Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1903-12-31
DEATH LIST is %.
THIRTY-EiGHT OTHERS INJURED
IN MICHIGAN WRECK. +

One Fails to Stop for New Orders
and They Strike Head-on-Red
Light at Station Was Blown Out
by Wind Soon After Lighted.
Grand Rapids, Mich, Dec. 28.-The
death list resulting from the head-on
collision between two Pere Marquette
railroad passenger trains. near East
Paris, Mich, stands at twenty-five,
with thirty-eight persons injured sew
eral of them probably fatally.
The dead Mr.. and Mrs. l.. ]. Bald
win, Mulliken, Mich; Louis Baldwin,
their son, Mulliken; Lester Williams,
Lansing, Mich; Mrs. Daisy Giles.
Lowell, Mich; Burt Myers, Grand
Vile au Lake Odessa, Mich; Walter
Jordan, Grand Rapids; Joseph Hulim
(colored), Windsor, Ont. Austin l.
Wager, baggageman, Detroit; Charles
A. Stoddard, Detroit, engineer No. 6;
Charles A. Devine, Grand Rapids;
William Heinrich, Detroit, baggage
man; F.. M. Gillett, Burr Oak or Port
land, Mich; Allen H. Wells, Big Rap
ids. Mich; Frank Burns, Detroit, fire.
man No. 5; Peter W. Wierngo, Grand
Rapids; George Palmer, Detroit.
American Express agent on No. 6;
William Smith, Saranac, Mich; four
unidentified men.
Fatally injured: Charles West,
saranac, Mich; John Clark, Postville,
Mich; Michael Maltbery, Hart, Mich;
Gerritt Motman, Grand Rapids.
Wind Extinguishes Signal Light.
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 to the high wind, which ex-
tinguished the red signal light in the
"order" board at McCord's station,
where the westbound train was ex-
pected to stop and receive new orders.
Two minutes before the train rushed
by McCord's the light was burning,
says the operator there, but in that
brief interval the blizzard which was
raging extinguished it, and train No.
8 flashed by the station and crashed
into train No. 6, near East Paris. The
trains, which were two of the finest
on the system, were reduced to pro-
miscuous pile of broken and twisted
timber and metal, with dead and in
jured pinned down and crushed by the
fragments of the heavy cars. Five
cars and two large locomotives were
damned into space ordinarily occu-
pied by three coaches and the wreck
age was strewn across the railroad
right of way from fence to fence.
Collision Was Inevitable.
When train No. 5, bound west,
ping, the frightened operator notified
the dispatcher, then found that his
red signal light had been extinguished.
He reported this fact and then there
was but one action to take. The col
lision was inevitable.
The dispatcher's 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. They then waited for
the word they knew must come.
There was no chance of the fast
running trains to see each other
through the driving blizzard in time
even to slow down, and in few min
utes word came from the conductor of
No. that they had crashed together
and that there was awful loss of life.
The westbound engine drove through
No. 6's engine like wedge. The
boiler of engine No. 397 turned over
several times and the very force of
the twisting impact seems to have
been the means of saving the life of
Engineer Waterman. He was flung
forty feet over the fence at the edge
of the right of way. Moon, his fire.
man. was sitting on the opposite 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 blistering steam.
Mail Car Telescopes Smoker.
The baggage coach of No. 6, caught
between the engine and heavy train.
crumpled up like pasteboard, only the
roof remaining partially unbroken.
The big blind mail car, heavily bulk
headed, took the brunt of the blow,
but withstood the crush and commu-
nicated it to the smoker, next in the
rear. The smoker was swept clean,
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 parlor car and it was at
the rear end of the smoker and for
ward end of the cafe car, where the
passengers were killed and injured.
The westbound flyer with it's heav.
lily bulkheaded cars staid on the rails.
back of the baggage and mail cars,
and the passengers in this train es.
capped serious injury.
DEATH LIST is NOW slxTY.FIvE.
Others lniured in Wreek Will proh