The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1891-08-06
WERE SLAIN BY A JOKE.
THE OHIO WRECK CAUSED BY
WANTON FOOLISHNESS

Several Lives Are LOSt-Nearly Forty Per-
sons Injured, Some Fatally-Two Cars
Thrown of the Track and Demolished
Thrilling Stories of Eye-Witnesses.
The wreck at MiddIetown, Ohio, on
the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton
Railroad, was one of the worst that have
ever happened in that vicinity. The
National Cash Register Company of Day
ton had given it's employees an excursion
to Woodsdale, in a train of sixteen
coaches. The day had passed merrily,
and everybody was laughing and chat
ting when the train reached Middle
town at o'clock on its way home
Some one had turned the air-brakeS on
for joke, and the engine was putting
and wheeling to pull the heavy load with
the brakes on. Pretty soon a drawbar
broke. and the train was stopped on the
siding al MiddleJown for repairs. Will
lam &. Douglass, one of the foreman of
the National Cash Register Works, tells
this story of the wreck:
The train of fifteen crowded cars
started on it's return trip from Wo DDS
dale about o'clock and about an hour
later the accident occurred at Middle
town. A drawbar about the middle of
the excursion train. broke and they
stopped at Middletown to patch it up for
the run to Dayton, Brakemen were
Immediately sent out with red flags to
flag the approaching train, and nearly
half an hour was consumed in repairing
the disabled car. Red lights were not
promptly changed to the rear of this
car, though the train was pulling out
when the accident occurred at nearly s
O'clock. The $50 men, women, and
children were in the last three coaches
and all knew that freight train No.
"A was following and they APP
preciated and talked of their
danger. Some of them called Con-
ductor Peter G. Clancy's attention to
their peril and he cautioned them that
if they heard train A coming they
should jump from the car. Five min
utes later the awful disaster was upon
them. The excursion was slowly creep
ing off the side track, when an OminOus
roaring was heard from the expected
train No "a, not over q quarter Of a
mile away. Nearer and nearer came
the monster mOgul with thirty-fve
loaded cars, and when in sight of Mid
dletown Station Engineer Schwind saw
the fiagman waving the danger signal,
and he Immediately called for brakes,
shut off steam and applied the sand.
We saw that collision was inevitable.
instant later the crash came--a rear-end
collision of mighty force.
The excursion train was pulling out on
to the main track and all but the two
rear coaches had left the siding when
the mogul engine with the heavy train
behind it went blowing through The
two rear cars and human freight were
hurled into the ditch and the next coach
was struck fairly in the end, and the
locomotive, pushing under, elevated 1t
to an angie of forty-five degrees, and
there it stood, flied with shrieking peO-
pc. This car caught fire, but Engineer
Schwind and his fireman were able to
extinguish the blaze by use of hose from
the locomotive Two cars lay crushed
in the ditch with mass of manned and
mangled people moaning in agony,
pleading for help. Rescuers set to work
at once to extricate them. Legs, arms
and heads could be seen through broken
windows or pinned under the wreck.
Means of the helpless sufferers,
and means of the dying, min
gled with the frantic cries OF
dren. Many had been cut by glass and
the timbers in the rush to escape, and
bloody faces and hands bore CHASTITY tes-
timony to the great number who were
injured. Physicians and citizens OF
Middletown were soon at the scene to
join in rescuing the unfortunateS The
terror stricken excursionsts were made
comfortable in the houses, the dead per-
sons were properly cared for and the in
iured received all necessary attention.
A tramp named James Wilson, of Co.
lumbus, Ohio, who. with his two little
boys, was having free ride ON the
freight train, says he is railroader by
occupation and was on the third car
from the front when approaching Mid
dletown; that he plainly saw the red
lights swinging, and that the engineer
tried to stop the train but could not, and
the heavy cars crowded him into the ex-
curSion train.