The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-09-26
FEARFUL DISASTER.
Shocking Calamity on the Read.
ing Railroad.
A Passenger Train, Running at High Rate
OF Speed, Dashes Into Freight Wreck
Many Persons Killed and
Injured.

OF Speed, Dashes Into Freight Wreck
Many Persons Killed and
Injured.
READING, Pa, Sept ga wreck &C.
Cured on the Reading railroad seven
teen miles above this place about 6:45
last night which resulted in frightful
disaster-the worst in the history Of the
Reading Railroad Company.
The train which met with the disaster
left this city at Cos o'clock. ten min
utes late. 1t was known as the Potts
vile express and was running at the
rate of at least thirty-eigbt to forty
miles an hour. 1t had on board pos
sibly 1875 or $50 passengers and consist
ed of engine, tender. mail and express
cars and three passenger coaches
Above Shoemakersville, this county,
about fifteen miles from this city, is a
sharp curve, where the railroad is about
eighteen to twenty feet higher than the
Schuylkill river. Here shortly before
six o'clock freight train ran into coal
train, throwing several cars of the lat
ter on the opposite track.
Before the train hands had time to go
back to warn any approaching train of
the danger the Pottsville express came
around the curve and ran into the
wrecked coal cars on its track. The en-
CINE went down the embankment into
the river, followed by the entire train
with its human freight.
Some of the passengers managed to
crawl out of their prison and arouse the
neighborhood. Word was telegraphed
to this city and help summoned, but all
information was refused at this point
by the railroad officials. Physicians
and surgeons and force of 800 work
men were taken to the spot by the COM
pany and with the aid of a travelling
electric light plant the work OF clearing
away the wreck was at once begun.
Up to midnight thirteen bodies had
been recovered. Five bodies are ex-
posed to view in the wreck They are
pinned under the. timbers
Conservative estimates place the
number of killed at from forty to fifty.
1t is almost impossible to estimate the
exact number and the full horror of the
situation will not be known before
morning
At eleven o'clock Mail Agent Green
wald's body was taken out followed by
the horribly mangled bodies of two
Mahanoy City firemen on their way
home from the Chester convention.
The killed so far as identified are as
follows: John l. Miller, of Cresson;
William d. Shome, Reading, badly
mangled; John White. engineer, Potts
vile, Pa; James Templin, Pottsville,
Pa; George r Kaercher, Pottsville, Pa;
Harry Logan, conductor, Pottsville, Pa;
David Aughstadt Mahanoy City, died
after being taken from the wreck. His
head and body were crushed; E w. Lo-
gan, baggagemaster, Shenandoah.
George R. kaercher. Esq, the eminent
railroad lawyer of Pottsville, who has
also q law Office in Philadelphia, is
among the killed. Persons who were
we'll acquainted with him have identi-
fed the crushed body in the debris Of
the Pullman car.
William D. Shome, one of Readings
wealthiest citizens, was passenger on
the train and was one of the first per-
sons reported killed.
RECOVERING THE DEAD.
READING, Pa, Sept 20.-At two
o'clock this morning the situation was
as follows: Three hundred men were
still at work, but were making slow
progress. Fifteen bodies had been
taken out. None of the bodies have
been taken from the scene of the d.
saster.
1t is still believed that twenty or
more are underneath the wreck. Who
they are is not known, because it is not
known who was on the train, and how
many were actually killed will only be
disclosed with the removal of the en-
CINE and cars from the bed of the river.
STORY OF A SURVIVOR
READING, Pa, Sept 20.-One of the
passengers who went down in the wreck
and who was but slightly injured, and
brought on special train to the Read
ing hospital at eleven o'clock, says that
when the passenger train left Reading
the cars were all well filled. Among
the people were many ladies' He
sat in the front part OF the last
car. This is his story: The train
was going at lively rate of speed. The
passengers appeared happy crowd.
many of them ladies, chatting and
laughing after days pleasure at the
Berks County fair. l was viewing the
country through which we were passing
when suddenly there was a terrible
crash. l was hurled from my seat
while the cars rolled down the twenty
foot embankment, and / was thrown
from one side of the car to the other
like toy, when-splash one end went
into the water and / was thrown against
the side of the car with force that par
italy stunned me. l quickly recovered
myself and managed to climb upon the
seats on that side of the car which lay
against the embankment l was pris-
oner in the car unable to get out, and
while nursing my sprained ankle and
wrist out of joint realized that l was
in scene of veritable horror. Around
and about me were human beings strug-
Cling 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 then quietly
sank out of sight"
Five Hundre Drowned.
II