The Mena weekly star., 1897-06-30
DOWN TO DEATH.I
The Wabash Fast Mail Train Goes
 Through Bridge.
THE LIST OF THOSE KILLED.
About Forty Others More or Less Injured Conductor Copeland Laid Out for Dead, but afterwards Found
 to Be Alive.

and killed laid out on the floor of the depot at Missouri City, discovered yes terday morning that Charles G. Cope land, conductor of the Wabash fast mail train, which went through the bridge a mile west of Missouri City early Saturday evening, was still alive. He had been picked up unconscious and laid out for dead. As soon as the discovery was made he was taken to a private house in the little town and the companys physicians cared for him until yesterday morning, when he was taken to Moberly, where the Wabash has a hospital. The doctors now have hope that he will recover. There is no certainty that some of the passengers were not drowned in the freshet, but the railroad men hope that none were. The known death list is: w. S. Mills. postal clerk, St. Louis, 2S years of age; married; no children. O. M. Smith, postal clerk, St. Louis, 50 years old, member of G. A. R.; married. G. A. Smith postal clerk, St. Louis, 35 years old; married; one child J. W. Salwaenter, postal clerk, St. Louis, S2 years old, formerly postal clerk in the service of the German government; married; one child. F. w. Brink, postal clerk, St. Louis, 2S years old; single. Edwin Grinrod, baggagemen and express messenger, 40 years old; married. Charles Greasley, brakeman, St. Louis; married. There were about 40 others more or less injured.
 1 The scene of the wreck is just above the confluence of Rush creek and Rose branch, about half mile from the Missouri river. The Rose branch is ordinarily a small creek, but it flows through a broken, country and after the rains earlier in the week the soil was thoroughly soaked When the terrific rain of Saturday evening came Rose branch soon became a roaring river. The Wabash tracks crossed it on wooden bridge about 80 feet long and 15 feet above water when the stream was in a normal condition. The bridge rests on heavy stone abutments at each end with wooden piles between. Forty yards above the railroad bridge stood a wagon bridge, one of those structures of plank spiked on wooden piers, that are common on country roads. Rose branch, swollen into torrent, threw the superstructure of the wagon bridge against the railway bridge. | Logs two feet thick and green trees as large as telephone poles were swept down in the torrent against the bridge, forming great dam. The on- rushing torrent, checked by this dam and held back by big dirt fill on each side, spread out over the narrow val ley and formed deep, surging lake that covered several acres. The pres sure was too much for the wooden pill ing of the railroad bridge. Part or all of it was swept away. The released waters formed swift stream ten feet or more in depth that rushed through the space between the stone buttresses. Above it were only the stringers and the steel rails of the Wabash tracks.
 Railroad men say the train mad not been running at full speed, but some of the circumstances lead to the con- clusion that it must have been going very fast when it swung around the wide curve above the bridge and flew into the face of the storm toward the weakened bridge. J. V. Holly and Del Simmonds, farmers, say they heard the crash at the bridge when the piles went out and tried to signal the engineer by waving their arms, but he did not see them. When the engine struck the bridge Rufus Branner, the fireman, was just stepping to the tender for a l <~f ua he kol one foot on the engine and one on the tender. He felt the bridge sway down ward and in terror jumped back to the cab. There was no time to spare. It took a second for the heavy engine to break the remaining timbers and that second saved the engine and it's crew. The force of its own motion carried it across, but the tender did not cross. The breaking bridge threw it's rear end down and forward and into the air. The mail car dashed against it. By this time the rails were broken. The front end of the mail car struck the stone buttress on the east side and its frame and iron front were crushed. The upturned tender was thrown aside.
 Scarcely had the mail car struck the stone abutment before the baggage car crushed through the mail car. The floor of the baggage and express car swept along on top of the floor of the mail car, and 1t, too, crashed against the stone abutment. The two cars occupied very little more space than belonging to one. One side of