Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-09-08
TWELVE CORPSES.
Taken from the Frightful Wreck
Near CoIehour.
AN ATTEMPT IOD0THE IMPOSSIBLE
Results in a Railway Horror on the
Pennsylvania-Somebody Blum
Gers Terribly,

And Tries to Have Two Trains Pass Each
Other on One Track-Fourteen Badly
Wounded-One of the Dead Smashed Out
of All Recognition-Correct List of the
Killed and Injured-Cyclone in Louisi-
ana Kills Five Persons and Destroys a
Convent.
CHICAGO, Sept. s-Two fast trains on
the Pennsylvania railway crashed into
each other near Colehour, a small town
near the Indiana state line, AID in an in
slant twelve lives were lost and fourteen
other unfortunates were mHimed and man
gled. Following are the lists of the. killed
and injured.
Killed-Chester E. Coffin, Carthage Ind;
A 5. Temple, manager Schiller theatre,
Chicago; Emil Godenrath, nephew of Tenn
Pile; Eva Rigney, freight agent Wisconsin
Central railway; ]. d. Adams, Fairfield,
Ills; F. NJ. Bomard. Terre Haute, Ind;
F. D. Fleming. Fairfield. Ills; w. D.
Richardson, Chicago; Albert Heinz, Vim
cennes, Ind; William Shouicher, New AL
bany; Michael Wall; unknown tramp
Names of the Fourteen Wounded.
Wounded-William Richter, Edwards
port, Knox county, Ind, head hurt and
Internal injuries; William Brewer, bag
gagemaster, Louisville train, left leg
amputated, internal injuries; Joseph
Vale, 52S Lamplain street, Louisville ,shead
cut; Claude Derber, train newsboy, right
foot amputated; Herman LIGHTER, Free
landsville, Ind, head cut; Harry Klein,
Nincennes, Ind, internal injuries; Michael
Vale, Louisville, internally hurt; w. A.
Hill, Conboge, Ind, skull fractured, may
die; Henry Hogenmeyer, Sanborn, Knox
county, Ind, head cut and internal in
juries; John Briscoe. Loganspo.t, Ind,
head cut and back hurt; W. II. Turner.
c )lored. Chicago, ,headcut, internal injuries;
Casper Meyer, Vincennes Ind. back cut, in
ternal injuries; William Billingsera, Clyde,
.. head cut, left leg crushed; Joseph Echen-
BON, Camden, O., chest hurt.
Caused by an Inexcusable Blunder.
The casualty appears to have been the
result of blunder inexcusable by even the
railroad officials. Two trains were sched-
uled to pass south ON the single line of the
track between Colehour, Ills, and Ham
mond, Ind, constructed by the Pennsylva-
mia to meet the exigencies of the Worlds
fair traffic. At about the same time
UTdlH was uue DOTUn on Ine track, and this
appears to have been fully understood in
the train-dispatcher's office. Ii was ar
ranged to give the north train, due at the
Union station at !':95 a. m, with milk and
way passengers from Valparaiso, Ind. the
right of way, and it was ordered to proceed
toward Chicago, and did so at the rate of
thirty miles an hour. In the meantime
trains Nos. 100 and Il, the latter the Pan
handle limited express, were supposed to
have been held on the double track at
Colehour, to await the passage of No 45.
the milk train.
Nothing About No. Ie
Orders We're given the operator at Cole
hour to hold No. 16O, but nothing was
said to him about No. l2. He obeyed or
ders, and No. l2 was allowed to enter upon
the single track on its schedule time, run
ming forty miles an hour directly toward
the milk tram, which had also been given
the right of way in an opposite direction
on the same track. The Panhandle eN-
press had Proceeded but a short distance
on its way and was rounding slight curve
when the milk train was sighted ahead.
and the two trains, scarcely Stacking in
speed in the short distance, dashed into
each other
Miraculous That Any Escaped Alive.
The wreck which ensued was com
plete. The engine crews saved their lives
by jumping. The two locomotives came
together with crash that wrecked both
and drove the baggage car of the Pan
handle train through the smoking car be-
hind it. In this car were about forty pas
sengers and in it the loss of life occurred
So completely was the car wrecked that it
seemed miraculous that any of those in it
escaped alive, but when the rescuers ral-
lied to the scene and began the work of
securing the bodies of the dead and rescu
ing the injured it was found that a mum
Der who had been on the ill-fated car
were foremost in the ranks.
FRIGHTFUL FORCE OF THE CRASH