Omaha daily bee., 1891-02-12
JAKE JENSEN'S RIDE TO DEATH
A Frightful Wreck in the Union Pacific
Yards Yesterday Morning
ONE MAN KILLED AND THREE HURT.
The Engineer Was Crushed BE yond
Recognition i'm His Cab and Hor-
ribly Scaldcd by the
Escaping steam.


if have to take my time for it," were the
prophetic words uttered by Jake Jensen, the
engineer, yesterday morning.
Twenty minutes later he was a corpse.
He lost his life in the disastrous wreck that
occurred on the Union Pacific at the foot OF
Harncy street at 9:l5 yesterday morning.
The mogul freight engine No 1856 which
left the shops for the first time Sunday
morning, pulled away from the smelling works
at9:l5 yesterday morning, with twenty-five
cars attached, the first three laden with bull
ion, in charge of William Hayes. a yard fore
man, and with Jacob Jause an old and reliable
engineer and Ed Ball, the fireman, in the
cab. BY the time the train reached
Farnam street they had pretty good
head of steam on and were going at consider
able speed in order to get over the grade.
Just south of the second switch, without
an apparent cause other than the heavily
laden bullion cars, the engine jumped the
track at point where the rails were in
perfect condition, and with but moder-
ately diminished speed ran along upon the
ties between the rails for the distance of fifty
yards when she went over the slight en-
bankment to the left. The descent at this
point is barely three feet, but in the
flash of an eye, the splendid new
engine was an almost unrecognizablc wreck,
with Engineer Jensen lying crushed, scaded
ana dead beneath tangled mass Of iron and
steel
bull tne nrenan, VINO was on the
right side of the cab, jumped
the moment the engine left the
track and fortunately escaped injury,
except rather painful bruising sustained by
falling upon the hard ground.
Jensen was at his own window where he
was seen with his elbow on the sill, calmly
gazing out,a few seconds before the accident
It would be difficult matter to explain
just how he was caught, but the
fact is that the bulk of this enormous
weight caught him just across the chest and
crushed his mangled form into the frozen
earth. His death was instantaneous, and the
fact that both cocks in the cab exploded and
poured their volumes of super-heated steam
into his face, added nothing to the horror Of
his death.
William Martin, car-tagger. was also
aboard the engine, standing on the iron sheet
ing that serves as a gang plank between the
cab and the tender. He saw Jensen raise mp
and reach out his right arm as il
to grasp the throttle, and then attempted
to save himself but before he could
act the crash came and his right leg near the
thigh was H.ught between this sheeting and
the boiler. He was quite seriously burned
by the escaping steam, but in some mir
aculous manner succeeded in ex-
Treating himself and jumped to
the ground, Notwithstanding his
leg was crushed and broken in Il horrible
way. He was Immediately picked up by
members of the wrecking crew, who were
upon Tue scene Ill Ten minutes dlter Ufle
calamity, and carried into a shed near
by. being subsequently taken to
St. Joseph's HOSPITAL DR.. Gal
braith, the attending physician, said
that he had sustained a comminuted fracture
of the right thigh bone, and would probably
eventually loose the limb.
Tng- n rerErHe t.s.rrr+. tr.srrlcn was speedily at
tached to the demolished cneine-ss+r~I the
engineer removed from the wreck by Danny
Shea, Robert Mckinley and William Grove
The remains, which were sent to Burket's
presented most revolving appearance, the
body being mashed and crushed out of all
sembance to the human FORM and his head,
swollen to twice its natural size, with
features hideously blackened and distorted
by the steam, which had literal
ly cooked the flesh, burning off one car. His
right hand was still firmly clutched about
the throttle, showing that he died at his most
and his last act was an attempt to save his
engine.
After the engine had gone into the ditch.
the momentum at which the train had been
going carried the tank on at least sixty yards
further, where there was general collapse.
The tender had been pushed along
minus the fore wheels, and the ties
and rail had been torn up for considerable
distance, one railing being twisted like so
much wire, its jagged ends penetrating the
tank and protruding through the top. The
tender had also actually been forced through
the foremost of the freight cars rending IL
into fragments, and scattering the
bullion bars in all directions, while two other
cars were likewise thorou ghly demolished
William Hayes, in whose charge the train
was, in relating the circumstances of the dis
aster, said there We're three cars of
bullion, eight of ice and eleven
empties, aud that they were
pulling up to get on the Council Bluffs track,
the ice beng destined for that point. The
load was not an extra heavy one by any
means, but sufficient to render considerable
speed neces sary to make the grade. He
was on the rear car, and in jumping
fell on his face, MASKING his right
cheek painfully and knocking several teeth
out He was also quite badly confused about
the shoulders and chest. Young Martin re-
sides in the Bluffs lie was transfer clerk
with Jensen to ride over home.
Jacob Jensen, the dead engineer, was
about thirty eight years of age,
and he resided with his wife
and two sons, one aged sixteen, en-
poyed In the shops, and the other, a lad of
eight, at 6O9 Marcy street. He was much es-
teemed by the company as reliable and eff
cient engineer, and in addition to ten or
twelve years of experience here had run an
engine in the old country, and was-a finished
and thorough railroad man. His death indeed
is lamentable. one and fell with crushing
weight upon his little family. Jensen was
about to get leave of absence and had made
every preparation to take his wife and Young
est son ON trip to his old home across the
water.
The damage entailed by the wreck will
probably reach in the ueighborhood of $40.
600. '
Cashier Gone and Two Banks Close.