The daily silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1903-1907, 1903-11-02
Awful Results of Train Wreck
on the Big four-Fifteen
Killed
AND FORTY OTHERS INJURED
Disaster Occurred Near indian
spolis Killed a nd Wounded
College Students

Indianapolis, Ind, Oct. 31.-A spec
ial train on the Big Four bearing 954
Id Fayette passengers, including sew
eral hundred students of Purdue uni
yersity, was wrecked today near R1v-
erside park, at the edge of this city
Fifteen dead have been taken from
the wreck and forty passengers were
injured; twenty-four of them serious
ly
Among the dead are several mem
bers of the Purdue university football
team which was to play Indiana uni
yersity for the state championship
here this afternoon.
The special train bore the La Fay
cite rooters, numbering nearly one
thousand. 1t consisted of twelve
coaches and was running as the first
section at high speed.
At a gravel pit switch, near Eigh-
teenth street. a switch engine with "a
lot of coal cars collided with the pas
senger. The passenger engine and
first three coaches were almost total
ly destroyed.
The first coach was crushed to
splinters, the second telescoped and
thrown down an embankment fifteen
feet high, while the third coach was
overturned and thrown across the
track.
There is confusion as to what caus-
ed the accident, each engineer insist
ins that he had the track and did not
know of the other train. A deep cut
prevented a clear view of the track
The crash of the two trains threw the
coal cars through the first two coaches
in which were many of the players
and substitutes. The engine. two
coal cars and two coaches were crush
Ell into a confused mass of wreckage.
Under this pile of debris were fifty or
more students of the university. The
uninjured in the rear coaches hurried
to the aid of the victims. The work
OF pulling out the victims was con-
tinued by the students and passen-
gers, including many girls from La
Fayette, until surgical help arrived
The hospitals and surgeons were tele
phoned for aid and physicians were
rushed in automobiles and carriages
One body was entirely beheaded.
Others were terribly mutilated. Two
of the dead, the Hamilton boys, were
brought here. One lived at La Fay
ette and one at Huntington, Ind.
People who lived in the vicinity
came prepared with home remedies Il
assist the injured. The wounds of th'
injured men were dressed temporarily
and they were hurried away to th'
hospitals. Several of the injured were
taken away by their friends in bug
gies. The dead were removed last
Several wagons belonging to th'
teamsters in the neighborhood wer
pressed into service and the dead wer
removed as fast as they could b.
taken from the wreck.
The last bodies taken out wer
those OF w. II. CRUDE and Waite
Furr of Texas. Their mangled bodle
were found buried under the over
turned tender crushed almost beyon
recognition. The work of rescuin
these bodies required the combine
work of the wrecking crew and man
ot the city firemen and policemer
The tender was raised with derrick
and the bodies were drawn out. In
body of Gabriel S. Drollinger wa
found almost beheaded under tn
wreckage of the first coach.
The scenes following the rescue
tae dead and injured ware distrsssiul