Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1907-07-27
WRECK KILLS THIRTY
TRAINS COLLIDE NEAR SALEM
MICHIGAN.
More Than 20 Are njured-Excursion
Train Smashed into Freight Train
Crew on Latter Train to Blame
DeplorabIe Scenes Follow the Disas-
ter-Farmers Came to Rescue. o.

Salem, Mich, July 21.-Thirty peo-
pie are dead and more than 20 injured
many of them seriously, as the result
of a headon collision Saturday be-
tween this village and Plymouth,
when a Pere Marquette excursion
train bound from Ionia to Detroit
crashed into a westbound freight
train in a cut located a mile east of
Salem. Following is the list of dead :
Homer Smith Ionia, a 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, Ionia; 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, Sr.,
Ionia; A. F. Herbert, Ionia; Edward
Durling Ionia Charles Broad, aged
IS, IOnia; James Vissard, Ionia; Will
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
Latham, 49, Ionia; Benjamin Darling,
As IOnia; Charles Fenton, fireman of
the freight engine; Harry Williams,
II, Ionia, and e. ]. 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-
ployes of Ionia and their families to
the Michigan metropolis for their an
nGal excursion, was running at high
speed, probably so miles an hour,
down a 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 a hopeless wreck
Four of the passenger coaches re-
manned on the track, unchanged, and
were used to convey the dead and in
iured to Ionia. One coach was entire
vi unchanged, with only it's forward
trucks off the rails. These were the
rear five cars. The two coaches next
ahead of these were telescoped. The
next car forward stood almost on end
after the wreck, its 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 OF
the freight the orders under which it
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.
Every family had its lunch basket
and many of them were eating when
the two trains crashed together. The
impact was terrific and a number OF
passengers sitting near the windows
in the rear end of the unchanged
coaches were thrown through the
windows to the ground. There was a
panic among the uninjured coaches
for a few moments. Then, as the un
injured people realized that they had
not been hurt, they rushed from the
cars to the rescue of their friends and
relations who were pinioned among
the wreckage ahead of them. Fami
lies were scattered among the differ
ent cars and there were frenzieC
searches for missing relatives. Moth
ers ran screaming up and dowr
| searching for their children, Will,
many Of the young people were a!
frantically calling for their parents
John Eddy. a 20-year-old young mar
from Ionia, had a horrofying expert
ence. He was sitting in a seat will
his mother and when he regained hi
senses after the crash she lay deaC
beside him. They were in the frs
car.
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