St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-09-23
ELEVEN GOLD BODIES
TELL THE STORY or THE LATEST
RAILROAD HORROR.
WRECK ON THE WABASH ROAD
Through the BIunder Of n Brake
man the Second Section of 4
West-Bound Express Goes
Through an Open Switch,
Crashing Into Waiting
Freight Train.


Through an Open Switch,
Crashing Into Waiting
Freight Train.
KNGsBURY, Ind, Sept. 22.-Eleyen
| bodies resting upon improvised slabs
and tables under the roof of the modest
Masonic hall of this village, and score
Of injured registered as inmates of the
city hospital of Peru, seventy miles dis
tant, tell the story of the latest of rail-
road horrors on the Wabash road, ana
Of which this village was the scene at
daylight this morning. The revised list
of dead and injured is as follows:
DEAD.
]. 81. MCKENNA, butcher, Hyde
| Park, Mass.
HARRY FRENCH. aged fourteen, of
the London Charity school, London.
| England.
CHARLES BIRBEE, San Francisco.
ALICE REED. East Boston. Mass.
| MISS NELLIE B. TUCKER, Boston,
Mass.
WARREN G. RYDER, Phoenix.
Ariz.
II. c. ZELLE. Germany.
j. d. ROUNDY, La MOrille, 10.
| train, Ashley, 10.
| J. q. COULTER, conductor, passen-
| ger train. Detroit, Mich.
W. n. LYON, baggagemaster, passen-
ger train. Detroit.
INJURED.
Frank P. Dow, Fairhaven, Wash,
scalp wound; Miss Nj. A. Kelly, Brook
| line, Mass, head badly cut and bruised;
Otto Hnck. Hamburg. Germany, bruised
I otaI O1sn
| Dover, \. H., chin gashed and Injuries
to back; Mrs. S. A. Seavy. SOvers-
worth, n. H., back injured, general
| contnsioDS and nervous prostratloH:
Mrs. G. ". Burbank, New Orleans,
right arm and both legs broken. condl-
ton critical: Mrs. Ii. w. Ryder,
| Ph9niX, ATiZ-, face and body cut,
| right leg broken: Simon Canheld. Iron
! woed, Mich, contu5iOnS OF limbs and
| body; Mrs. Canheld, wife of above, left
| arm broken, cODtHSiOnS TO head; Mrs.
| d. Dugan, AudeFRed, Pa, slight bruises;
| w. j. Askins. residence unknown, left
| leg fractured, internal injuries, uncon-
| SciouS; Edward Rush. London, England,
| youth, surface eOntuSions: William
| Evans, London, England, aged fourteen,
| both legs broken; Albert Motion, youth,
| London, England. right arm injured;
| Hattie HutchinS. (child) Phoenix, AriZ.,
internal Injuries; Mrs. ID. ID. Hih,
! SOmersWortb N h., left thigh broken;
ANNE Hill. same address, slightly
bruised; Henry Valking, fireman OF
| freight tran, scalds and cOntuSions:
! John Barber, fireman passenger train,
scaldS and confusion.
A moment of forgetfulness or absent
| mindednsss on the part of brakeman,
who is given the best of reputation by
the Wabash officials,
! TELLS THE STORY
| of the seconds that preceded the cataS-
trophe. As to the facts themselves there
is no room for dispute. Freight train
no. 4. east-bound from Chicago, was
due at this point at 1920 p. m.. 1t was
under orders to take the siding and
await the arrival of west-bound passen-
ger express No. 90, which. according TO
the schedule, should have passed the
| Kingsbury depot at 4:40. The express.
however, was an hour and twenty min
uteS late, and, owing to the heavy travel
growing out of the worlds fair, it was
divided into two sections, the second
section being twelve minutes behind
the first. Both sections were made up
at Buffalo, the passengers including
people from that City as we'll as from
the various lines centering in it from
Canada and the East With the knowl-
edge that under the schedule he had
|
| Whitman, of the freight train, proceed
ed up the siding TO the main line to take
water. the switch being thrown open by
Herbert Thompson. head brakeman or
the freight. After the engine had taken
water the freight was backed 10 the
siding, and Thompson closed the switch
Regarding this latter fact there is no
room for question: foT at $40 the fist
| section of the express,
THIRTY MINUTES LATE,
passed on the main track, giving the
usual signal-iOng and two short blasts
to indicate to the freight that second
section was following close behind.
What were the movements of Brakeman
| Thompson in the next few moment re-
mains to be developed. Certain il is
that when twelve minutes later the
second section of the West-bound ex-
press came laundering along at speed
of forty miles an hour the switch was
open. In the early dawn the red lights
at the switch and the target were hardly
discernible, and it is a question
whether either the engineer or fire.
man of the passenger looked for them,
secure in their knowledge that week in
and week out they had swept over the
| same ground without hindrance. Like
a fash of lightning, therefore. the train
struck the siding, and almost before the
1
had left the main track they had crashed
into the waiting freight. A second later
and the air Was hlled with shrieks,
groans. means and piteous appeals for
help and assistance. The passenger
train consisted OF baggage car, three
| ordinary coaches and two sleeperS, and
the force of the collision was such that
only the rear sleeper escaped injury.
The locomotive of the freight was
1 1rIu holt int hesr
rear,
THE BAGGAGE CAR
of the passenger train was thrown TO
one side, while the passenger coaches
partially telescoped each other, and the
third, Grand Trunk COACH cut into
the Sleeping car Kansas carrying
away the smoking compartment and
sections one and three as clean as
though they had been trimmed with a
raZor-edged Ak. The two forward
coaches were completely wrecked and
the occupants buried in the debris.
Awakened by the shock of the collision.
the sleepars in the rear palace car
poured out without waiting to don
clothing they had discarded the night
before, and aided by the trainmen aud
the passengers that had escaped injury,
set themselves to the task of resculng
and aiding the injured. In the mean
time the residents OF the farm houses
Immediately adjacent to the track had
been awakened, and men and women,
boys and girls hurried to the scene and
lent what assistance they could. Most
OF the dead and injured were in the two
forward day coaches, and these were so
completely wrecked that the work of
eXtrieating The dead and dying was a
comparatively easy one.
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