The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-10-10
DR.. H. L. Mc1LHENY. springman.


Kan.
The Injured:
D. D. Hale, Dexter. Kan, thigh bro
ken.
Mrs. Hale, wife of above, leg and
body injured; serious.
Amelia England, Dexter, limbs badly
crushed.
L. G. Dressed, Eatonville. Kan, seri-
E. l.. Barnes, conductor passenger
train, slight.
E. D. Rossem, engineer passenger
train, badly scalded-
- Hoton, engineer freight train,
serious
Perry M. Allen. Coffeyville. Kan.
legs badly crushed.
Bert Tottman, Cedarvale, Kan, cut
about body, injured internally.
Amelia Troutwin, st. Louis
Z. S. Nicholson, Dexter, Kan, hurt
about head.
Ruth Stewart Fourman, Independ-
ennce, Kan. serious.
w. E. Fourman. independence, seri-
Gus.
William Darst, Dexter, Kan, slight.
Fred Barnes. oxford, Kan, scalded;
arm hurt
Miss N. ]. Wolf. Dexter, Kan, seri-
ous
Elizabeth Cowdelry. Adrian. Kan.
E. T. Cowdelry, Adrian. Kan, seri-
Gus.
How 1t Happened.
The freight train was extra. Its
crew had, according to the story of the
conductor of this train, been instructed
to take a siding and let the passenger
pass. The first section of the passen-
ger train had gone when the freight
pulled out. The passenger train bore
no signal of a second section to come,
he asserts, and he had no reason to be-
lieve that another train was due. The
scene of the wreck was on the down
4 ,f,l, xxrea
a steep rise. Both trains had put on
extra steam to carry them up the op-
posite hill and when they met at the
curve at the lowest point they were run
ming at a terrific rate.
The passenger train was made up OF
three coaches and a Pullman, with no
baggage car, the front coach being next
to the tender The freight train was a
heavy one. When the trains met, the
heavy freight train pushed the passen-
ger engine back into the first coach The
tender of the passenger engine literally
cut the coach in two in the center and
never stopped until it had ploughed
itself half way through the car and its
passengers, killing those in the forward
end instantly and mangling all within
reach in a most horrible manner. Hai
a dozen who were not killed outrlghE
were so terribly injured that they died
before they could be removed from the
debris. Many of the dead were almost
unrecogniZable. Arms and legs were
disrnembered in several cases and to-
gether with baggage and pieces of
wreckage were tumbled together into q
confused mass of bleeding human
forms.
The next two coaches were also
badly damaged, seats being torn up
and windows smashed, but in these
cars the passengers Jared better, all
except a few escaping with slight in
juries. The Pullman remained up
right and none of its occupants were
hurt beyond sustaining severe shak-
ing up
So tightly were The tender of the
passenger engine and the first coach
wedged together that it will take un-
usual efforts to separate them. Today
the engine stands backed into the
coach, the front end of which rears
up above it, the clothing of some of
the victims clinging to it's jagged ends
and blood spattered over it, a CHASTITY
monument to the dead.
The train crew, with the exception
of Brakeman Sidel, escaped miracu-
lously, the engineers and firemen sus-
tanning only minor hurts.
The injured were taken to Sedalia
and the dead to Warrensburg. AT
Warrensburg the coroner Immediately
set about making preparations for
holding an inquest.