Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-10-14
JACKSON'S. HORROR
Details of the Crash on the
Michigan Central.
TWELVE SOULS SENT TO ETERNITY
Five Others Perhaps Fatally Hur: and
Fifteen More Who are Severe
ly Injured.
THE REAR END COLLISION AGAIN,

Twenty Minutes for Breakfast, but Only
n Moment in Which to Die"-A Disaster
That Is Only Explained by the Lack of
Perfection in Human Ingenuity-Wom-
ems Names Make Up Most of the Death
RoII-Statement of the General Superin-
tendent-Facts and Incidents.
JACKSON, Mich, Oct. 1.-THE second
greatest accident in the history of the.
Michigan Central railway occurred here
within 100 yards Of the place where al
most fourteen years ago to a day the Pa
cific express crashed into a freight engine
in Oct, 1879, and eighteen people were
killed. The disaster has so far a record of
twelve dead. five probably fatally in
lured and fifteen others more or less hurt
At s:4" o'clock in the morning an eXcur-
sion train originating at Owego, \. Y,
which had been turned over by the Della
ware, Lackawanna and Western to the
Michigan Central at Buffalo, was stand
ing on the track at jackson station, when
a second special, also laden with eXcur-
sionists from the east, crashed into il from
the rear and teIescoped the three last cars
| Of the Owego special
several Hundred saw the Crash.
| Many OF the passengers of this latter
! train had been out to breakfast; some had
! returned aud were IN the coaches; others
| were On the platform. Their train was
| about ready TO pull out when the second
special came into the yards and in sight Of
the station under cheek. When within
| few hundred feet o: the standing train
Engineer William Whelan, OF the second
special, put o. the brakes. but found to
his alarm that they did not work. The
speed of the train did not dim .uish, and
reversing his engine Engineer WhelaD
and his fireman, Joseph p Kimbling,
jumped from the locomotive. The train
kept on and in flu. view of the several
hundred people in and about the station
dashed into the rea. coach OF the first
train, passing nearly to the other end
None Escaped in Three Cars.
There were eight cars in the train, all New
York Centra. cars except one which was
pm: IL at a station on the Canada Southern
division 20 replace one disabled The cars
are much lighter than those on the Mjchi
Central, ard the seventh and sixth cars
from the first engine were completely
telescoped, the one being fitted into the
other snugly. The fifth car was over
turned. and thrown across a side track
about fifty feet east OF the station The
Michigan Central car was next, and Il was
badly smashed on both ends, the plat
forms being carried away and the windows
al smashed. The passengers on this cay
were few and none OF them was seriously
injured L vas in the sixth. seventh and
eighth cars where the slaEEhtcrtook place
and not a single occupant Il either OF
these CARS appears 10 have escaped death
or INJURY.
Dead, Dying, and NanCIed in the Debris.
The scene that followed the collision was
horrible in the extreme. In a moment the
air was filled with the shIieks of the dying,
and dead and mangled bodies could be
seen in the debris. The people on the
platform and from the surrounding streets
rushed in every direction to give what help
could be effected. Physicians were on the
scene almost instantly, and the work OF
removing the dead and injured was facili
tated by impressiug carriages and hearses
Into immediate service. jackson being q
division station on the line wreckiug
train was speedily at hand. The dead
were conveyed TO the local undertaking
rooms anG the injured TO hotels and to the
city hospital, where the division surgeon
n the road, DR.. Gibson, and two priests
Fathers Mullary and Buise, took charge
OF the work Of attending TO the hurt.
Pathetic Incidents of the Horror,
While the bodies were being taken out
from under the debris there were heart
rendinG scenes. George Starr, af Elmira,
n y: Darwin Z. Gibbs of Wheeler, n y.
and Lloyd Woodbury.. Of Bath, n Y, had
left their wives sitting together in the
coach while they stepped out TO smoke
during the stop. The three women were
killed Mr. Woodbury's father, James
Woodbury., who had been out on the track,
the moment he appreciated that the in
coming train was on the same track as
the Owego special jumped on the
platform to warn the women to jump.
He had not time to warn them before he
was ground up in the debris and killed.
In the undertaking rooms lay the body OF
n 2-year-old baby for hours unidentified
1t was finally located as the child of Mrs
Anson Harrington, of Elmira, n. Y. who
lay two miles away with injuries from
which she may die, There were scores OF
other cases where travelling companions
and relatives were separated and some
killed or injured seriously.