The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1894-08-17
ROCK ISLANDS BAD WRECK
TWELVE OR NOPE LIVES SAC
RIFICED.
TIE WORK OF TRAIN WRECKERS.
When the Train Struck the Trestle the
Rails Immediately Spread and the
Engine and Two Cars Plunged
Forty Feet Into the Creek Be-
lOw-Passengers Crushed
and Burned to Death.

LINCOLN, Neb., Aug. 11.-A fearful
wreck, involving the loss of twelve or
more lives, occurred on the Chicago,
Rock Island & Pacific railroad where
it crosses, on high trestle, the tracks
of the Union Pacific and the Burling-
ton e. Missouri River railroads, at 10
o'clock last night All indications
point to train wrecl1ers as the cause.
Train No. 8 is an accommodation
called Fort Worth accommodation
and is due to arrive here at $40 p. m.
Last night it was ten minutes late
struck the trestle that crosses Salt
creek about four miles from this
city and two from the peni-
Tertiary. When it struck the
trestle, the rails Immediately spread
and the engine, drawing the two cars
after it, went humping along over
the cross ties for about fifty feet, and
then, with a crash, it fell forty feet
to the bed of the creek below. The
engine burst and glowing Goals,
spreading, ignited the wooden sup
ports and the coaches behind it, and
in a few moments the bridge, dry as
finder from its long exposure to the
sun, was one mass of flames. The
Goals falling upon the coaches lying in
the bitches set them afre, and five
minutes after the first warning, the
entire mass of cars with their load of
human freight was one mass of
flames.
Mingled with the debris are the
remains of at least eight men, and it
is believed the total number of deaths
will reach twelve. Those known to
have been killed are as follows:
DEAD AND INJURED.
C. D. sTANNARD. Council Bluffs. conductor,
burned to death
WILLIAM CRAIG. Fairbury, Neb, fireman,
buried under engine
ISAAC DUPUIs,. engineer, Council Bluffs,
Iowa instantly killed
w. o HANDEL, Fairbury. Neb, attorney,
burned to death +r,ra,,, MON 60. coun.o,
man, the grain dealer, Narka Kan
z H ZERNEKE, abstracter, Lincoln
HENRY PETERS, blacksmith, Council Bluffs
The injured are:
F. F. Scott, Holton. Kan express messen-
ger fatal internal injuries. Scott is the son
OF the Burlington railroad surgeon al Holtoa.
o. S Bell. travelling man, Lincoln. Neb, H.
Colonel G J. Bills, Fairbury, Mob. treas.
urer of the National Guard association of the
United States, leg badly cut: will recover
Jay Mcdowell, Fairbury, legs cut and head
Harry y Foote, Council Bluffs. brakeman leg
G H Cherry, mail clerk badly injured:
Cherry was TO have been married this month
j. E. Puetz. travelling man. Lincoln, internal
Two ladies living in the Billingley block,
A passenger named Somrel, hurt about the
head
A number of people are missing and
it is feared that G. Unrub, mother
and son, OF Jansen, Neb., are among
the dead.
M. Beaver, clothier, and A. B. Eddie,
insurance agent, both of Pawnee City,
cannot be found and are supposed to
have persisted.
j. r. Brinker, a Denver travelling
man, was supposed to have been kill
ed, but he turned up this morning
having missed the train at Beatrice.
Colonel G. ]. Bills, treasurer of the
National Guard association of the
United States, was one of the FORUM
ate passengers, and his story is as
follows:
Jay Mcdowell and myself were
seated in the middle of the car and as
we discovered that the train was
likely to go over the-trestle, Mcdowell
started down the aisle. I yelled to
him to sit down and the next instant
the crash came. The engine went
overheard first and the smoker on top
of that and the rear coach, in which
we were seated, jammed down on the
other. The car was crowded with
passengers and we were forced along
the backs of seats in front of US, and
all but Mcdowell and myself were
horribly mangled. AS soon as posi-
BILE we climbed through a window and
succeeded in eXtricating nine persons
who were damned in the debris.
Hearing the shrieks and cries for
help on all sides 1 left Mcdowell and
II L
the penitentiary without making
stop. l had Warden Beemer tele-
phone the police department and they
responded promptly and nobly with a
patrol. carriages and physicians.
''It was an awful sight. The
flames mounted high in the heavens,
coloring the entire southern sky
brilliant carmine, while the moon
beams fell upon the glowing mass be-
low, from which mortal shrieks of
agony and pain were heard to issue.
''Willing hands were there to help,
but little could be done. The engine
had fallen first, then the combination
car of smoker and express fell, and
the rear coach falling behind it tele-
scoped that car, thus pinioning those
unfortunates who were in the smoking
car so that it was impossible to save
them or for them to escape"
Harry Foote, the brakeman who did
efficient work at the wreck, says he is
positive that there were at least ten
men in the smoker, six of whom he
can describe. In addition to the
crew he mentions man whose name
he does not know, employed by an Ell
evator builder named Counselman at
Narka, Kan. There were also several
passengers who got on at Jansen and
two who got on at Pawnee City.
Foote says that when he took out
Fred Scott. the baggageman, who was
crying, Harry, Harry, hurry, for
Gods sake" he heard faint groan
from the smoker and again another
when the flames reached it, but that
was all. Probably all were merci-
fully crushed TO death for the car was
smashed almost perfectly fat One
man was found lying outside the
smoker. He was probably on the
platform when the train went over.
He was seriously but not fatally in
iured and is now ct hotel.