The Montana plaindealer. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1906-1911, 1907-07-26

S1NNNr @AA~Ag eA1 wv
pie are dead and more than 70 injured,
many Of them seriously, as the result
of a headon collision Saturday be-
tween this village aud Plymouth,
when a Pere Marquette excursion
train bound from Ionia to Detroit
crashed into a w%estbound 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, ST.,
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, Is, Ionia; Benjamin Darling,
as Ionia; Charles FertOn, fireman of
the freight engine; Harry Williams,
II, Ionia, and E. ]. Pixley, conductor
passenger train, body ground to pieces
and scarcely enough found 10 identify.
Tho nogenn0Or froGr nP ooro oo--
rying the Pere Marquette shop en-
ployes 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 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 a few of
the freight trains cars were smashed,
and 1t took only a few hours work
to remove all traces of them from the
scene. But behind the two wrecked
locomotives six ears 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
jured 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
icials 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 1t
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 lear the windows
in the rear end of the unchanged
coaches were thrown through the
windows to the ground. There was a
panic among the u%ninJured coaches
for a few moments. Then, as the I'M
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 frenzied
searches for missing relatives. Moth
ers ran screaming up and down
searching for their children, while
many of the young people were as
frantically calling for their parents.
John Eddy, a ~2O-year-old young man
from Ionia, had a horrofying expert
ence. He was sitting in a seat with
his mother, and when he regained his
senses after the crash she lay dead
beside him, They were in the first
car.