The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-12-28
DEATHS IN THE PERE
MARQUETTE DISASTER
NUMBER TWENTY-FIVE


then found that his red light had been ex-
tinguished. He reported this fact and then
there was but one action to take. The col
lisiOn was inevitable.
The dispatcher office called for medical
aid and gave orders TO hold the train over
the Saginaw branch at the depot and get
the wrecking outfit under steam Then it
waited for the word the men knew must
come
THE EXPECTED WORD.
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 five minutes word came from the
conductor of No that they had crashed
together and that there was an awful loss
of life.
The west-bound engine drove through No.
6s engine like wedge, separating the gear
from the boiler and standing the latter on
end like a broken, twisted shell. The run
ming gear was crumpled up like so much
Irvine. Great cast steel side rods bent into
many shapes, and even the steel tires OF
the big driving wheels split and sprung
from the wheels, landing in some cases ten
feet from the engine. The boiler of Engine
a97 turned over several times, and the very
force OF the twisting impact seems TO have
been the means of saving the life of En-
gineer Waterman. He was flung forty feet
over the fence at the edge of the right of
way.
Moon, his fireman. was sitting on the OPP
posite side of the cab, and he, too, was
thrown clear Of the pile of wreckage.
AS the trains came together the steam
domes of each boiler blew off, releasing
their contents, else there would have been
added horrors from the bisterng steam.
The east-bound train was composed of a
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 paste
mi hn mi rff llxrt nm
broken. The big blind mail coach. heavily
bulkheaded, took the brunt of the blow,
but withstood the crash and communicated
1t TO the smoker next in the rear. The
smoker was swept clear as the mail car
telescoped its entire length and turned over
a. the north side of the track.
DEAD IN SMALL SPACE.
The smoker in turn crashed several feet
into the parlor car, and it was at the rear
end of the smoker and forward end of the
cafe car where the passengers were killed
and injured. From space six feet square
the bodies of two women, a boy and a man
We're taken out.
The west-bounG flyer with its heavy bulk
headed cars, staid on the rails, back of the
baggage and mail cars, and the passengers
in this train escaped serious injury. AS
one man they rushed out of the train to
assist the less fortunate ones on the train
from this city. Many stripped warm over
coats from their backs and covered the
suffering injured as they were borne to the
D
remains of the parlor car of No. 6.
Nearby farmers, hearing the crash,
turned out with blankets and did valiant
service
According to statements made by of
ficials of the Pere Marquette, the west
bound train was travelling down grade at
the rate of sixty miles an hour. The east
bound train climbing the hill at Il
speed of forty miles an hour. The former
carried probably seventyfve passengers.
while the latter is believed TO have been
a AT
trains collided at about the middle of a
long, sweeping curve, three-quarters of a
mile west of East Paris. On the inner side
of the curve is high embankment pre-
venting view of the track ahead.
When the engines met one turned COM
pletely over and lay with it's nose in a
direction opposite that in which Ii had been
travelling The other climbed the wreckage
of the first, its boiler torn from the trucks,
standing erect in the center of the debris.
In the cafe coach of the Inflated east
bound train, which was demolished as far
back as the rear of the forward trucks,
one of the most shocking of the many
tragedies of the wreck was enacted.
CHILD BEHEADED.
Section Foreman Linden j. Baldwin, wife
and son had spent Christmas in Grand
Rapids and were returning to their home
at Mulliken. Between the man and wife,
sitting on the top of the car seat and play
ing with a toy bank received as a Christ
gift, was their little son. The crash
came and all three were killed. A beam
flying through the air struck the child. be-
heading him. The mother and son were
found together on the floor of the cafe car
by the wrecking crew when they pene-
trated the wreck.
The first relief train sent out from here
brought in the injured and those of the
dead who could be recovered without the
aid of the wrecking outfit. The injured
were rushed to the hospitals, where every
thing was in readiness for their reception.
The second relief train, with the tool car
and steam crane, was sent to the wreck as
soon as the temporary hospital train had
arrived here. Within twenty minutes the
wrecking crew had taken out eight bodies,
which were frozen stiff. These were
brought here and sent to the morgue.
Shortly before noon a third train from the
wreck arrived with the last of the bodies.
those of Engineer Stoddard and Fireman
Burns. which had been found beneath the
wreckage of the engines. Burns's body
was burned into shapelessness.
General Superintendent Smith interviewed
Operator Booth at McCords last night, and
said to-day:
ST have no reason TO doubt the statement
of Booth that HIS light was burning two
minutes before the train passed McCord' S
and that the wind eXtinguished ii. He is
an old operator and has been in the employ
of the road several years"
Following is the revised list of casualties:
The Dead
MR. AND MRS. L. j. BALDWIN, Multi
ken, Mich
LOUIS BALDWIN, their son, Mulliken.
LESTER WILLIAMS, Lansing, Mich.
MRS DAISY GILES, Lowell, Mich.
BURT MYERS, Granville or Lake Cd
essa, Mich.
WALTER JORDAN Grand Rapids
JOSEPH HULLM (colored. Windsor.
Ont.
AUSTIN L WAGNER, baggageman. DE-
troit.
CHARLES a. STODDARD, Detroit, en-
gineer No. 6.
CHARLES A. DEVINE, Grand Rapids
WILLIAM HEINRICH, Detroit, bag
gageman.
F. NJ. GILLET, Burr Oak or Portland
Mich.
ALLEN II. WELLS, Big Rapids, Mich
FRANK BURNS, Detroit, fireman No. 5
PETER w. WIERANGO, Grand Rapids
GEORGE PALMER, American Express
agent on No s, Detroit
WILLIAM SMITH. Saranac, Mich
F. F. COYKENDALL, Lake Odessa
Mich.
A. F. MAY, car repairer. Grand Rapids.
- PETERSON COR Thompson), Siou,
City, Ia.
ONE UNIDENTIFIED MAN.
The Injured.-
GERRIT HOFFMAN, internal injury anC
| hip crushed, dying.