Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1904-01-01
HEAD-ON COLLIfi
Twenty-Five People Killcl Nvar
East Paris, Mich.
Twcnty-nine Others Injured, Several
Fatally, by Two Passenger Trains
Coming Together on tho Pcro
Marquette Road During
n Binding Blizzard.

Grand Rapids, Mich, Dec. 2s.-The
death list resulting from the head-on
collision between two Pere Mar
quette railroad passenger trains near
East Paris, Saturday evening, stands
at 22, with 20 persons injured, several
of them probably Fatally. The dead:
Mr.. and Mrs. l.. j.. Baldwin, Multi
ken, Mich.
Louis Baldwin, their son.
Lester Williams, Lansing, Mich.
Mrs. Daisy Giles, Lowell, Mich.
Burt Myers, Lake Odessa, Mich.
Walter Jordan, Grand Rapids.
Joseph Hull, (coloreD Windsor,
Ont.
Austin l. Wager, Detroit, baggage
man.
Charles \. Stoqdard, Detroit, en-
gineer No. 6.
Charles A. Devine. Grand Rapids.
William Heinrich, Detroit, bag
gageman.
+. NJ. Gillet, Burr Oak, or Portland,
Mich.
Allen H. Wells, Big Rapids, Mich.
Frank Burns, Detroit, fireman
No. 5.
Peter w. Wierengo Grand Rapids.
George Palmer, Detroit, American
Express agent on No. 6.
William Smith, Saranac, Mich.
Four unidentified men.
1t was the most disastrous wreck
in the history of the Pere Marquette
system and instead of being caused
by mans carelessness or mistake, is
charged to the high wind, which eN-
tinguished the red light in the order
board at McCord's Station, where
the westbound train was expected 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 that was raging
eXtinguished it. and train No. 5 flash
ed by the station to crash into east
bound train No. 6, near East Paris.
The trains. which were two of the
finest on the system. were reduced to
pile of broken and twisted timber
and metal, with dead and injured
pinned down and crushed by the
fragments of the heavy cars.
Five cars and two large locomotives
were .iammed into a space ordinarily
occupied by three coaches, and the
wreckage was strewn across the rail-
fence.
When train No. ). bound west,
whizZed by McCord's instead of stop
ping, the frightened operator noti-
fled the dispatcher, then found that
his red light had been extinguished.
He reported this fact and then there
was but one action to take. The col
lision was inevitable. The dispatch-
r.. Il
gave orders to hold the train over
the Saginaw branch al 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
to even slow down. and in few min,
utes word came from the conductor
of No. that they had crashed to-
| gether and that there was an awfu
| loss of life.
The westbound engine. No. 307
drove through No. 6's engine like q
wedge, separating the gear from the
boiler and standing the latter on ent
| like broken, twisted shell. The run
ming gear was crumpled up like sc
much twine. Great cast steel side
rods bent into many shapes and ever
the steel tires of the big driving
wheels split and sprung from the
wheels, landing in some cases teI
feet from the engine.
The boiler of engine No. 307 turned
over several times and the very force
of the twisting impact seems to hav,
been the means of saving the life O
Engineer Waterman. He was fun.
40 feet over the fence. Moon, hi
fireman, was sitting on the opposite
side of the cab, and he, too, wa
thrown clear of the pile of wreck
age.
AS the trains came together tn
steam domes of each boiler blew of
releasing their contents, else ther
would have been added horrors from
the blistering steam.
No. 6, eastbound, was composed o
a mail and baggage car. combination
smoker, buffet parlor car day coacl
and diner. The baggage coach caugh
between the engine and heavy trail
and crumpled up like pasteboard
only the roof remaining partially un
broken. The big mail coach, heavil
bulkheaded, took the brunt of tn
blow, but withstood the crash AM
communicated it to the smoker mex
in the rear. The smoker was swep
clean as the mail car telescoped it
entire length and turned over at tn
north side of the track. The smoke
in turn crashed several feet into tn
parlor car, and it was at the rear en-
of the smoker and forward end O
the cafe car where all the passenger