Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-05-09
All Traffic Was Stopped for Nearly
Seventeen Hours.
THE INJURED ARE DOING WELL
The Body Of Sidney Brown, the Dead
Engineer Taken to Burlneton-No
ottumwans Badly Hurt Trains
i Now Running on Time.

The wreck of Burlington passenger
train No. 8 at Thayer yesterday morn
ing was one of the most disastrous and
costly accidents through which this
company has passed for some time,
but it was, nevertheless, fortunate
one, inasmuch as there were SO few
fatal injuries as result of it. The
scene presented by the wrecked cars
and locomotives, scattered in every di-
rection from the exact place of the
wreck, the track torn up for long dis
lance, the heavy engine part
ly buried in the mud a
hundred feet from the place
where it struck the construction en-
CINE, all look as if hardly any one in
the first four cars of the passenger
train could have escaped from the
wreck alive. And yet, there was nut
one man killed, and while the sorrow
for the loss of Sidney Brown is sincere
in the heart of every one who knew
him, there is much cause for congratu-
lat:on in the fact that many more did
not share the same fate.
Little Short of Miraculous.
The place where the wreck occurred
is at the west switch at Thayer, about
500 feet west of the depot. The track
is built upon an embankment fifty feet
high. The Inflated passenger train
was going at rate of about forty
miles per hour, when with almost no
warning, the engine crashed in engine
No. 1886, which was switching on the
track at this point. The passenger en-
CINE, No. 1862 left the track, carrying
Engineer Brown with it, turned COM
pletely around, and alighted right side
up in the mud and nearly 100 feet
from where the two engines came to-
gether, aud down Fthe high embank-
ment. The tender was stripped from
its trucks, and the cab was torn from
the engine.
The baggage car and the smoker
turned over and over down the bank
on the south side of the track. The
construction engine also alighted on
this side of the track, while the pas
senger engine and the two chair cars
were hurled down the embankment on
the north side.
Diner Did Not Go Over Bank.
The balance of power, as it were,
lay with the diner. This car was the
Ottumwa, one of the new diners recent
ly built and put into service 1t was
carried from the rails and to the north
side of the track where it was poised
oft ba he, IL, NV
feet above the two chair cars. If it
had been given more of push it would
have fallen upon these two cars at the
bottom of the embankment and would
doubtless have crushed many of the
people who were at that time impris-
oned in the chair cars.
Conductor In the Diner.
Conductor Michael O'Connor, for
merly of this city and now of Burling-
ton, was in charge of the train, and at
4 the time of the wreck ne was in the
diner. He escaped with a few bruises
and slight injury to his back land i'm
: mediately disregarded his own injuries
in attempting to relieve the sufferings
of his passengers.
The Pullmans Unframed.
The only cars in the train that were
unframed, and whose. passengers were
uninjured, were the two Pullman sleep.
ers behind the diner. These two cars
remained on the track.
The Work of Relief.
AS soon as possible help was sent
from Creston. A relief train on board
of which were doctors and railroad of
ficials, was fastened to the scene of
the trouble, and Superintendent H. S.
Storrs, of the Creston division, began
the work of relieving the victims of
the wreck. Shortly before i o'clock, a
special train left this city with Super.
intendent O. E. Stewart, Dr.. S. L.
Hauck, Major J. S. Woods and others,
arriving at Thayer about 2 o'clock.
The Injured Sent to creston.
The injured were rendered such aid
as was possible, and those who were
not badly hurt were taken to houses
in Thayer, where they were cared for.
A relief train was sent from Creston
and the more severely injured were put
aboard this train and taken to Ores.
ton, where many of them were taken
to the Cottage hospital.
81 Browns Body Found.
Shortly after o'clock in the after.
noon the efforts of the searchers for
the body of the engineer were reward
ed by discovering the mangled remains
of the man deeply imbedded in the
earth under his engine. He had been
carried with the locomotive when ii
left the track and when it fell he had
been instantly crushed to death. The
body was tenderly borne to waycar
and taken on it to Murray, from which
place it was later removed to Burling
ton.
Fireman canny's injuries.
Fireman M. j. Canny. who was bad.
ly injured, was taken to Creston. He
has broken arm and one of his eyes