The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-03-24
SCORES OF VICTIMS
Wreck of Rock Island Trains Causes
Death and Injury of Passengers.

More than two score persons were
killed and almost as many more were
injured to-day in tn wrecking at
Green Mountain of two Rock Island
trains running over the Chicago Great
Western cracks from Marshalltown to
Waterloo.
Several of the injured may die.
A little freight wreck on the Rock
Island last night at Shellsburg was
the indirect cause of the Green Noun
tain disaster. The Rock Island line
was blocked and it became necessary
to detour over the Great Western
tracks. Two trains sent from Cedar
RAPIDS to Marshalltown were coupled
together and the two locomotives
placed in front of them. Both loco
motives were running backwards.
The combined train consisted of
thirteen cars. A Pullman was next to
the locomotive. Then came a smoking
car and a day coach. In the latter
were many women and children.
The doubled train was going about
% miles an hour when it reached a
cut five miles from Green Mountain,
at the top of the hill. In this cut the
tender of the front locomotive jumped
the track This threw the head loco
motive into the sides of the narrow
cut.
The clay of the sides were soft and
the engine went into it and stopped
almost instantly.
The sudden stoppage ditched the
second locomotive and the momentum
of the heavy train crushed the day
coach and the smoking car against
the heavier Pullman. The smoking
car and the day coach were telescop-
ed and hardly an occupant of either
car escaped death or injury.
While the last ten cars remained
on the track the shock threw the pas
sengers from their seats.
Uninjured passengers began re-
moying the dead and injured. The
dead were taken to an adjoining pas
ture and laid on the grass. A relief
train from Marshalltown, carrying
surgeons and Coroner Jay arrived
two hours after the crash. BY that
time the victims were laid on The
grass In gruesome rows. The dead
were crushed and muilated in many
cases Leyond recognition. Several
bodies are SO mutilated that they may
npye~ be identified.
4 second rescue train relieved the
frs. which brought a load Of injured
to ATarshalltown
Coroner jay was shastenine in an
ambulance to the hospital when he
wa thrown to the Daycment as the
ambulance rounded corner and
rendered. unconscious. 1t is believed
tha7 his hack is broken and that he
cannot live.
Nearly all the dead were i the Gay
coach and the smoking car. 1t is be-
lieved that only two of the dead were
in the Pullman
James Mcnamara, assistant head
clerk of the Modern Woodmen of
America at Rock Island. was a pas
senger. in the smoking car. He escap-
ed without injury
c. WMoier. of Walla Walla, Wash.
was in a lower berth in one of the
Pullman coaches nearest ehe rear of
the Train. 81 did not realize It. was q
wreck" said he. ct sounded as
though a man had thrown a brick on
the floor.
81 SAW some terrible things. One
man :, sllull was cut off abaye the
ewes. Another man had been driven
head frs. into a window. The glass
WAS broken and was cutting hin
where his head rested on the sill and
under an awful weight above. H
scrA, med and cried for some one e
l,iM him, found = stick and broke
the e1a.s under his cheek where i
Law on the sill and the mans lowel
law with the hone and five or 81,
Aeetb dn il fell on the ground at m,
foot