Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-01-09
ONLY A FEW BONES
WERE FOUND
IN WRECK
VICTIMS OF HORROR AT REX STA.
TON WERE ENTIRELY CON-
sUMED IN FLAMEs-scENE
TERRIBLE ONE.

Wrecking trains are still at work re-
moving the debris from the scene of the
head-on collision, near Rex, on the South
ern road which occurred at 10 o'clock last
Saturday night, resulting in the death
and subsequent cremation of Engineer c..
c. Wallace, of No. IS South Mcdaniel
street, Atlanta; 2. II. Harris, Of Jackson,
and ]. B. Prater, of Gainesville.
The charred remainder of Prater's body
was removed from the wreck Sunday and
brought to Atlanta. 1t was taken to
Gainesville Monday al noon and inferred
there.
OF the bodies of Wallace and Harris
only fragments were found among the
piles of ashes from the burned cars that
had settled around the wreck. These por-
tions were gathered and brought to At
lanta Monday afternoon and given into
the charge of Undertaken H. NJ. Patter-
son. So small were the parts of the
bodies, both of which were strewn along
the side of the rails for a distance of
twenty feet, and so difficult is it to identi-
fly them that in all probability they will
be buried in the same casket.
There were also found a gold watch,
badly burned, which belonged TO Harris,
a bunch of keys. pocket knife. part of
a pair of suspendeTs, and a small piece of
a vest, thought to have been that of Wal
lace. The engineers cap was also found
the collision. He had probably put his
head out of the window and it had been
blown off just before the trains struck.
1t was peculiar circumstance that all
three of the men killed were on the same
engine. This is explained by some as the
result of a stretch of straight track on
which the southbound train was running.
giving Engineer Lee Whatley time to see
tho northbound engine approaching
around a sharp curve He reversed his
engine and with Fireman Hicks, of At
lanta, and John Gordon, a negro fagman,
of Corks, jumped at a point about two
hundred yards from the collision. What
ley sustained the fracture of several ribs,
and beyond severe bruises the others were
uninjured.
The positions in which the engines and
tenders were thrown was one of the most
unusual features of the wreck The boil
ers of both engines were hurled to the
west side of the track, the front end of
each lying side by side over the pile OF
wreckage formed by the trucks. There
was a slight opening between the boilers
and the tender of No. 81, southbound, ly-
ing on the east side Of the tracks, formed
with the boilers and the tender a perfect
Y shape, the point of conjunction of the
three arms being over the rails. The body
of Fireman j. B. Prater was removed from
between the two boilers. The small por-
tions of the bodies of Harris and Wallace
that were recovered were taken from be-
meath the south side of the tender. What
had not been burned to ashes was ground
TO bits, and besides the several large
pieces already mentioned only small frag-
ments of charred bones, none of them
larger than a finger, were recovered
These were scraped from under nearly a
foot of ashes and dirt.
The death of Zelma Harris, the young
iagman who was on, Wallace's engine,
northbound, seems one Of those peculiar
freaks of fortune that had marked him
as it's victim. vtri fH
He was the rear fiagman and under or
dinarily circumstances would have been
near the caboose. where fatalities in
wrecks are rare. On this occasion, how
ever. Wallace was trying a new engine,
its first run having been to Macon the
day before, and was on it's return trip.
Harris had not been on the new locomo-
tive while in motion and about ten min
utes before the collision walked from his
place at the rear of the train and asked
John Gordon, colored, of Corks, Ca, the
front hagman to exchange posts with him
for a short time that he might get on
the engine and judge for himself of its
running qualities. Gordon agreed and
made his way back to the caboose, while
Harris crawled over the tender into the
engine. He scarcely had time, says Cor
don, to reach the engineers side before
the smashup came. Gordon, who had
snapped places with him, was not in
jured.