The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1907-07-26
THIRTY
KILLED
MOST HORRIBLE WRECK
IN MICHIGAN.
PASSENGER TRAIN CRASHED
INTO A FREIGHT TRAIN WHILE
GOING At HIGH SPEED.

INTO A FREIGHT TRAIN WHILE
GOING At HIGH SPEED.
Salem, Mich, July 21.-Thirty peo-
pie are dead and more than 70 injured,
many of them seriously, as the result
Of headon collision Saturday be-
tween this village and Plymouth,
when a Pere Marquette excursion
train bound from Ionia to Detroit
crashed into westbound freight
train in cut located a mile east Of
Salem. Following is the list of dead:
Homer Smith Ionia. boy; Albert
Trautwine, Ionia, whose body was cut
in two; John Tofel, Ionia; Charles
Hess, lonia; Herman Hess, Ionia;
Daniel Hess, Ionia; William Cornell,
Ionia; Don Rogers, Lowell, Mich;
Dick Jones, Jonia; Mrs. Abraham
Eddy, Ionia; Edward Gallagher, aged
is years, Ionia; Frank Douse, Ionia;
L. X. Merrell, aged SO years, Ionia /;
Henry Reynolds, Pere Marquette en-
gineer, Ionia; Charles McCauley, ST.,
Ionia; A. F. Herbert, Ionia; Edward
Durling, Ionia; Charles Broad, aged
IS, Ionia; James Vissard, Ionia; VIII.
lard Stager, Ionia; William Grams, a
young schoolboy, Ionia; William Colt,
Ionia; Mrs. August Richter, Ionia {;
Fred Fitzgerald, Ionia; Brakeman Ed
Corwan, Fireman Knowles, William
Evans, 20 years old, Ionia; Frank
| T o%b In oyp1iv NO
As Ionia; Charles Fenton, fireman of
the freight engine; Harry Williams,
II, Ionia, and E. J. Pixley, conductor
passenger train, body ground to pieces
and scarcely enough found to identify
The passenger train Of IL cars, car.
rying the Pere Marquette shop EN-.
iployes of Ionia and their families to
the Michigan metropolis for their an
nual excursion, was running at high
speed, probably SO miles an hour
down steep grade. 1t struck the
lighter locomotive Of the freight train
with such terrible force as to turn the
freight engine completely around. The
wrecked locomotives lay side by side
both headed eastward. Only few OF
the freight trains cars were smashed
and it took only a few hours work
to remove all traces Of them from the
scene. But behind the two wrecked
locomotives six cars of the passenger
train lay piled in hopeless wreck
Four of the passenger coaches re
NAMED on the track, undamaged, and
we're used to convey the dead and in
jured to Ionia. One coach was entire
Iyl unchanged, with only it's forward
trucks off the rails These were the
rear five cars. The two coaches next
ahead of these we're telescoped. The
next car forward stood almost on, end
after the wreck, it's forward end rest
ing on the roadbed.
Responsibility is put squarly upon
the crew of the freight train by Of
ficials of the road. Those who arrived
at the scene of the wreck soon after
the accident secured from the crew oil
the freight the orders under which il
was running and which clearly
showed the position of the passenger
excursion train and that the freight
had encroached upon the other trains
running time.
u Every family had its lunch basket
and many of them were eating wher
the two trains crashed together. The
impact was terrific and a number O.
passengers sitting near the windows
in the rear end of the andamaget
windows to the ground. There was {
panic among the uninjured. coaches
for few moments Then, as the un
injured people realized that they hat
not been hurt, they rushed from thu
cars to the rescue of their friends ant
relations who were pinioned amonl
. the wreckage ahead of them. Faml
, lies were scattered among the differ
ent cars and there were frenzie,
searches for missing relatives. Moth
ers ran screaming up and dow
searching for their children, Will
! many of the young people were a
frantically calling for their parents
John Eddy, a 20-year-old young ma
: from Ionia, had a horrofyfng exper
. ence. He was sitting in a seat wit
= his mother, and when he regained hi
senses after the crash she lay dea
9 beside him. They were in the frs
. car.
Engineer Looked at Watch.
One of the passengers who jumpe
n from a window of the rear coach afte
o. the collision alighted on Engineer A
n word of the passenger train, VIII
leaped from his engine and sat dow
IT on the bank, watch in hand, trying
' learn from it whether any blame fl
IS the mistake which had cost so heavil
# rested with him.
The crash of the colliding trair
ls was heard for a great distance up an
r. down the tracks and many farmer
" working nearby, realizing that ira
,s edy had occurred, hurried from the
y. homes with bedding, cloth for ban
ages and stimulants. They joined
% the rescue work, while physicians hu
~ ried to the scene from all the neig
M boring towns. Numbers of the uni
20 jured women passengers tore stril
from their c1othipo m holm hopdo &