Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1894-06-01
THE WRECK DESTROYED BY FIRE.
Eight People Dead or Missing and
Fully Score Of Others
Are Injured.
WAS THE WORK OF A DEMON.
Tampering With the Switch Be-
lieved to Have Caused the
Accident.

The Evening Wisconsin from Marsh
field, Wis, says: Train No. on the
Wisconsin Central road was wrecked
lat 1:15 a. M, the cars taking fire and
resulting in terrible loss Of life Four
persons are dead and four others miss
ing, supposed to have been burned to
Heath, and from Is to 20 persons are
Injured, some Of them fatally. Among
the dead are the engineer, fireman,
brakeman and one Of thu Tweedy broth
'ers. All are Icing cared for at Marsh
field. A nut had been taken off the
switch, allowing it to get loose. Train
No. jumped the track. The forward
cars took fire at once and Conductor
Gavin succeeded in uncoupling the rear
sleeper, and another coach and saved
them from burning. Everything else
burned, except some mail and baggage.
The names OF lut three victims are
known. They are James Hubbard,
engineer, George Gearhart, fireman,
and Judson Bigelow, brakeman. The
bodies of the passengers who were
may not be known for some time. The
official report of the wreck made to the
railway officials places the numter of
dead at eight, and the injured at Is.
Several Of the latter will die.
Was the southbound Limited.
At the Office of General Manager
Whitcomb, it was stated that the acct
hur ro1 of fl t1,o
wrecked train was the Inbound linn
tied from Minneapolis to Chicago. It
was fairly heavy train and was run
ming at the usual rate of speed when it
struck the open switch and went off on
a straight piece Of level track. The
baggage and mail cars, the smoker and
second day coach and two of the Sleep
|ers left the track, and nearly all the
cars, except one of the two sleepers,
were either burned or badly wrecked.
The names of the trainmen known to
have been killed are:
| James Hubbard, engineer, of Stevens
Point; George Gearhart, OF Stevens
Point; Judson Bigelow, brakeman, of
Stevens Point; Mr.. Russell, civil en-
gineer In the service of the company.
Three or four members Of the train
crew were reported missing, and it is
thought that they are beneath the
wreck. Several passengers are not yet
accounted for and may also be dead.
None of the passengers in the sleepers
were injured, but IL or Is in the smok-
ing car and day coach were hurt. All
the injured were taken to Marshfeld,
where they are receiving every possible
attention. The bodies of the train men
were taken to Stevens Point.
Probably Wrecker's Work
The opinion strongly prevails in off,
clal circles of the road that the wreck
was tho result of criminal tampering
with the switch at Meanwhile. It does
not appear that it could he out of place
except by being tempered with, and it
is said that some wrecker has caused
the terrible accident by murderous
act. The town of Meanwhile, where the
accident happened, was almost totally
destroyed by fire last fall, and since
that time there has been little there ex-
cept railway station. It was formerly
q lumber center, and large saw mill
was operated there.
Receiver Howard Morris was in the
rear sleeper and telegraphed the first
facts to General Manager Whitcomb.