The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1900-01-18
INQUEST.
Inquiry into the Cause of T. R.
Longs Death.

cause of the death of Engineer T. r.
Long, deceased late of the Iowa
Central, was commenced Monday
afternoon in the Office of the county
supervisors in the court house by
Coroner Eugene Cheesman. There
were number of Witnesses examin-
ed but all the testimony desired was
not forth coming on account of the
absence of witnesses and there will
be second meeting of the jury on
the afternoon of Friday Jan. 19i
at the same place.
The witnesses examined Monday
were Mrs. A.Lever, Pierce Comofort,
Edgar Farnsworth, Tom Cooney
Earnest Nehring, j. j. Ryan and
Clearance Helm.
The story of the collision as CLEAN
ed from the testimony was substanti-
ally the same as was printed in the
columns of the HERALD the evening
following the wreck. 1t appears that
Earnest Nehring, who is an engineer
in the service of the Central, piloted
one of the M. & st. l.. engines to
Kapple station where engine 25 was
employed and this engine was to re-
lieve the 25 and Mr.. Long was to
start for New Sharon with the un-
derstanding that he was to srun to
Oskaloosa. Nehring deadheaded
back with Engineer Long and was in
the engine with Long at the time of
the collision. Engine 25 was back
ing and Nehring states that they
neither heard nor saw the 26 until
they were together. He says Long
made a frantic grab for the air and
then there was crash with flying
boards and the roar of the escaping
steam. Nehring stated tola HERALD
representative that he was half
standing and half sitting on the en-
gineer's seat so as not to be in the
way of the engineer. He heard Long
say 81 am done for" and thinking
that the escaping steam and hot
water was coming from the broken
water glass he reached over to the
cocks to shut off the water but this
did no good and the steam was in
creasing. He had to feel around to
find way to get out and was only
saved from being severely scalded
| by the fact that he had on a heavy
overcoat. He tried to lift Long up
and pull him out but was unable to
do so. Long said that his feet were
fast. .....
The poor fellow suffered all manner
of pain and begged to be killed.
When Nehring left the cab by means
of little hole he could look up as
the wind would blow the clouds of
steam away for an instant and could
see Long partly hanging out of the
window. The engine partially died
in three or four minutes and then it
was possible to get at the engineer
who was imprisoned in the wreck.
He told them to cut off his limbs, any
thing to get him out. 1t required
considerable labor to release the poor
fellow and the assistance of the
crowd that had collected from the
neighborhood was required. When
he was released he was carried to the
home of Pierce Comofort near by.
Nehring states that Long said to him
when asked as to his orders that he
had general orders and that he had
an understanding with Cooney that
he was not to leave New Sharon un-
til he arrived, and for that reason
when he found that he was not signal
led to stop at Taintor, he passed
through without stopping. After he
had been out of Taintor couple of
miles he said to Nehring, 81 can see
where | have made a mistake. /
should have stopped and annulled my
working orders and have made them
give me running orders" Nehring
answered and said. Yes, that would
have been the best way. The engine
was running at the rate of about
fifteen miles an hour when the col
lision occurred.
Engineer Tom Cooney, his fireman
and fagman stated that they had been
at New Sharon and had been order
ed back with car of water. They
inquired for the other engine and it
was stated by the operator that Long
had just left Kilduff and this would
give Cooney time to reach Taintor
and side track for him. The orders
that both men had received were to
the effect that Engine % and 26 would
work as extras running between New
Sharon and Newton and would pro-
tect against each other. 1T was un-
derstood that Cooney really had the
right to the track for Long was not
to leave the siding at Kapple unless
he used flag man ahead of him. 1t
was understood that this had been
the agreement with Long. When the
crew of the 26 saw the approaching
% they were about 20 poles apart and