Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-12-28
TRAINS MEET
With a Terrific Crash Near
East Parish, Mich.
Twenty-Five Killed and SO Injured.
Wind Extinguished Signal.
Farmers and Train Hands Rescue
Injured by Lantern Light.

head-On collision between two Pere
Marquette Railroad passenger trains
near East Paris, early yesterday even
ing, stands at %, with SO persons in
jured, several of them probably ia
tally.
The dead:
Mr.. and Mrs. L. ]. Baldwin. Milliken,
Mich.
Louis Baldwin, their son, Milliken,
Mich.
Lester Williams, Lansing, Mich.
Mrs. Daisy Giles, Lowell, Mich.
Burt Myers, Grangville, or Lake
Odessa, Mich.
Walter Jordan, Grand Rapids.
Joseph Hull, colored, Windsor, Ont.
Austin Wagner, 1872 10th street, De-
troit baggageman
Charles A. Stoddard, Detroit, engi-
neer, No. G.
Charles A. Devine, Grand Rapids.
William Heinrich, Detroit, baggage
man.
Q. M. Gillet, Burr Oak, or Portland,
Mich.
Allen II. Wells, Big Rapids, Mich.
Frank Burns, Detroit fireman, No. 5.
Peter w. Waeregen, Grand Rapids.
George Palmer, Detroit, American
Express agent on No. 6.
William Smith. Saranac, Mich.
E. F. Coykendall, Lake Odessa, Mich.
A. F. May, car repairer, Grand
Rapids.
Peter Cor Thompson), Sioux
City, Iowa.
An unidentified man.
1t was the most disastrous wreck in
the history of the Pere Marquette sys-
tenn and instead of being caused by
mans carelessness or mistake, is
charged with the high wind which ex-
tinsuished the red signal light in the or
der. board at McCord's station, wher
thei WeStbOund train was expected to
stop and receive new orders. Two min
utes before the train rushed by Nc
Cords, the light was burning, says the
operator there. but in that brief inter-
val, the blizzard that was raging eX-
tinguished it and train No. ran by the
station to crash into the eastbound
train No. 6. The trains We're two of
the finest on the system, now reduced
to a promiscuous broken pile Of timber
and metal with dead and wounded and
fragments of the heavy cars.
Five cars and two large locomotives
were jammed into q space ordinarily
occupied by three coaches and the
Wreckage was StreWn across the rail-
road right of way from fence to fence.
When train No. bound east, whiZZed
by McCord's, instead of stopping, the
frightened operator notified the dis
patcher and then found that his red
light had been eXtinguished. He then
reported the fact and then there was
but one action to take. The collision
was inevitable.
The dispatcher's office called for med
zeal aid and gave orders to hold the
train over the Saginaw branch at the
depot and set the Wrecking outfit I'M
der steam. They then waited for the
word they knew must come.
There was no chance for the fast run
ming trains to see each other through
the driving blizzard in time to even
slow down and in n few minutes word
came from the conductor of No ) that
they had crashed together and there
was an awful loss of life.
TIL, westbound engine, No. 337, drove
through No. 6'S engine like Il wedge.
separating the gear from the boiler and
sta lding the latter on end like a brol
en-. twisted shell. The running gear
was crumpled up like so much Irvine.
Great cast steel side rods bent into
many shapes and the even steel tires
of the big driving wheels split and
sprung from the wheels, landing III
some cases 10 feet from the engine. The
boiler of engine No. 397 turned several
times and the very force of the twist
ing impact seems to have been the
means of saving the life of Engineer
Waterman. He was flung 40 feet over
the fence at the edge of the right of
way Moon, his fireman, was sitting on
the opposite side OF the cab and he. too.
was thrown clear of the pile of wreck
age.
AS the trains came together. the
steam domes of each boiler blew off.
releasing the contents, else there would
have been added horrors from the
blstering steam.
No 6, east-bound, was composed of
mail. and baggage car. combination
smoker, buffet parlor car, day coach
and diner. The baggage coach caught
between the engine and heavy train,
crumpled up like pasteboard only the
roof remaining partially unbroken. The
big blind mail ear. heavily bulkheaded.
took the brunt of the blow, but with
stood the crash and communicated it
to the smoker next in the rear The
smoker was swept clear as the mail
car telescoped its entire length and
turned over at the north side Of the
track. The smoker in turn crashed
several feet into the parior car and it
was at the rear end of the smoker and
forward end of the cafe car where all
the passengers We're killed and injured.
From space six feet square the bodies
Of two women, boy and a man were
taken out.
The west-bound flyer with it's heavy
bulkheaded cars, stayed on the rails,
back of the baggage and mail cars and
the passengers on this train escaped
serious injury. As one man they rush
cd from the train to assist the less
fortunate ones on the train for his
city. Many stripped warm over ,oats
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