The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1907-09-18
svBsCRIPTION..-s5.OO PER ANNUM
MISTAKE IN ORDERS
Error Of a Telegraph Operator
Costs Twenty-Five Lives.
As MANY OTHERS INJURED
Express and Freight Trains on the
Boston and Maine Railroad Collide
at Canaan, N. r., With Most Dis
astrous Results.

at Canaan, N. H., With Most Dis
astrous Results.
Canaan, N. H., Sept. 4 BY a col
usion Of freight and an express
train on the Concord division Of the
Boston and Maine railroad near here
more than score Of persons lost their
lives and a greater number received
injuries. According to a statement
issued by the railroad officials blum
der In handling train orders was the
eause, but the identity Of the employe
responsible for the error remains to
be determined.
At the rooms Of the undertaking
firm In Concord where most Of the
dead were removed Immediately after
the accident twenty-five bodies are
laid out in long rows. OF these thir-
teen are considered as positively iden-
titled by relatives, while the identity
Of several others was believed to be
sufficiently known. The revised list
Of identified dead follows:
ter; Mrs. Timothy Shaughnessey, Man.
chester: George l.. Southwick, Worces-
ter, Mass; Fred M. Phelps, Ochiltree,
9ex.; Mrs. M. E. Warren, Haverhill,
Mass; Mrs. Adolph Bolsyert, Concord,
N. H.; Miss Annie Barrett, Manches-
ter; Augustine Roger, Manchester;
Richard F. Clarkson, Lebanon, N. H.;
Il n Tn Nrc
e. s. Briggs, West Lebanon, N. H.;
John M. Congdon, Bethel, VT; Leon
s. Cady, West Lebanon.
The twelve bodies still awaiting
Identification include that Of an eight
Vear-old boy who died at the Mary
Hitchcock hospital at Hanover during
the night, four men and seven women.
Twelve of the twenty-seven persons
who were taken to the hospital suffer-
Ing from injuries have recovered suffl-
GENTLY to leave that institution and
but fifteen persons remain at the hos
pital. None Of the injured persons
still at the hospital is in a dangerous
condition, the injuries in the main
consisting Of slight conclusions,
bruises and sprains.
Fearful Result Of Mistake.
The southbound train was made up
at Sherbrooke, Que, where it picked
up two sleepers from Quebec and two
more on the way down. 1t consisted
Of the baggage car, passenger coach
and smoking car in that order, with
the sleepers in the rear.
The train left White River Junction
at $3.50 a. m, forty minutes late, and
was followed twenty minutes later by
the Montreal express over the Central
Vermont railroad. The Quebec train
Is known as No. 80 and the Montreal
train as No. 81.
In the meantime a northbOund train
known as No. 267 had arrived at
Canaan on time. According to the
division superintendent, w. R. Ray,
J. r. Crowley, the night train dis.
patcher at Concord, sent a dispatch
to John Greeley, the night operator at
Canaan, that No. "a was one hour and
ten minutes late. The order which
Conductor Lawrence of the freight
train showed after the accident dis
einctly states that No. 80, instead OF
No. a., was an hour and ten minutes
late.
Conductor Lawrence, believing that
he had sufficient time in the hour and
ten minutes to reach the sidetrack at
West Canaan, four miles beyond, be-
fore No. 80 reached it, ordered his
train ahead.
Superintendent Ray, after an inves-
Hgation of the cause Of the disaster,
gave out the following statement:
1.-THE accident was due to a misun-
derstanding between ]. A. Crowley,
the night dispatcher at Concord, who
has been in the service seven years,
and John Greeley, the night operator
at Canaan, who has seen twenty-three
years service in transmitting train
orders. One of these two men made
the fatal error Of taking a cipher for
a four"