The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1897-06-29
WABASH WRECK.
The Remains of the Seven Victims
Shipped to ST. Louis.
A Brave Farmers Unsuccessfot Effort to
Flag the Train Nearly One- Half the
Mail on the Train Lost or Destroyed
Clearing Away the Wreck.

KANSAS CITY, Mo-, June 2S.-Seyen
collins were forwarded to St Louis
Sunday from Missouri City. They con-
tanned the remains of victims of Sat-
urday nights wreck on the Wabash
road A correct list of the dead is as
follows: w. S. Mills, postal clerk: O.
NJ. Smith, postal clerk; Gustave A.
Smith, postal clerk; Charles Winters,
postal clerk; +. w. Brink. postal clerk;
Edward Grindrod, baggage man; Chas
p Greasley, brakeman; all of ST.
Louis.
The conductor of the train, G. c..
Copeland, of st. Louis, who was re-
ported Saturday night among the dead,
is still alive. He was removed Sun
day morning to the railroad hospital at
Moberly. With fractured skull and
several broken ribs he fingers between
life and death, but the surgeons ex-
press hope that he will recover
OF the 10 others injured not one is
in a critical condition, though many of
them were thrown three-quarters of
the length of the coaches in which
they were riding. Mrs. w. Ell. Wilkin-
son, of Kansas City. is the most seri-
ously hurt. Two small bones of her
left hand are broken and she suffered
severe laceration of the thigh as we'll
as bruises about the face and neck.
The wounds of most of the others are
trivial
All Indications are that death came
to at least four of the five unfortunate
mail clerks almost instantly. Their
car pitched end first through the
break in the trestle, and they must
have been drowned in the raging
stream while in an unconscious condi-
ton. The remains of the four were
carried from the wreck and were re-
covered some distance down the
stream.
Sunday but small stream was flow
ing beneath the trestle where the
wreck occurred. In ordinary weather
it is dry creek bed The storm of
Saturday night, which was almost a
cloud burst, had swollen the little
stream to torrential proportions. The
flood carried away wagon bridge a
short distance above the Wabash
trestle. The wreck of this bridge was
hurled down upon the railroad trestle
and carried away a row of wooden
supports in the center.
A neighboring farmer noticed the
perilOus condition of the trestle and
resolved to flag the passenger train,
which he knew to be about due For
nearly an hour he stood there in the
terrific down-pour of rain, only to fail
at last in his good intentions, for
when the Wabash Co. S New York fast
mail came laundering on the storm
was almost binding, and the engineer
evidently could not see the signal
which the farmer so frantically waved
across the track.
The locomotive struck the trestle; a
moment later the disaster was pre-
sented in all it's horrors. The engine
passed over, but the tender went
through with the tum bling bridge.
The baggage car toppled off on its
side, while the mail car which follow
ed pitched into the stream end first
Every life in this car was lost.
The smoker, next behind, follow
ed. 1t was in this car that
Conductor Copeland was riding.
The other occupants escaped
serious injury. The chair car next be-
hind also plunged in upon the mass of
wreckage end first and all its passen-
gers were thrown to the forward end
in an indescribable heap. How they
escape with no more serious in jury is
mystery. The front end of the sleep
er next in the rear jammed into the
protruding end of the chair car, and
was thus prevented from following the
others into the chasm. The two excel
sior springs coaches in the rear re-
manned on the track.
The scene OF the wreck, which is 81
miles northeast of Kansas City, near
Missouri City station, was visited Sum
day by many persons. A wrecking
train worked there all day, repairing
the trestle and raising the shattered
coaches, and Sunday night trains. are
moving over the road as usual
The postal authorities report that
probably nearly all of the mail carried
on the train was lost or DESTROYED.