The Springfield herald., 1906-03-23
FEARFUL WRECK and LOSS OF LIFE
IN D. &R. G. RAILROAD COLLISION

A. N. Bairtlo, Salida.
| Miss Grace Bairtlo, Salida.
Taylor Hewitt, Lebo. Kansas.
| Mrs. Lillian Hewitt, Lebo, Kansas.
| Mrs. WinoEa Hewitt, Lebo, Kansas.
| Pearl Hewitt. fifteen years old, Lebo,
Kansas.
Mrs. Katherine Hewitt and boy
baby, Lebo. Kansas.
| Ed. Cowley, Emporia, Kansas.
Mrs. Grace Cowley and baby, EN-
poria, Kansas.
Fred Jones, Lebo, Kansas.
Fred Limecooley, Denver.
Mrs. Belle Webb, keystone, Wyo-
ming.
Ray Field, aged ten, Keystone, Wyo-
ming.
Thomas Brennan, .Leadville.
In fated car, bound for the coast.
was a family party consisting of eleven
persons. OF that party but two have
survived the awful crash and the holo-
caust which followed.
In one awful moment the family of
Taylor Hewitt of Lebo, Kansas, was
all wiped out of existence.
The party, when it left Lebo. was
composed of Taylor Hewitt, the father;
Pearl Hewitt, fifteen years old; Mrs,
Lillian Hewitt wife of the elder Hew-
lit; W. l.. Hewitt and his wife, Wi
mona; e. A. Hewitt and his wife,
Catherine, and his baby, Claudius, four
months old; Ed. Cowley. son'in-law,
and his wife, and Fred Jones.
OF this number but w. l.. Hewitt and
his brother, E. A. Hewitt, survive. 1t
is but little that either of the survivors
of the ill-fated family can tell of the
awful disaster.
Mr.. Hewitt found his brother. who
was wandering about in dazed con-
dition. How the second Mr.. Hewitt
escaped from the wreck is not known,
he not being able to tell how he hap
pended to be on the outside of the car.
In the first coach of train No. 3, In
which the greatest havoc was wrought,
were large number of foreigners.
Italians, Slavs and Huns. bound for the
Pacific coast. The "homeseekers" rate
of $25 to Pacific coast points had
tempted these to make the journey.
There is almost an absolute GER
tainty that the exact number of these
will never be known and that their
identy will never be established. No
one knew whom these people were or
where they were going.
To the trainmen there were so
many Italians or SO many Slavs, repre-
sented in the majority of instances by
block tickets. Their few scattered
bones will fill the graves of the un'
known, while in the old home far
across the seas there will be eyes
dimmed by'long watching for the wan
derers doomed never to return.
Possibly 1t will never be known ex-
actly how many perished in the wreck
at Adobe. At headquarters in this
city 1t is still maintained the exact
number of killed was twenty-four, of
whom eighteen were passengers and
four train employees.
According to the reports of the two
conductors the count shows that there
were 159 passengers on No. 3 and for
ty-eight on No. 1G, or 2O7 on the two.
The injured passengers and those who
escaped unharmed added to the num-
Der of bodies taken out tallies with the
train count. All of the killed, except
ing the four trainmen, were in the one
car. Train No. had made no stop
afater leaving Pueblo. At that place
nine persons got off and thirty got on.
Deputy Sheriff E. e. Baird of Den
yer, one of those killed in the wreck,
was taking Archibald Whitney to
Canon City to serve long sentence in
the State Penitentiary. 1t was at first
reported that after Mr.. Baird's death,
which seems to have been instan-
taneous at the time of the collision,
Whitney was burned to death while
chained to the seat and unable to
break loose.
But Undersheriff Thomas Baird,
brother of the officer who was killed,
when talked with at Denver, said that
he had talked to the coroner who
found pair of handouts in the wreck
across charred body. No iron was
fastened to the handcuffs as would
have been the case had he been
chained to the seat.
None of the officers said Sherif
Nisbet, Chain the prisoners to the
seat. | have talken with Baird many
times about this very thing and he
was always opposed to the practice.
Baird always claimed that the proper
way to conduct prisoner was 10
handcuff the right arm of the prisoner
to the left arm of the officer. Baird
left Denver with the prisoner. Whlte,
in this way and they were seen in the
train was handcuffed together. Baird
| would be the last man to handcun
prisoner to a seat | am confident that
he did not do this, as | have stated he
was very much opposed to doing SO. In
conferences with the other deputies
held several times Baird always SAID
that he would not handcuf prisoner
| to seat. and l am sure that he dld
! not do 1t in this instance.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.