Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1905-11-06
California Express
GroundUp Between
Rocky Walls
One Victim Held
With F DOT In Burn
ing Stove

Kansas City, Mo-, Oct 31.-Thirteen
persons were killed and 80 injured In
the wreck yesterday of the Atchison,
Topeka and Santa Fe passenger train
known as the California express,
which, while running at 35 miles an
hour, struck a loose rail, ditching five
cars mile east of Blue River. The
wreck occurred at Rock Greek curt, on
curve, where jagged rock walls on
each side of the track form bluff al
most 100 feet high. The engine was
going so rapidly that it passed the
loose rail in safety. The mail car, I'M
mediately behind, jumped the track
and struck the side of the bluff and
four cars following plOughed through
it and shot against the high stone wall
opposite The sides of the coaches
were torn off by scraping against the
wall and passengers and trainmen
were ground against the wall and
either killed outright or badly hurt.
The smoking car split the baggage car
ahead of it just below the floor line,
and the baggage car when it stopped
was on top OF what was left Of the
smoking car. The other derailed cars
were damned against the rocks OF the
bluff except the splittered fragments
OF the smoker. None of the passen-
gers in the car which remained on the
track was hurt.
Relief trains with physicians ana
surgeons left this city for the scene OF
the wreck as soon as possible. Pend,
ing the arrival of the relief trains, the
passengers and trainmen did all they
could to care for the dead and allev1-
ate the distress of the injured. Their
efforts were handicapped by cold rain
which fell steadily AMI added to the
gloom of the situation. The passen-
gers worked heroically under Difficult
ties and when the doctors arrived
most Of the dead and injured had been
taken out of the wreckage In many
instances it was necessary to dig I'm,
der the debris to extricate the unfor-
tunate victims. T. D. Whiemore in
the smoker had been pinioned against
a stove. with one foot in the stove,
suffering untold agony, as his foot was
, slowly burned by the live Goals. This
. was one of the many agonizing
scenes witnessed by the rescuers. The
injured were given emergency treat
ment at the scene of the wreck and
, later brought to hospitals in this city,
where it is reported that all will re-
cover. The dead were taken in charge
by the coroner and brought to local
morgues.
The dead:
Roy Stafford, Cleveland
Lee d. Montgomery, Linneus, Mo.
James Seymour, Richmond Mo.
John McGregor. engineer, Fort Mad
ison, Iowa.
Max Schneider, New York.
j. F. Capps, baggageman, Chicago.
Carl Emil Torn. Romastisio Pecci,
Pomerio Rocco and Adrian Peatttuta,
Immigrants
Luther Richardson, colored waiter,
Chicago.
William Harrison. colored Porter,
Chicago.
Bad One on the Rock Island.
Des Moines. Oct. 31-In a head-on
collision last evening between freight
trains on the Rock Island railroad at
Casey, Iowa, the following were killed:
Fireman Ed. Nelson.
Engineer Bert Schields
Fireman William Marsell.
Brakeman Frank Jones.
Rev. j. w. Caldwell of Van Meter.
Iowa.
The first four are of Valley Junction,
Iowa.
The collision was between freight
train No. IS. westbound. and section
two of the eastbound train. No. SO.
Eighty-fve had orders to wait at Men.
10, east of Casey, for train SO, a fast
meat train. Thefirst section passed safe
ly, displaying signals Indicating that
another section followed with all the
rights of the first section. The con,
ductor of train IS, however, it is said.
gave orders to pull oUt, and his train
crashed into section two at full speed.
| just as the latter was coming out of the
Casey yards. Both trains were badly
wrecked and the engines piled up into
heaps of scrap iron. The firemen
killed were all on the engines. Mr..
Caldwell was riding in the caboose OF
train 26