Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1907-01-25
TWENTY DIE IN WRECK
FOG HIDES BLOCK, DISPATCHES
SIGNALS YIN, AND DISASTER
RESULTS AT FOWLER, IND.
FIRE WORSE THAN COLLISION.
Dead and Injured Even Menaced by
Flames After Removal from Passen-
ger and Freight Trains Debris.
DAYS Awful Rail Record.

Twenty killed on Big -Four, Fowler, Ind.
Winnepcg Flyer wrecked, Minneapolis.
Engineer fears wreck; leaps; browns.
Western railways tied up; landslides and
coal famine.
Santa Fe locomotive burst; Grain in river;
three dead.
Eleven injured, Lake Shore wreck Ham
mond, Ind; two fatally Indiana Harbor.
Three dead and three fatally injured by
explosion, Grand Trunk Pacific construc-
ton. Kenora, Ont.
Floods in Ohio valley stop scores of
trains.
Atlantic coast line passenger and freight
collide; one will die; ears in spIinters; Den.
f mark, 5. &.
FOWLER Ind, Jan. 19.-Passenger
/ train No. So east-bound on the Big -Four
railroad, collided head-on with west
j bound freight train No. %, here at 2:30
! this morning. Fog hid the block signal
set out fer the train
/ Fire broke out in the wreckage and
twenty people were killed. Many of the
/ coaches, excluding the private car of
! Vice President G. K. Schaff, were de-
/ stroyed
The passenger train which left Chi
! cago at 11:3O o'clock last night was
] known as the Queen City Special" and
/ consisted Of Il combination baggage and
day coach, three sleeping cars and the
/ private car of Mr.. Schatf. He was not
( on board. and his wife escaped injury
! i'll til" coach.
Speeding Fifty Miles an Hour.
The train was running at the rate of
/ fifty miles an hour when the accident
occurred, and the force of the collision
was so great that the tender of the
! passenger engine was driven the en-
| tire length Of the combination car, in
which were a number of passengers, es-
timated at twenty-five. Only five escaped.
All the dead and injured were taken
! from the wrcckage of this car, none of
| the passengers i'll the sleepers having
/ been hurt.
Paul a. Harris, an attorney of Chi
/ Cago, who was en- route to Florida was,
so far as known, the only person to es-
cape from the combination car.
He reached Lafayette on another train
and reported that the dead and injured,
! as fast as they were drawn from the
! wreckage, were placed in the first sleep
er-the Cincinnati sleeper. This car
caught fire, and the victims were hastily
| removed to the next car-the Indian
apolis sleeper. The fire also spread to
this car and it became necessary to
again transfer the dead and injured,
this time TO Vice President Schaff's pri~
waite car. III which they were taken to
division headquarters at Kankakee, Ill.
I One passenger was pinned under some of
J the wreckage and burned to death.
The engineer of the passenger train
was seriously injured, but will survive.
The fremen of both trains were
| crushed to death.
According to Mr. Harris, both trains
had orders to stop at Fowler, but the
/ passenger train ran by the block signal,
which the engineer failed to see on ac-
count of fog.
The train dispatcher, knowing that the
dense fog would prevent the trainmen
from seeing the block signal, went out
side and waved his lantern frantically
from his revolver, but the trainmen
went crashing by with their train, and
moment later the wreck came.
Firebells Call Out Rescuers.
The report of the collision was heard
all over town Fire bells and whistles
! called the people to the aid of the in
jured The heat OF the burning cars was
50 intense that the would be rescuers
could not get near enough to help. The
injured and some of the dead were taken
to Kankakee, Ill.
One man who was pleading for aid.
| WAS pinned under Il car seat. He was
| rescued when the flames were within
six feet of him. Another man was
i thrown out OF the window of the smoker
| into ditch. These were the only two
! passengers rescued from the smoker.
The killed included men. women, and
children. and all that could be seen ut
daybreak this morning was the shoulder
ing skeletons of human bodies and the
! wreckage of the smoker and the baggage
cars.
Coroner ComIey has taken charge and
| Prosecuting Attorney Hall will assist the
! coroner i'll making an investigation of
the wreck.
Can't Identify Dead Yet.
CINCINNATI, O., Jan. 19.-At the
Big Four headquarte, in this city this
morning it was stated that the names of
| the unfOrutnateS who were roasted alive
in the wreck at Fowler. Ind, will not be
known until later in the day.
The bodies of ten people We're con-
| Sumed with the timbers of the Inflated
ears. The conductor and bagga gemaster
of the passenger train are missing, and
! the fireman was killed.
| The known dead:
SHANNON. JOHN. Williamsport, Ind.
GRIFFITH, MINOR, Shelbyvillc, Ind,
HIGGINER. F. j., indianapolis, conductor
| on passenger.
oUrGALT, HENRY, Cincinnati, fireman
HARRIS. w B. Shiel apartments. Indi-
annapolis, Ind. both legs crushed and died
in emergency h9sPital at K L>ae, III.
Il.
to Lafayette. Body totally burned.
The injured:
John Robbie. indianapolis. slightly hurt
w. L. Hall, Memphis, Tenn, Slightly in
/ jured.
NJ A Creton, New York city. burns
Minor Griffin, Shalbyyille, Ind, severe
Waiter B. Harris, Indianapolis, both legs
/ crushed
/. F. Lang. Chicago, back hurt and leg
injured. not serious.
II. w Lynch. Chicago. leg broken. back
bruised, internal injuries. VIII probably
/ recover.
E. W. Trip, indianapolis engineer of
! passenger train. jumped and nearly drowned
in pool beside track, condition serious
+ y A Creton New York.
4 H W. Link. Hastings. Mich. COMPANY
asked to notify E. ,Parson. Il Reed Lake,
| graphic block signal. and the redlight was
| burning brightly. but the engineer failed to
! see it ard stop, probably on account Of the
/ very heavy fog.
The statement names four dead and
says eleven dead are unidentified.
NOTED BRITON is COMING.