The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-07-14
Passenger Train Crashes Into Freight on Chicago ( East-
 ern Illinois Near GIGRwOod
: S,BLE TRACKS COULD
 NOT PREVENT ACCIDENT
Freight Was Passing From One Track to the Other, When Passenger Came Around Sharp Curve
 at Terrific Speed.

Chicago. July 1s-This evening twenty tow members of the Sunday school of Doremus Congregational church at Thirty first and Butler streets, went to death with joy in their hearts and hymn on their lips. Seventy people. mostly chil- dren, members of the same Sunday school. were maimed and mangled at the same time The carnage occurred in collision on the tracks of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois railroad between Chicago Heights and Glenwood. 25 miles from Chicago To- day was the annual picnic of the Sun day school. and as in former years, hun dreds of the children with their parents and friends had gone to the picnic grounds at Momence, H.. for the day.
 The picnic was over and the train was on the return to Chicago when the acci- dent occurred The children in the first coach were singing as the train passed through Chicago Heights, 27 miles from Chicago. Two miles further on the sing ing was hushed in death for above the trains roar cries of pain and anguish rent the air. Several minor accidents com bined to cause the greater disaster.
 Freight Had Broken Down.
 First was the breaking down of freight train on the northbound track on which the excursion train should have proceeded after leaving Chicago Heights, and the other was a breaking of a coupling on a second freight
 Because the first train had blocked the rightful track, the excursion train switched to the southbound track to run for four miles until it could have passed the station of Glenwood just north sf Chicago Heights. As, it tore along ese track at tine rate of forty miles an hoar it rounded a sharp curve and came full upon the second train, which was back ing upon the southbound track in order to take up it's lost cars and trying at the same time to keep out of the way of the coming picnic train which 1t believed was on the northbound track. There was no time for more than the setting of the brakes when the unslackened speed of the train with it's load of 800 women and children crashed into the freight. There was a shock, a shrielS and over twenty souls were In eternity.
 The people in the first car were thrown upon the front of their car, which plung- ed against the end of the baggage car just ahead and the mass of people was hurled against the wreck of the baggage car and nobody in the dense pack of the people in the forward end of the first coach escaped death or serious injury.
 The dead are as follows:
 The Dead.
 Mrs. Gerringer.
 Miss Gerringer
 Carl Stewart, IT years.
 Mrs. Ellen Landers.
 Mrs, Emma Palmer, daughter of Mrs. Landers.
 Lena Palmer. daughter of Mrs Palmer, and granddaughter of Mrs. Landers
 Lena Hipelus, IA years old
 Francis Gerringer, years old
 Andrew Kramer.
 w. H. Meyer, 12 years.
 John Poduda, years
 Mamie Poduda, years.
 Nine unidentified children
 Mrs. Carriage.
 Picnickers Had Started Home.
 The train which was wrecked leIt the Thirty-first street station of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois this morning for Momence. The picnic was the annual out ing of the Doremus church. formerly chapel of Plymouth Congregational church of this city. After spending the day on the picnic grounds at Momence the train started on the return trip, rum ming in as the second section or the reg ular passenger train. which is due in Chicago at S:25.
 When the picnic train reached Chicago Heights, four miles beyond Glenwood, where the accident took place, 1t was switched to the regular southbound track. and although it was coming north, 1t was given clear track by the operator at Chicago Heights until 1t should reach Glenwood, four miles away.
 The train after leaving Chicago Heights gradually increased its speed and when half the distance between the two sta- tions mad been covered. 1t was plungins along at the rate of forty miles an hour Just half way between Chicago Heights and Glenwood there is sharp curve and as the picnic train tore around this on the southbound track, a freight train was backing from the southbound to the northbound track. It was partly on both tracks, and no train could have passed 1t in either direction. The bend is sharp. and the engineer of the picnic train had no chance to see the freight before he was upon 1t.
 % Late TOT Airbrakes.
 It was too late to do anything but set the airbrakes. but before they could take effect the passenger train crashed into the freight at full speed. The engine and baggage car of the passenger train went clear through the freight and were piled up in heap of wreckage on the further side of the switch on which the freight was crossing from one track to the other. The first coach of the picnic train plunged straight into the wreckage and buried itself in mass of kinding wood under the demolished baggage car
 Nearly all of the passengers in the first coach were caught beneath the mass of debris, and 1t was here that the loss of life occurred. The people in the rear coaches were hurled up and bruised. but all of the serious casualties occurred in the car.
 The uninjured passengers and the train men at once hastened to the relief af those who were pinned down under ti.s wreckage who were shrieking piteousy for aid. The scene of the wreck was two miles from any habitation and much de-