Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1892-05-16
A Fast Freight Train and a Limited
Passenger Collide
WITH MOST DREADFUL RESULTS,
At the Little Town of Clsyss, Ohio-Both Trains
Were Running at Full Speed in Binding
Storm, and Neither Had Warning Of
What Was Coming.

Ohio, this morning with awful effect,
the full horrors of which are not yet
known.
This morning the summer schedule
went into effect and orders had been
issued accordingly. Freight No. 43, a
through faeight north-bound, had or
ders to-stop at North Bend to allow Ex-
press No. so, Cannon Ball special, TO
pass. Under the old schedule the trains
passed at another point some miles fur
ther on. Instead of stopping the freight
engineer pulled ahead and approached
Cleyes, running about twenty miles an
hour.
Why he did not stop at North Bend
will never be known, as he is dead, but
il is thought that in his anxiety over
the storm, which might have washed
out bridges, he forgot the new schedule
and hurried on. As the train approached
Cleves, Charles Smith, the telegraph
operator, was shocked, for he
knew it should have Sidetracked
at North Bend, and that the
express, fsw minutes overdue
then, was but short distance away
running forty-fve miles an hour to make
up lost time. Smith rushed to the sig
nal wires and dashed out the danger sig
nal. Either it was not seen in the blind
ing rain or the engineer could not
control his engine, for it sped on by
without lessening speed.
At that very moment the Express
came into sight with the speed Of the
wind. If any effort was made on either
engine to slacken speed it was not ap-
preciable, and the iron monsters sprang
at and crashed into each other with a
roar that rolled above the storm like a
clap Of thunder.
Both engines were battered into
shapeless masses and rolled off the
track. The cars behind were mashed
into kinding, and the track for one
hundred feet was torn up. Telegraph
poles were thrown down and 1t was two or
three hours after the wreck before word
reached this place, and special train
was sent to the scene from Cincinnati.
Long before, the people from the little
village and from the surrounding coun-
trp had gathered and in the frightful
storm were doing all they could.
Many Of the wounded had been taken
away, and the number tonight cannot
be definitely known. 1t is claimed that
some Of those thus provided for are in
a dying condition. Not person on
either train escaped uninjured.
With the arrival OF the special train,
the work of getting out the dead began.
Up to 6 o'clock five dead bodies had
been recovered, four of them shockingly
manQled and mashed out Of all human
shape. Under the freight engine,
broken, crushed and Scalded were found
Engineer William Hidds and his fire.
man, Hiram Bruce, both OF Indianapo-
lis.
Under mashed freight car farther
back Phillip Gibbon and David Har-
wood were found. Nearly every bone
in their bodies was broken and their
faces horribly disfgured. The fifth
dead body was that Of Berry Edwards,
engineer Of the passenger train. His
fireman, Henry Tyrrel, had jumped be-
fore the crash, but had been caught
under a mass OF wreckage. His chest
was crushed in and his head cut. He
was taken to Lawrenceburg, but cannot
survive the night.
John Schroeder, conductor OF the
passenger train, was injured in almost
the same manner and can live but few
hours at most. George w. Hudler,
commercial traveller from Miamasburg,
was crushed between two seats, being
bent almost double. He was taken to
the Cincinnati Hospital. He cannot
survive.
Julius Webber, the chief clerk of
County Coroner Bange, OF Cincinnati,
has lust returned from the wreck, and
says the scene is one of the worst he
ever saw. He thinks there are from
five TO ten more dead in the ruin, but
the exact number cannot be told to-
night.
"Boneyn Keef. a freight brakeman,
had Just reached the top of car when
the collision. occurred. The crash was
so terr. BILE that he was thrown over
telegraph wire forty feet into stream
OF water which alone saved his life. He
thinks there at least three trampS under
the wreck. Several passengers on the
Express are positive that several OF
their number were also killed.
1t is certain they are missing, but
they may be among the wounded scas-
tered about. Owing to the distance
from the city and the prostration of the
telegraph wires by the accident and the
telephone wires by the storm, details
have been very slow in coming in and
no complete list of the wounded can be
given.
The property loss is very severe and
will be S1OO,O ,OOO Both engines are
complete wrecks, and the coaches of
the express train are ruined. Ii is
claimed that much valuable mail and
express matter is lost. A dozen freight
ears loaded with costly goods are total
loss.
The list of killed and injured in the
wreck is:
ENGINEER NEwBERRY EDWARDS, of
Greensburg, Ind, of the passenger
train.
AcrING BAGeAGEMAsTER PHIDIP
GRIBBEN, of Lawrenceburg, Ind, of the
passenger train.
ENGINEER WILLIAM HIGGs, OF India
napolis, OF the freight train.
FIREMAN HIRAM BRUCE, OF the
freight train, of Greensburg, Ind.
CONDUCTOR DAVID HEYwooD, OF
Indianapolis, of the freight.
The Injured are: ]. C. Huber, pas
senger, MiamisburR. O., knee pan
broken, head cut. Holton Terrell pas
senger, aged is, son Of Or. Terrell, Of
Delhi, O., scalded all over the body,
cannot live. Conductor John Schroe-
der, passenger. crushed mortally be-
tween the cars. Mrs. Moreland, Of
North Bend. slightly bruises
Missing live % eight assengers