The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1903-11-25
THIRTY-ONE ARE KILLED
Big Four Freight and Work Trains Col.
lide Head On.
KILLED AND MANdLED BESIDE TRACK.
Engineer Judge, Of Freight Train, Ignored
Orders to Walt at Maeh.uaw, and His Train
Met Work Train at Full Speed-Men on
Work Train We're Crushed Among Steel
Rails and Debris OF Cars-BolIer Exploded.

Peoria, ILL., (SpeciaD .-Thirty-one
men we're killed and at least fifteen in
jured in a head-on collision between
a freight train and work train on the
Big Four Railroad between Mackinaw
and fremont.
Bodies OF twenty-six OF the victims
have been taken from the wreck. which
is piled thirty feet high on the tracks.
On bank at the side OF the track lie
the bodies Of the victims. cut, bruised
and mangled in horrible manner. SO
far only twelve have been identified,
the remaining being unrecognizable
even by those who knew them and are
aware OF the fact that they are among
the dead.
All the dead and most OF the injured
were members OF the work train, the
crews OF both engines jumping in time
to save their lives. The collision oc-
Cured i'll deep cut at the beginning
OF sharp curve. neither train being
visible to the crew of the other until
they were within fifty feet OF each
other. The engineers set the brakes.
sounded the whistles and then leaped
from their cabs, the two trains strk-
ing with such force that the sound was
heard for miles.
A second after the collision the
boiler OF the work train engine explod-
ed, throwing heavy iron bars and spln-
tiers OF wood 200 feet.
Conductor John w. Judge, OF In
dianapolis, who had charge OF the
freight train, received orders at Urbana
to wait at Mackinaw for the work train,
which was due there at 2.4o p. IN. In
stead OF doing this he failed to stop
The engineer OF the work train, George
Becker, had also received orders to
pass the freight at Mackinaw. and was
on the way to that station. The work
train was perhaps five minutes late and
was running at full speed.
The collision was witnessed by Rus
sell Noonan, a farmers boys, ID years
OF age, who fastened to a nearby house
and telephoned to fremont. A special
train with four physicians was made up
in few minutes, and in less than hall
an hour was on the scene. At the same
time another train arrived from Pekin
bearing Superintendent {. II. Bernard.
OF the Big Four, and three physicians.
The second train bore lot OF rugs,
and these were utilized to carry out
the mangled corpses OF the victims.
One OF the last bodies recovered was
that OF William Bailey, OF Mackinaw,
who had been lifted thirty feet into the
air and held in place by two steel rails
which had been pushed up between the
engine and the tender OF the work
train.
The workmen had been engaged in
laying steel rails at different points
along the track, and three OF the freight
cars were heavily loaded.
The injured were taken to the two
cabooses OF the relief trains, where
temporary hospitals were improvised
and their wounds dressed.
The dead are residents of neighbor-
ing towns, and the scenes about the
wreck were beyond description. Wives
and children OF men who were missing
thronged around, asking il their hus-
bands or fathers had been killed. Out
OF thirty-five men who constituted the
crew Of the work train only four are
living, and two OF these are seriously
injured.
The wreckage is strewn along the
track for a distance OF nearly 200 feet,
and it will be twenty-iour hours before
it can be cleared.