Mrs Wheeler, and Dan o'Connor. of
Washington Heights.
The suburban passenger train which
was wrecked left the Rock Island depot
at Van Buren, street at $50 o'clock, with
Conductor G. S. Ellis in charge and En-
gineer Parker at the throttle. At GIG
o'clock the train had passed Auburn juno
tion station and had discharged nearly all
hA3s 81 an ehehHhe IGN ana sevsn coscss.
Just beyond Auburn Junction, at Eighty
seventh street, the rear Car is uncoupled
to be sent on to Washington Heights,
while the forward cars continue on the
branch south to Morgan Park and
Blue Island. The train had
stopped to let an incoming train
from the Washington Heights branch
pass and to uncouple the rear car
when freight train No. 81 crashed into the
rear. The passengers in the forward cars
were badly frightened, but did not real
ize the extent of the accident for some
time They heard the crash and felt q
slight shock, but did not take in the stu
alton until the smoke and Kissing steam
attracted their attention. The greatest
confusion followed, and nearly every one
rushed from the train. The locomotive
had forced its way clear inside of the rear
coach, and the Kissing steam and the
shrieks of the wounded and imprisoned
passengers increased the horror.
There were between twenty five and
thirty people on board the fated car, and
that any of than AsranAd alive Sc .'ni-e
Gle. The passengers from the other cars
at once lent helping hand, and many
were saved who but for timely assistance
must have succumbed to the scalding
steam and choking smoke from the en-
gine.
BY some at present inexplicab able rels on,
the freight was ten minutes ahead of
time, and presumably to this is the sad
accident alone due. The track is q straight
one at this point, and Engineer Twom-
bley must have seen the passenger ahead
some time before he struck it. He says
that he reversed his engine Immediately
and whistled down brakes, but the veloc-
ity of the train proved too great to be
halted in time to avoid the smash-up.
According to some of the spectators the
freight was running at the rate of twenty
miles an hour. 1t was n heavily loaded
train, and from the fact that the engine
crashed almost its whole length into the
car without seriously injuring the sides,
it must have been running at high rate
of speed
The bodies of the dead were in a hofri-
BILE condition, and in some instances were
literally cooked. Miss Kelly was so
badly scalded that it was almost impossI-
BILE to distinguish her features at all.