The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1907-08-02
Same flZ ID STORY
THE FEARFUL WRECK

Was on Pieire Marquette Excursion
Train, Which Crashed Into i
Freight Ttain-at least Thirty
Are Known to be Dead, and Sow.
enty Others Are More or Less Ser.
iously Hurt.
Thirty people are dead and more
than 70 injured, many Of them SER
iously, as the result of a head-end
collision Saturday morning near Ply
mouth, Mich, whom a Pere Marquette
excursion train bound from Ionia to
Detroit crashed into a westbound
freight in a cut located at a sharp
curve about a mile east Of Salem.
The passenger train Of IL cars,
carrying the Pore Marquette shop
employees OF Ionia and their families
to the Michigan metropolis for their
annual excursion, was running at
nigh speed, probably SO miles an
hour, down a steep grade. 1t struck
re lighter locomotive OF tho freight
train with such terrific force as to
turn the freight engine completely
around.
The wrecked locomotives lay side
w oiue, potH Heaoeu eastward. only
u few of the freight cars were dam
aged and it was 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 hope
less wreck.
-Four OF the passenger coaches re-
manned on the track undamaged and
We're used to convey the dead and in
jured to Ionia; one coach was en-
tirely unchanged with only its for
ward trucks off the rails. These
were the rear five cars. The two
coaches next ahead Of those were tel
escoped. The next car forward stood
almost Oil cid after the wreck, It's
forward end resting on tho roadbed
and the rear end high in the air upon
the two tclescoped coaches that had
been following it.
, TIVE coaches were thrown erHss=
wise Of the track and lay suspended
from bank to bank of the cut five or
six feet above the railroad. or the
baggage coach nothing was left to
show where it had been tossed. Por-
lions of the baggage car and OF the
locomotive tender and freight cars
were piled in an understandable mass
of debris.
The rs dead bodies first t aiken
from the wreck were shipped to
Ionia, and the injured were placed on
two trains, n of which headed for
Detroit and the other for Ionia. There
were about 35 injured people on each
train.
Later IN the day the body of Ed
Corwan, the head brakeman OF the
passenger train, was taken out OF
the wreck.
Fireman Knowles died on the re-
lief train enroute to Detroit, bringing
the list of dead to 80, with a possi-
bility that more bodies might be
found in the wreckage and that sew
eral Of the injured may die.
Responsibility is placed s~quarely
up to the crew Of the freight train by
officers of the road. OnRcials who ar
rived at the scene Of the wreck soon
after the accident, secured from the
freight the orders under which it was
running and which clearly showed
the position of the passenger eXcur-
sion train, and that the freight had
e%ncroached upon the other trains
running time. The special train was
due at Salem at $40 a. M, and at
Plymouth at $3.50 a. M. 1t passed
Salem On time.
The time card Of the special was
Icie5l dplicu W lhe lleiShI Grow III lie
form Of a train order and this order
with the signatures Of the freight
train crew, attached, was recovered
by the officials OF the road. The
freight crew left the scene early, but
railroad officials said that they OK
planned simply that they had forgot
ten. The collision occurred at 9:13
o'clock and the freight train should
have reached salem at 9:1O to he
within their orders.