The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1897-07-01
A TERRIBLE WRECK:
SEVEN KILLED AND THIRTY
INJURED ON WABASH


Trestle and Into . Raging Torrent
Near Missouri City. Motive Postal
Clerks Knisd-Scene ut the Wreck.
KANSAS CRY, June 2s.-The terrible
wreck on the Wabash Saturday even
ing near Missouri City resulted in
seven deaths 1t is practically certain
that this is all the loss of life, unless
some of those injured, but not fatally,
as now believed. should die. The list
of injured numbers about thirty, but
only ten were badly hurt. The fol-
lowing are the dead:
Edward Grindrod of st. Louis. bag
gageman.
o. NJ. Smith of St Louis, postal
clerk.
Frank W. Brink of st. Louis, postal
clerk.
w. S. Mills of St. Louis, postal clerk.
Gus Smith of st. Louis. postal clerk.
Saul Winters of st. Louis, postal
clerk
Charles Greasley of St Louis. brake
man.
Conductor Copeland was taken from
the wreck unconscious. Soon after it
was believed the vital spark had fled
and the body was tenderly laid out
Luckily, when the physicians and sur
geons arrived from Moberly, an ex-
animation of the supposed dead body
showed that life was not extinct, and
Mr. Copeland finally was restored to
consciousness. The chances for his re-
covery are thought to be fair, al
though he is badly injured internally.
He is now in the Wabash hospital at
Moberly.
The New York fast mail and ex-
press train on the Wabash railway,
which left the Union depot at geo
o'clock Saturday night. went through
a bridge a mile and a half west Of
Missouri City, twenty-one miles from
Kansas City. shortly after o'clock.
The train was we'll filled with pas
sengers and carried one more car than
usual As the train crossed the Ham
nibal bridge the rain began to fall
heavily and the lightning was inces-
SAINT in its play. At Randolph the
water poured down from the heavens
in torrents and at Liberty Landing it
was almost like ciOudburst. The
train had been running about forty
miles IN hour, but the engineer cut
down the speed to about twenty miles
as a precaution.
Il a a q
City the track crosses a creek on a
trestle work fifteen feet high. The
trestle work is about eighty feet long
and the creek beneath it is dry except
in wet weather. The water rushed
through it like mill race. 1t carried
away q wagon bridge q short distance
above the trestle and dashed its tim
hers against the wooden supports OF
the trestlc. Many of them were
snapped of like pipe stems, and when
the Wabash fast express came along,
the iron rails, which CLEANED in the
flashes of lightning, were held up by
very fiimsy supports.
The speed of the engine carried it
across before the crash came. The
tender broke loose and fell back into
the stream and the baggage car. mail
car, chair car and sleeper followed,
one after another. The cars were
piled up in confusion and the baggage
and mail cars were smashed into
splinters- Tie passengers were thrown
from Their seats. and in a moment
those who survived were struggling to
cXtricatc the msclvcs from the wreck
age.
The engine. which had 5" miracu-
lousy passed over the undermined
,rcstle. stopped on the other side. The
with terrible disastsr and. pulling
open the throttle. he sped on to Mis-
souri, City for assistance.
Just as the crash came there was a
vivid fash of lightning, followed by a
terrific crash of thunder. The tender
of the engine fell back into the abyss
slowly. The baggage. mail aud smok-
ing cars telescoped with a crash and in
. moment were kindling wood. The
chair car was hurled on top of the
other cars and rested with its rear end
in the stream at an angle Of IS de-
gree. The sleeping car rested with its
forward end on the chair cav and its
rear end on tho end of the irestle. Nc
one in the sleeping car was more thar
. slightly injured and no one in the
chair car was killed. although severa
were badly injured
The mail car was next to the cngin,
and of the five postal clerks at worl
there not one escaped alive. Thos,
killed were u. A. Smith. O. NJ. Smith
+. W. Brink. Charles Winters aud w
4. Mills The mail car was crushed
and pounded to pieces by the heav,
cars behind it aud tho postal clerks
had no chance to escape. The slaugh
Ter in this car was pitiablc, but it i
almost invariably the fate which over
takes mai. clerks when there is
wreck.
A boy living near the creek saw the
wagon bridge carried away and thu
.rcstle undermined. He knew tn
passenger train was due and he starte.
an the track tn SfON the frain n