New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-07-21

HESS Charles.
JONES. Richard.
KNOWLES -. fireman
McCAULEY, Charles
MERRILL, 1. K.
REYNOLDS Henry.
RICHTER. Mrs August
ROGERS. Don, Lowell. Mich
ROGERS. John.
sTEIGER william. Kansas City. working in Ionia
SMITH. Homer.
sTAGER william Kansas City working in Ionia
TAFEI, John.
TRAUTWINE Albert.
WIZARD. James
unidentified bodies at Ionia
Charles Herman and Paul Hess were brothers
James Wizard was "a well known minor league
ballplayer who had played in the Central League
and also at Omaha. Willard StaGer had come
10 Ionia recently from Kansas City, where his
mother now lives. Edward Gallagher is the son
of an ex-mayor Of Ionia. Henry Reynolds was
a Pere Marquette engineer bound for Detroit
on the excursion train to take out his regular
run AL. Herbert, a machinist in the Pere
Marquette shops. had moved to lonia from
Traverse City only last Wednesday to be near
his wfeS mother.
The passenger train of eleven cars, carrying
the Pere Marquette shop employees Of Ionia and
their families TO Detroit for their annual ex-
cursion was running at high speed, probably
fifty miles hour down steep grade. II
struck the lighter locomotive of the freight train
with such force as TO turn the freight engine
completely around.
The wrecked locomotives this afternoon lay
side by side. both headed eastward. only fe"
of the freight cars we're smashed and it was
only few hours work to remove all traces
of them from the scene. But behind the two
wrecked locomotives six of the passenger
train Law piled. Four Of the passenger codcnes
remained on the track undamaged and were
used to convey the dead and injured to Ionla.
one coach was undamaged, but had Its FORWARD
trucks off the rails. These were the rear h'e
cars The two coaches next ahead OF these were
telescoped The next car forward stood almost
IN end after the wreck, its forward end resting
on the roadbed and the rear end hish IN the
air upon the two teIescoped CoSCiieS 'H' i'"A
been following it,
Two coaches were thrown crosswise OF the
track and lay suspended from oank 10 DailA o'
the cut five or six feet above the rails. Ot the
baggage car not enough remained TO show where
II had been tossed. Portions OF the baggage car
md OF the locomotive tender and freight cars
were piled in an indescribable mass of debris
FARMER WATCHED CRASH
James Boyle. a farmer. was working in a field
probably four hundred feet away from the track
when the two trains approached from opposite
directions The local freight was moving slowly
ND the heavy grade and had Just reached the
curve when the passenger train appeared run
ming at high speed. Boyle saw the passenger
/ engineer shut off his steam and apply the brakes
and saw the crews of both engines jump Just
before the crash. He ran to the tracks, where
he found the unniured passengers from the rear
coaches running forward and Joined with them
in pulling out the injured. who could be seen on
every hand.
The dead were placed In row alongside the
track and the injured were made as comfortable
as possible under the circumstances and until
the arrival Of the wreclSing trains from Detroit,
Grand Rapids and Saginaw. which made 1t pos
sible to send Them to Ionia and Detroit. The
twenty eight dead bodies first taken from the
wreck were shipped 10 Ionia and the injured
We're placed on two trains. one Of which headed
for Detroit and the other for Ionia There were
about thirty-nve injured persons each train.
Later in the day the body of ED" Corwan the
head brakeman OF the passenger train was taken
out of the wreck Knowles, the fireman. died ON
the relief train en- route 10 Detroit.
There is "a possibility that more bodies may
be found IN the wreCkage, and several of the
injured will die, Il is feared
Responsibility for the wreck is put squarely
on the crew of the freight train by officials OF
the road. officials who arrived at the Of
the wreck soon after the accident got from the
crew of the freight the orders under which IL
was running. which clearly showed the position
of the passenger excursion train and that the
/ freight had encroached upon the other trains
running time. The special train was due IT
Salem at 9:10 a. m. and at Plymouth at 9:2o
a. m. 1t passed Salem time. The time card
of the special telegraphed to the freight
crew in the form of Il train order. and this
der, with the signatures of the freight train
/ crew attached, was recovered by the officials II
the road. The freight left the scene early
but railroad officials said that they explained
simply that they had forgotten. The collision
occurred at 9:13 O'Clock, and the freight train
! should have reached Salem at 40 TO be within
orders.
PANIC IN COACHES.
The excursion train left Ionia, crowded with
men, women and children at o'clock this
morning 1t the annual excursion of tha
shop men of the Pere Marquette Railway to
Detroit Every family had it's lunch baskets
and many of them eating when the two
trains crashed together The impact was ter
rife. and number of passengers sitting near
/ the windows of the rear. undamaged coach were
thrown out of the windows to the ground
There a panic in the uninjured coaches for
few moments Then, as the uninjured realized
that they had not been hurt they rushed from
the cars to the rescue of their friends and rela-
! tlves who were pinioned among the wreckage
ahead
/ Families were scattered among different cars
and there were frenzed searches for missing
relatives. Mothers ran screaming up and down.
searching for their children, while many of the
young people frantically calling for their
Parents S Dennehy young man of Iona,
was in the last coach. while his sister in
one of the middle coaches and his father and
mother were in one of the most seriously dam
aged cars.
! 1--WE felt the jar when the air brakes were ap-
Piled" said Mr.. Dennehy, "and then. before any
one had time TO stand up or leave his seat. came
the crash of the collision. In the confusion uf
the moment l did not realize that the car was
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