The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1901-12-06

no idea apparently of the number a:
people in each car. The conductor Of
this, train could not be found For this
reason the estimate of the number Of
dead must be considered purely as ap-
proNinlate. The railroad doctors and
others agreed that the number must
approach a hundred. y
When the relief train arrived, as
many of the injured as could be car
ried were taken to Montpelier, O., Peru,
Ind, and to the hospital at Adrian.
Considerable light was thrown on
the cause of the disaster by The orders
which the conductor showed as his
Creek. The order, which was deliv-
cred to the train at Holloway, reads as
follows:
Order No. 2S.-Trains 10 and 3.-No.
4, engine 609, will meet No. Is at Seneca,
and No. 5, engine 623, Sand Creek. En-
gines No. IS and Is will doublehead No.
49,"
1t is understood the engineer and con-
ductor of No. 4 received a similar
order at Montpelier, O.. but if so these
orders were d~isregarded.
Scene OF Disaster.
The scene of the holocaust presented
a bleak and desolate appearance this
morning. Strewn along both sides of
the track for 500 feet were car wheels,
brake beams and such other parts of
wrecked coaches as would not burn.
Engines So and 600 were lying in the
ditch on the right side of the road,
veritable scrap heaps. Broken car
seats, many of them daubed with the
blood Of their last occupants, We're
scattered abou and being used as
cushions by those huddled around open
fires about the scene.
Z Farmers for miles around drove to
the scene this morning. in a majority OF
cases bringing their wives and families
with them. 1t was past midnight be-
lore a search of the ruins Of the burned
cars could be made. AS soon as the
heat subsidized sufficiently scores Of
men began delving in the mass. AS it
was slowly turned over small crisp
pieces Of those who had persisted in the
flames were occasionally found. The
largest portion of q body found was a
terribly burned trunk. The heat was
SO intense the cars and their human
freight We're reduced to ~blackened pow
der that was blown about for hundreds
of feet by the breeze.
Relief Work.
Inside of two hours the iron work OF
the cars had all been hauled into the
ditch at the right sid Of the road.
The first relief party on the scene ar
rived from Adrian, forty-five minutes
after the accident occurred, n they
Immediately began work on the second
coach of train No. 4, which was tele-
scoped by the collision and reduced to
sblinters. The wreck of the coach was
jammed into a space Of hardly four
teen feet square
From the ruins of the car the bodies
of fou men and one woman were pulled
out.
F,--t- ~ n ,L:ol 5000 ,,,os&ir~ ~, n
sidetrack at Sand Creek, was run w TO
the scene as soon as the accident was
reported there and on this train prac-
tically all the injured from the west
bound train were loaded and started for
the company's hospital at Peru, Ind. A
relief train from Montpelier, o., took
more of the injured from. the east
hound train and also started for Peru
with them. Pending the arrival of
these ambulance trains the injured
were as fast as eXtricated placed in two
sleepers attached to train NO. IL,
which was not wrecked, or taken to
the house of Ben Huss, which was
within 100 wards of where the collision
occurred.
At Ais q. m. the body of Fireman
Calvin Baldorf was discovered jamTlcd
into the wrecked cab Of engine No. lol.
At Z the Wreckers removed the last
piece of wreckage from the tracks. 1t
was engine No. 151. Although .consid-
erably warped and bent its wheels are
still true enough SO that they kept the
track after the engine was pulled back
OH the rails and it was towed to Seneca.
Says Only 20 Were Killed.
st. Louis, Nov. S0.-President Joseph
Ramsay, jr., of the Wabash, in an in
terview This morning said he a re-
lceived but few details of the wreck near
Seneca.
Reports we AVE received, however,"
said Ramsay, 'show no more thar
twenty persons killed and thirty in
jured.
1.-THE latest report, received at $50
a. m, from Superintendent G. NJ.
Burns, who has been on the scene
since last night. gives these figures as
g. result of personal investigation"
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