The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-07-20
800 IN WRECK
Excursion Train og IL Coaches
on Pere Marquette
COllides With a Freight on a
Straight Track.
THIRTY TO 40 KILLED
Number of Injured is Estimated
at 100.
We're Employees of the Road on
a Holiday.
SIX CARS WENT OFF
Farmers Heard the Crash and
Rushed to Rescue.
Officials SaySOme One of Their
Men Blundered.
Number of Injured is Estimated
at loo.
Were Employees of the Road on
a Holiday.
SIX CARS WENT OFF
Farmers Heard the Crash and
Rushed to Rescue.
Officials SaySOme One of Their
Men Blundered.

/ Salem, Mich. July 20.-From 80 to 20
persons were killed and about 100 in
Jured this morning when a Pere Mar
quette excursion train of IL coaches
from Iona. carrying the employees OF
the company's shops there on their
annual excursion to Detroit, collided
with a westbound freight train two
miles east of this village at washburn
crossing. At noon % bodies had been
taken from the wreck and many more
were known to be still in the ruins.
Orders have sent to Plymouth, four
miles away which is a division point
of the railway, to make arrangements
to care for 80 injured.
General superintendent Trump or
the Pere Marquette railway said that
the responsibility for the wreck rests
with some employe who failed to obey
orders. There were 500 people crowd
ed into the II coaches of the train.
many of them women and children.
all bound for a holiday in Detroit.
They left their homes in Iona at
O'Clock this morning. The wreck oc-
CURED on a perfectly straight, level
piece of track. The heavy freight and
passenger trains came together with
enormous force and six of the II
passenger cars were entirely wrecked.
When the uninjured persons recov-
cred from the shock and crawrled
from the wreckage they at once be-
gan extricating the. dead and injured
Messengers were rushed to this VIII
lage and to Plymouth and all the doc
tors from this place and neighboring
villages We're hurried to the scene.
Farmers who heard the crash came
to the rescue also. A special train
was made up in the yards at Detroit
and sent to the wreck, a distance of
forty miles, with doctors. nurses. sur
g1cal instruments and cots. BY the
time this train arrived there were
several scores of people waiting to re-
ceive medical attention and over a
score of bodies had been extricated
and were lying on the grass beside
the tracks. Mrs. Minnie Densmore,
of Iona. passenger on the wrecked
train, describing the horror said:
Story of Passenger.
my husband and myself were in
the sixth, coach, right behind the first
five in which the greatest loss of life
occurred. There was a terrible crash
throwing US out of our seats. Instant
ly our car was filled with terror
stricken people trying to fight their
way out. No one knew just what had
car seemed to feel instinctively that
there had been a tragedy and seemed
to be filled with fear. Their clothes
were torn and they inflicted severe
bruises on one another in their mad
efforts to get to the ground. That was
before they realized that our car was
not damaged and that they were not in
danger themselves. When we got out
of the coach we found the engine and
the first five cars piled up beside the
track while shrieks of pain and cries
for mercy filed the air. The first five
cars were well filled with people and in
these most of the bodies were found.
1.-The engineer of the train from
Iona was L. B. Alvord. He and his
fireman jumped and it is presumed by
the passengers that they escaped with
minor injuries.
Conductor Among Missing.
Conductor Bixley, of Iona, is among
the missing. Nineteen bodies taken
from the wreckage before the relief
train came in from Detroit"
Many of the cars were piled up In
that it will take IL hours to clear the
track. It may be several hours before
1t is definitely known whether the 70
bodies now recovered comprise tne
scene gave attention to the injured who
were placed on special train and ia
ken to Detroit, where they were placed
in hospitals.
After arriving here with the wreck
ing train from Detroit and looking
over the situation General Superin-
tendent Trump says that the blame f09
the wreck rests with the crew of the
freight train, which was a westbound
local. They had orders, Mr.. Trump
said. to wait at Plymouth for the ex-
cursion train; which had the right OF
way. Instead they proceeded towards
salem and the collision resulted.
30 Bodies Recovered.
At 1880 o'clock the twenty-ninth
BODY had been recovered and such
progress had been made by the wreck
ers that they said it was improbable
that any more bodies would be found.
Many of the injured. however, are in a
very critical condition and it is feared
that the death list will be between 35
and 40. The hospital train has start
ed for Detroit, where the injured will
be taken to hospitals.
Three Cars Telescope6.
Three of the coaches were tele-
scoped by the terrific impact OF the
heavy freight train and the fourth and
fifth coaches were smashed into
Although there were
probably $50 children among the ex-
cursionists it is strange fact that few
of them were severely hurt. Nearly