Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1899-03-23
MANY PERSONS HURT
A Rock Island Train Leaves the
Track Near VOlland, Kan.
BaRgageman Freeman Pinned Down and
Burned to Death rhe TraIn Caught
Fire and Four Coaches
Were Destroyed.

Topeka, Kan, March 1s,-The Rock
Island Texas passenger train was
wrecked about one o'clock yesterday
morning at Volland station, two miles
west of Alma, and one man was burned
to death and 20 other people injured.
The man who was burned to death
was William Freeman, OF Kansas City,
the express messenger. He was about
40 years old and had been in the em-
ploy OF the United States Express
company for number of years The
list OF injured follows:
w. @, Means, Kansas City, mail clerk, Shout
der and back injured; r. A. Swarts, Kansas
City, mail clark, head, left leg and both arms
cut: j. W, Gilgriss Kansas City, mail clerk,
slightly cut In neck; M J, Clemln1s Columbia
Mo-. side hurt and leg brulsed Carl r. Keen,
Columbia Mo-, out on head; Charles II Penn,
Ashland No, out on hand; Miss Madge Farrer
Sterling, KAN back wrenched w, II Phil
lips, Wstonga, Ok, spralned hip cut in head;
John 9earle Timberlake, Ok leg and arm
hurt T, A. Spurgeon, Weatherford, OK, back
sprained: Mrs o @. Allen Caldwell Kan, lip
hurt, ankle sprained; George W. Lewis
El Reno, Ok, ankle spraned; IL
L. Hall, North Topeka, Kan, both
legs bruised; Fred W. Casner Hutchinson,
Kan, right side and thumb hurt; II. Coyn,
Mapleton. Kan, leg spralned; Mrs j. II Bell,
Cooper, Ok, breast hurt and leg sprained @.
r. Clark, North Topeka, Kan, hip spralned;
b e Bryant Cloud Chief Ok, cut on chin; A
Warnoioke, Fort sill OK, left wrist sprained;
John Phillip Protection Kan, hip hurt and
back sprained; James McSpadden, Rossdale
Kan, back sprained; N, Deanel st Joseph
Mo-. news agent knee, arm and neck hurt
slight; r. H. Mashingall, Caldwell, Kan, scalp
thigh, shoulder and leg injured; Mrs Sarah
Smith, Bethany, Mo- nervous prostration
Calvin Green Velpen, Ind, hurt In breast and
ribs broken
The train left Topeka at 11:O5 with
40 passengers on board, 1t passed
through Alma on me, and had
reached a speed OF 30 miles an hour by
the time it came to Volland. As the
wheels of the engine tank struck the
west switch at the station they sud-
denly flew the track, the tank break
ing | lose from the engine and dragging
the combination baggage and mail
car and the smoker down slight en-
bankment The coach and chair car
tipped half way over, the Pullman
sleeper alone keeping the rails.
Almost instantly fire broke out in
the baggage car, which had toppled
over on its side Men in the smoker
broke through the windows and pas
sengers in the cars rushed for the
doors and jumped down the embank-
ment. BY the time the cars were
emptied, however, the baggage car
was in flames and before anyone
noticed that the messenger had not
! escaped 1t was too late togtve him aid.
Evidently he had been pinned down
by the falling trucks and was
burned to death beneath the heavy
load of baggage. A few charred bones
were the only remains found in the
wreckage of the baggage car
The fire spread quickly from the
baggage car to the cars behind it and
in short time all were in flames.
The Pullman was saved by being
pushed back few feet from the burn
ing chair car. Before the relief train
sent out from this city arrived at the
scene of the accident the four cars
were mass of blackened wreckage.