Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1909-01-19
Is DIE IN A WRECK
Fifty Injured in Crash at
Dotsero, Col.
DISASTER AT DESERTED SPOT
Catastrophe at Isolated Spot Prevents
Rescuers from Reaching Scene at
Early Hour-Fast Train Crashes
Into Freight.

Into Freight.
Denver, COL Jan. 18.-Seventy-five
dead, SO injured, at least 80 of whom
will probably die.
That is the record of the wreck of
the Denver & Rio Grande passenger
train No. S, near Dotsero. 20 miles
from Glenwood Springs, according to
a long distance telephone message
from Glenwood Springs Saturday night.
To add to the horror of the wreck,
the second relief train on it's way to
Glenwood loaded with injured has been
tied up by the derailment of some of
the freight cars. The first relief train
bearing a number of the more slightly
injured, reached Glenwood, bringing
reports of the wreck
Worst Disaster in Road History.
1t appears to have been one of the
worst in the history of railroading.
Most of the slaughter was done in the
chair car. OF 50 passengers in that
coach, IS are said to have been
killed The only human being to es-
cape was a siX-year-old girl. who was
found under the dead body of her
mother, and who is too near dead even
to remember her name, farther than
fications of the dead have been made,
according to reports reaching Glen
wood. The dead are in many instances
so horribly mutilated that Identified
ton will be very difficult.
The known dead thus far identified
are:
John c. Davis, Denver.
- Mahon, Princeton, Ind, hus-
band of Mrs. Linda Mahon.
Mrs. Margaret Francesca Ezell.
Wollaston. N. D.
Edward Gooding, Omaha. Neb.
Arthur Williams, Des Moines, Ia.
A partial list of the injured follows:
John Ross, laborer, Cleveland, o.:
Thomas Elliott, Pendleton, Ia; W.
Adair, Ravenna, o.; T. B. Miller, Den
yer; Mrs. G. Blanke, Wapolin, Mo-;
Charles p Nance. Mrs. Charles p
Nance; w. M. Barber, Anthony, Kan. ;
B. H. Hayden and child, Buffalo, Okla ;
Fred Jensen, Iowa Falls, Ia; Mrs. Mel
lie j. Morton, Standish, CAL; Mrs. A
w. McCauley and child; w. c. Moxey
Los Angeles; j. B. Thompson
Bookens. S. D.; F. Chandler Denver;
Clyde E. McGown, Pullman conductor;
Clarence Nassau, Middleburg. VT.
carelessness May Be Cause.
According to information received
here the wreck was caused by the fail
ure of Engineer Gus. Olson of the pas
senger train to correctly read the tim'
indicated by his watch. When nearing
Dotsero, Olson looked at his watch an,
real the time to be 9:45. 1t was thel
$50. Thinking he had plenty of tim
to make the next siding below Dotser
he pulled the throttle of his engin
wide open and was making As miles a
hour on downgrade when he CO
lided with the freight, which was IL
boriously climbing up the hill, unde
a full head of steam of two big el
gines.
When the passenger did not sto
at Dotsero, Conductor Edward No
Curdy jumped to the bell cord an
signaled to the engineer to stop tn
train, but it was then too late to avoi
the disaster and the two trains crashe
rible impact
Three Big Engines Telescope.
The three big engines telescopet
and when they came to standstill n
sembled one huge piece of twiste
steel and iron rods and mechanism.
The combination baggage and e!
press car. the smoker and the da
coach. which followed the engine, tel
scoped, while the three heavy Pull
man sleepers and diner crushed thel
into a mass against the engine. TT
day coaches were smashed. Ever
person except one in the chair car VIZ
killed. Eight of the passengers wei
decapitated as though by a guillotin
their heads rolling from their bodie
The bodies of the dead, most of the1
are mutilated so badly that identitic
!. ton may take many hours. The only pc
: son to escape in the chair car w;
Alice Williams, four years old, fro
: pOiAt III lO"d. oiS was loui
/. under her dead mother slight
bruised, and covered from head to TO
3 with blood The child was taken
: Glenwood Springs on the second I
. lief train.
Brothers Weld Throttles.
The only member of the train crey
injured was John Anderson, who,
jumping, sprained his ankle Engine
: Gus. Olson of the passenger is a brot
= err of Sig. Olson who was in charge
= the head engine on the freight train.
. Harry Jeffries was the engineer
!. the second engine. Both Sig. OILS
and Jeffries live at Glenwood Spring
= The wreckage caught fire immediate
u after the collision and a holocaust W
averted by those passengers who we
not killed or seriously injured. and t
members of the train crews, who
Il cured shovels and boards and put c
the blaze with snow, which is piled
c huge banks alongside the tracks.
e 1t was at first supposed that
It two mail clerks, Hammond a
J. Frazee, on No. s. were killed, but
u later developed that it is the cust'
% to cut the mail car at Pueblo a
> send it on by No. /, an hour and
). half later so as not to delay
it through train by stopping to load
l. heavy mail that they generally p
s uD at Pueblo.
Arrested for $25, 1000 Theft.
Cincinnati, o., Jan. 9.-Freder
a Corby Pole, "a years old. wanted
~ Montreal on charge of grand larce