Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1899-08-03
THE c. & N. w. WRECK.
Further Particulars of the Fast Mail
Observation-Disclosures First Trip.

Smash.Up-Ensineer First Trip.
Boone, Aug. 3.-Crowds of visitors
went to the scene OF the wreck on the
Northwestern Monday. The kodak
fiend was very much in evidence and
many pictures of the wreck were Sc
cured. A brisk shower set in, but this
did not seem to phase the curiosity
seekers. The scene was void OF all the
gruesome features which attend the
rescue of the dead and wounded, these
having been all removed on special
trains before the crowd arrived.
Ihe wreckage consisted of many
valuable articles, but guards were on
duty to protect these from possible
thieves.
The train was on down grade at
the time it left the rails, and while
diligent search was made to discover
the cause of the wreck. the officials
found nothing to enlighten them as to
how it occurred. The engine was one
of the huge locomotives recently pur-
chased by the Northwestern for service
on its fast mail train No. 9, was in
charge of Engineer Masterson, who was
making his first trip on the limited
mail in place of Herm Wills, the regu-
lar enoineer, and upon leaving the
rails it shot to the right side of the
roadway, dragging the train composed
of four mail and express cars, with it,
and plunged into the cellar of house
formerly occupied by a section man
named Patrick Murphy, twenty feet
Outside the right of way. The four
mail and express cars turned on their
sides the instant the trucks left the
rails and We're strung along the line
for a distance of two hundred feet.
The express car in which Messengers
O'Brien and Sigapoos were riding,
turned upside down, and ABOUT all that
was left save the splinters were the bro
ken trucks. their wrecked frames and
the twisted iron rods with which the
body OF the car was stayed The eX-
press car ahead, next the engine, and
the mail car in which were Eckert and
Stone, the latter of whom was instantly
killed, was next the rear express car.
Stone and Eckert were working side
by side at the fateful moment, and
though Stone was instantly killed, Eek
ert escaped with his life, though Sc
verely injured in the mix-up that fol-
lowed. Engineer Masterson was found
dead in the cab, having gone down to
death with one hand on the throttle
| lever and the other on the handle of
the air brake. The fireman, his up
turned face grimed with sweat and
| coal dust, laid out a short distance
from the engine, but very close to the
tank, which had turned over in the de-
scent from the track to the place where
| it rested. The run from Chicago to
Boone was made without incident, the
weather being fair and the track in
good condition and no difficulty was en-
countered in keeping on schedule time.
Had the accident happened ten seconds
later the train would have plunged
off the bridge into the Des Moines
river. An incident of the disaster was
that nearly in the self-same spot
eighteen or twenty years ago Kate
Shelly, after making her painful
way over a dismantled bridge, torn
from its fastenings by the angry wa
tiers of the swollen river, tagged and
stopped a passenger train as it thun-
dered on to the abyss unconscious of
the frightful danger that lurked in its
path at the brink of the river.
The train is the swiftest in the SER
vice of the Northwestern, and though
frequently lmportuned to hermit pas
sengers to ride upon it, the company,
conscious of the danger in the event of
accident, has firmly refused all over
lures to reap returns from carrying
passengers. 1t is made up of mail and
express cars exclusively, and other
than the eight or nine mail clerks and
two eXpressmen, nobody except the
train crew is allowed to ride on the
| limited mail. The train cleared the
track in its fearful leap, but nearly 100
| feet of the rails and ties were torn up
or twisted out of position. A wrecking
train was at the scene of the accident
an hour after it occurred, and two
hours afterward trains were running on
schedule time. 1T was one of the worst
wrecks ever saw" said a veteran en-
ploye of the road yesterday afternoon.
II passed it on train this morning,
and don't recall ever having seen cars
so completely demolished as were
those of the mail"
| Engineer Johnny Masterson, who
went to his death at the throttle, was
one of the best engineers in the SER
vice of the Northwestern. He has been
railroading in Boone for thirty-three
years and has been in many wrecks.
He came out of them without serious
Injuries. He was born in Patterson, N.
j. He leaves a widow and seven chill
dren-two girls and five boys. His
home was at ZIG Marshall street. This
was Engineer NIasterson's initial trip
on the fast mail. He has many good
records on the road. but had never pull
ed the fast mail before.
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