The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-02-20
Train BLOWN TO PIECES
. BY POWDER EXPLOSION
Score of Passengers Perish in
Railroad Horror at Sanford, III.
SHOCK FELT THIRTY MILES

Cars Hurled From Track-Many of
Injured Cremated as Coaches
Burn-Five Hundred Kegs Of
Powder in Freight.
Terre ,Haute, Ind. - Twenty-Five
charred and mutilated bodies were
taken from the smoldering ruins of
the accommodation passenger train
on the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago
and st. Louis, the "Big -Four" Rail-
road, following it's destruction by the
explosion of a carload Of powder as it
passed a freight train at Sanford,
Ind, five miles west of Terre Haute.
It is believed that the list of dead
will number at least a dozen more.
The number of injured will reach at
least thirty-fve. :
The cause Of the disaster has not
been fully explained, but several the
cries are advanced. The result was
terrible. The shock was felt for thir-
ty miles. many believing it to be an
earthquake.
The entire train, including the To-
connective, was blown from the track,
the coaches were demolished, the en-
CINE was hurled fifty feet and the
passengers were either blown to
pieces, consumed by fire Or terribly.
hurt.
According to trainmen ON the
freight the explosion Of the powder
was caused by the ,concussion of the
passenger train, which was slowing
down for SANFORD. ~
Besides the passenger train eight
freight cars were blown to pieces by
the explosion. Huge masses of iron
were thrown hundreds of feet from
the track The tank of the passenger
locomotive was hurled 100 feet, land
ing in a gravel pit.
Not a building in Sanford escaped
damage. Windows were shattered.
dishes and furniture broken and
doors torn from hinges.
The accommodation passenger train
was running from Indianapolis to
Nation, III. It was inky dark when
the freight train drew in on a side
track to let the passenger: go by.
Shortly afterward the passenger train
approached the station, setting brakes
as it passed the freight train. AS the
coaches were just abreast Of the pow
der car the contents Of the latter eX-
ploded. ; T.:
The entire passenger train was
blown from the tracks into the air
and crashed to the earth a tangled
mass of wood and steel beneath which
lay forty human beings. Fire broke
out in the wreckage. and before the
eyes of citizens: and rescuers, who
rushed from their homes, many
burned to death.
By the glazing light Of the burning
coaches the people Of Sanford did
their best for the wounded. The resi-
dents of the village threw open their
homes to the injured and worked
amid the debris h%eroically, but. were
soon forced back by the terrible heat.
After the fire drove the rescuers
away from the immediate scene of
the wreck they searched for scattered
persons until the heat died down and
then began dragging charred bodies.
AS the fire burned down to a smolder-
ing pile lanterns were brought. Four
mutilated bodies were found in a
woods several hundred feet from the
tracks.
A thousand feet of track was torn
up and a great hole shows where the
powder car stood. This car was
bound from Concord Junction, Mass,
to East Alton, ILL.,, and contained 500
kegs of powder.
The dead are: William Thompson,
Sanford, Ind; William Davis, Ver-
million, ILL.,; J. w. Sutherland, Paris,
ILL.,; John Franklin, Ashmore, ILL.,;
A. D. Hector, Elbridge, ILL.,; Charles
Gosnell, Paris, ILL.,; Claude Steele,
Sanford, Ind; A. A. Hicks, Sand
ford, Ind; DR.. Haslett, Grand View,
ILL.,; Frank Fielder, Findlay, Ohio;
Mary Earhart, Terre Haute, Ind; H.
Blakeley, Findlay, Ohio; John A.
Bowen, Nation, ILL.,; five u%nidenti-
fed bodies, one a woman. These are
missing and believed to be dead: Mrs.
Bud Wolfe, Sanford, Ind; two young
daughters OF, Mrs. Wolfe; A. Kuy-
-.-I&11 - R-Nr1nr