Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-09-28
! BRAKEMAN'S BLUNDER



hospital of Peru, ten miles distant, tell
the story of the latest of railroad hor-
rors of which this village was the scene
at daylight. The revised list of the
dead and injured is as follows:
DEAD.
H. McKennau Cbutcher) Hyde Park. Mass.
HAIRY Hrcnch. aged IA. 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-
H ]. Zell. Germany.
J. u. Boundy, Lamoille Ia.
john Green. engineer passenger train, Ash
ley. Ia
w. N. Lyon. baggagemaster passenger train,
Detroit. Mich.
Frank p. Dow, Fair Haven. Wash; scalp
wound
Miss N. A. Kelly. Brookline. Mass; head cut
Otto Huck, Hamburg. Germany; bruised and
@. s. Hodgson. Dover. N. h: injured back.
Mrs s. A Seavey Somersworth, N. H;
BACK injured. general conclusions and nervous
prostratiou.
Mrs G. A. Burbank. New Orleans; right
arm and both legs broken; condition critical
Mrs. H w. Ryder. Phoenix. Ariz: face and
body cut. right leg broken.
Simon Canf1eld Ironwood, Mich; Commissions
OF limbs and body.
Mrs. CAnneld. wife of above; left arm broken,
contusions to head.
Mrs. d. Dugan. Audenried. Pa. slight bruises
}. s. Askins. residence unknown; left leg
fractured. internal injuries: unconscious.
Edward Rush. youth, London. England; sur
face Commissions.
William Evans, London. England aged a:
both legs broken.
Albert Moulton. youth. London. England;
Hattie Huschins. Phoenix, Ariz internal in
jurics-
Mrs. H o. Hill. Somersworth. N. H.; left
thigh broken.
Annie Hill. somersworth. N. H; slightly
bruised.
Henry vokine, fireman Of freight train; scalds
and contusions
Engineer Whitman. of freight train; right
arm broken: hurt in back.
John Barber. fireman Of passenger; scalds
and contusions
A moment of forgetfulness or absent
mindedness by a brakeman who is
given the best of reputation by the
Wabash officials tells the story of the
seconds that preceded the catastrophe.
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 400 a, m. 1t was under
orders to take the siding and await the
arrival of the west-bound passenger
express No. IS, 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 running twelve min
utes behind the first. Both sections
were made up at Buffalo, and the pas
sengers included people from that city
as well as from the various lines CEN
tering there from Canada and the east.
With the knowledge that under the
schedule he had twenty minutes to
spare Engineer Whitman of the freight
train proceeded from the siding to the
main track to take water, the switch
being thrown open by Herbert Thomp-
son, head brakeman of the freight.
After the engine had taken water, the
freight was backed to the siding and
Thompsonclosed the switch. Regard
ing this latter fact there is no room
for question, for at $40 the first Sec
ton of the express, thirty minutes
late, swept past on the main track,
giving the usual signal. one long and
two short blasts. to intimate to the
freight that second section was fol-
lowing close behind.
What were the movements OF Brake
man Thompson in the next few mo-
ments remains to be developed. Certain
it 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
Iiscernable, and it is a question
whether either the engineer or fireman
of the passenger looked for them, Sc
cure in their knowledge that week in
and week out they had swept over the
same ground without hindrance. Like
a flash of lightning, therefore, the
train took the siding, and almost be-
fore the engineer and fireman realized
that they had missed the main track
they had crashed into the waiting
freight. A second later and the air
was filled with shrieks, groans, means
and piteous appeals for help and as
sistance.
The passenger train consisted of a
baggage car, three ordinary coaches
and two sleepers. The force of the
collision was such that only the rear
sleeper escaped injury. The locomo-
tive of the freight was driven half way
into the meat car it its rear. The bag
gage car of the passenger train was
thrown to one side, while the passen-
ger coaches partially telescoped each
other and the third, a Grand Trunk
coach, cut into the sleeper car Exam
sas," carrying away the smoking COM
partment and sections one and two as
clean as though they had been trimmed
with a razor-edged axe. The two for
ward coaches were completely wrecked
and the occupants buried in the de-
bris.
Awakened by the shock of the col
lision, the sleepers in the rear palace
car poured out without waiting to don
their clothes discarded the night be-
fore, and aided by the trainmen and
those of the passengers that had
escaped injury, set themselves to the
task of rescuing and aiding the IN
jured-
In the meantime the residents of the
farm houses adjacent to the track had
been awakened, and men and women
boys ans, girls hurrie to the scene and
lieut. what assistance ..iey could. Most
of the dead and injured were in the
two forward day coaches, and these
were so completely wrecked that the
work of extricating the dead and dy.