The Jersey City news., 1906-11-30
KILLED ON OWN ROAD
President Spencer Of Southern
Railway and Six Others Dead
In Train Wreck.
ENGINE Hrs PRIVATE CAR.
Train Dispatcher's Error Costs Life
Of leading Southern Railroad Man.
Passengers Declare Fellow Travellers
and Porters Ransacked cars-Head of
Historical Family Among Victims.


opment Of the southern states, and six
other persons were killed in a rear end
collision between two fast passenger
trains ten miles south of Lynchburg
and mile north of Lawyers Depot.
Philip Schuyler, retired capitalist Of
New York. was among the killed, to-
gether with other guests of Mr. Spen-
Ger in his private car. Only Mr.. Spen-
GERS private secretary, E. A. Merrill of
New York city, and one of the three
porters survived the accident.
The dead are President Samuel
Spencer of New York city, Charles D.
Fisher of Baltimore, Philip Schuyler of
New York city. Francis T. Redwood OF
Baltimore D. W Davis of Alexandria,
Va, private dispatcher to President
Spencer, and j. W. Shaw, who died in
hospital here.
The trunk of an unknown person
whose head and limbs are burned off
has been recovered. The name can
noabe learned, but the body is believed
to be that of missing porter.
Many Hurt In Wreck.
Among the injured are Lucretia Al
len, colored, Danville, Va; Willis J.
Winston, 233 East One Hundred and
Twenty street, New York city;
Garland Thomas, colored, Greensboro,
N. c.; P. e. Vauls, colored, Waynes-
boro, Va; Cora Logan, eolored, Shelby,
n c.; Sam Cox, colored porter on the
private car, Washington; Cruett
address unknown, supreme organizer
of the Heptasophs; Son Hogan, col
ored, Charlotte, N c.; e. A. Merrill,
New York city, private secretary to
President Spencer. Some of them are
badly injured. They were taken to the
City hospital.
Mr. Spencer's destination was Friend
ship. n. c.. where he was going on a
hunting trip with Mesars. Schuyler,
Fisher. Redwood and Merrill as his
guests
The wreck was the result of a dis
patcher's error Train 33. known as
the Florida Limited, left Washington
with President speneers private car
attached to the rear end.
When train 33 reached Lawyers
Roads a stop was made to repair de-
fective coupling This portion of the
road is protected by. the block system.
For this reason it was thought unnec-
essary TO send back flagman.
Wrong Signals For Train.
The train to which President spen-
GERS private car was attached was
late in leaving Washington because of
the pressure of holiday traffic, and
train 81, the Southwest Limited, was
following closely behind # The
Southwest Limited engineer received
the signal for clear track. and he
sent his train along aefull speed
There was not time to slow down
when the green flags on the rear Of
train SO came in view. No, 3T's loco
motive, while still under full head
way, crashed into President Spencers
private car, which was almost com
pletely demolished by the impact Of
the collision
Mr.. Spencer's car in which he and
his guests were sleeping at the time Of
the accident, was broken in two and
Immediately took fire.
Mr.. Spencer was pinioned beneath
the debris and had no opportunity to
escape. His body was so badly burned
that it could not lie recognized.
Worse Disaster Narrowly Averted.
The wreck occurred on the crest of a
steep grade, when the Atlanta train
could not have been running more than
thirty miles an hour. Had it been a
mile or two farther south the number
of dead might have been frightful, as
the train was about two hours behind
its schedule, condition in the grade
there that would have meant a speed
of more than sixty miles an hour.
Dispatcher Davis was alive but fa-
tally injured when he was taken from
under the wreckage. He asked that
word be sent to his wife and child
The death of Mr.. Davis was touching.
He stated to his rescuer that he knew
he was dying and knew that the end
could not be far off place your fin
ger on my mouth, he said. 1T feels
so cool and good" He pleaded with his
rescuer, who was also a passenger on
the train, not to leave him, and for ten
minutes this man stayed with him un-
til he saw that nothing more could be
done. One of the worst phases of the
accident was the heartless manner in
which few passengers and some or
the attaches, especially some OF the
porters Of the Atlanta train, ransacked
cars for rplunder.
Cars Were Looted:
f. NJ. Curtis Of jamestown. N. Y.
saw one negro porter go through .
lady's grip. He saw him throw away
such things as were Of no value to
him and appropriate those things that
he wanted. AIR Curtis declared that he
would have certainly killed the porter
if he had had something to do it with.
Mr.. Curtis, who was on his way to
High Point, n G., on a business mis-
sion, was the hero of the hour. 1t was
claimed BY some Of his fellow passen-