Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1890-09-27
A RAILROAD WRECK
A Passenger Train Strikes a Coal
Car.
Running Forty Miles an Hour and
Goes Over an Embankment-
$50 Passengers Aboard.

READING, Pa, Sept. 20.-One OF the
worst wrecks ever known in this section
occurred last night on the Reading rail-
road, seventeen miles from here. Near
Schoemakersville there is a curve,
where the railroad is about eighteen or
twenty feet higher than the Schuylkill
river. Here, shortly before 8 o'clock, a
freight train ran into a coal train,
throwing several cars onto the opposite
track. Before the train hands had time
to warn any approaching train OF dan
ger, the Pottsville express, carrying
about $50 passengers, came around the
curve at the rate of forty miles an
hour and ran into the wrecked coal
cars. The engine went down the en-
bankment, followed by the entire
train with its human freight. The scene
was n Of great horror. The cries OF
the imprisoned passengers were heart
rending. Some Of the passenger man.
aged TO crawl out of their prison and
arouse the neighborhood. Word was
telegraphed to this city, and surgeons
and a force of 800 workmen were taken
to the spot. Work was slow and the
dead and dying we're taken out with
great difficulty. Up 10 10 O'Clock six
dead and thirty wounded were aiken
out. OF the latter some wereAEught
t~~this city and others taken TO the
Miners hospital at Ashland. The dead
taken out so far are:
VIM. d. Shomo, Reading.
John White, engineer, Pottsville.
James Temnlin. 6reman. PottsVille-
Harry Logan, CONDUCTOR, Pottsville.
David Augustadt, Mahoney City. .
+. W. Logan, baggage master, Shenan-
doah.
The injured are:
Harrison Riland, Philadelphia.
Joseph Soutwood, Centralia.
James +. Market, Bethlehem.
John Thorton, Leesport.
Joseph Noll. shenandoah.
Frank b. Hill, manage OF Frank
Mayo's dramatic company.
John Carroll, st. Clair.
Joseph Ashfeld, Mahoney City.
VIM. Classmeyer, Port Clinton.
Thomas Coney, Philadelphia.
Robert Collins, Pottstown.
Samuel Shollen berger, Hamburg.
b. w. Cithler, Girardville.
John Coolick, Mt. Carmel.
". w. Johnston, Shenandoah.
George Sanders, Reading,
Benjamin Franklin, Shenandoah.
james Bernhart, Shenandoah.
John Hess, Mahoney City.
David G. Young, Mahoney City.
Lyman Dick, Hamburg.
DIR. b. +. Salade, New Ringold.
Jacob Ulmer, Pottsville.
Samuel Coomb, Mahoney City.
William Zimmers, Ashland.
The wrecked train is still lying at the
bottom of the river. The exact number
on the passenger list is not known and
the reporter, who is still on the ground,
telephones he believes there are still
twenty-five or more bodies underneath
the wreck or which we're carried away
by the current.
AT midnight thirteen bodies had been
recovered. The names of those known
are already given. Five bodies are ex-
posed TO view in the wreck, pinned UNI
der the timbers.
One of the passengers who escaped
with slight injuries said to the Associ-
ated Press reporter: ''When the crash
CANE ! was hurled from my seat. One
oHd of the car s~plashed into the river
and j was thrown against the side of
the car with a force that partially
stunned me. l quickly recovered my
self and managed to climb upon the
seats. The side of the car on which
l lay was against the embank-
ment. / was a prisoner in the
car and while j was nursingl my
sprained ankle and a wrist out OF Joint,
/ realized that / was in a scene Of YER
liable horror. Around and about me
we're human beings struggling in the
water, screaming in their fright, and
some almost dragged me back into the
water again. A few saved themselves
as / did, and the remainder struggled in
the water and Their quickly sank out of
sight"
Professor Mitchell, of the Lehigh
university, Bethlehem, is among the
injured at the Reading hospital.
Lawrence Barnes, of Philadelphia,
had his arm ~dislocated.
The body of John l.. Miller, of Cres-
son, Pa, was taken out at midnight.
At 3 o'clock 300 men are still at work,
but making slow progress. Fifteen
bodies have been taken from the scene
of disaster. John McDonough, Jack
Noll and William johnson, of Shenan-
doah, reported. Still it is believed
that twenty or more bodies are beneath
the wreck.