Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1910-03-25
HUNDREDS OF RELATIVES AND
FRIENDS SEEK TO IDENTIFY
THE MANGLED CORPSES.
ENGINES BURIED IN CLAY BANK.
Wreckage Has Been Cleared Away and
Trains Are Running Over Tenn
porary Tracks
ENGINEER sUCCUMBs TO sCALDs.

-1UeDJiUCduOu Oh tue uSdu, care 1OI luS
injured and attempt to place the respon-
sibility for the disastrous wreck of the
Rock Island Twin City Express occu-
| pied officials of the road, the Iowa board
of railway commissioners and scores OF
| volunteer assistants here today. The list
| of the dead in the wreck has grown to
| fOrty-seven, several passengers having
| died as the result of injuries, while other
| deaths are expected hourly. Many of
| the injured have been taken to other
| cities, but the Marshalltown hospitals
are filled with wreck victims, while
others are being cared for in private resi-
! denceS.
AS rapidly as possible the identified
! dead are removed to the morgue and
! shipped to their former homes. -Four
women still are among the unidentified
| dead The wreck debris have not yet
been cleared away, and trains are being
routed on temporary tracks stretched
near the place where engines and cars
still are piled in confusion. 1t is de
| clared by officials that all bodies have
| been taken from the wreckage.
Identification of the dead has been
| made difficult by the crushed condition of
! many Of the cOrpSeS. Only by the cloth
ing or articles found upon the bodies
was recognition possible. Had fire been
! added to the wreck it is doubtful wheth-
| er q dozen victims would have been iden-
| titled.
Undertakers Kept Busy.
All during the night a dozen under
! takers. some of them from neghboring
| towns, worked preparing the bodies for
! burial and seeking information that
! would tend to identification. The condi-
! ton of the bodies made the task seem
| almost Impossible in some cases. The
| clothing had been torn from many, leav
ing almost no clue from that source
William Ward, a commercial traveller
| from West Branch. Ia. was one of the
| first identified last night. Relatives set
! tied by a fragment of a garment that
corpse was his Another of the dead
! who was identified was Lizzie Purvis
of Washington, Ia. A locket found OF
the body tailed with a description given
in a telegram from anxious relatives.
The other corpse identified was that of
Mrs +. D. Lyman of Cedar Rapids.
This Identification was also made by
pocket served to identify Louis +. Bic
buch of Muscatine.
Store Becomes Morgue.
The little embalming room at the back
of the undertaking rooms proved entirely
inadequate to demands. In consequence,
furniture was hurriedly removed from
q large store adjoining TO give sufficient
room for the dead. Five long rows OF
bodies extended from the rear to the
front leaving scarcely passage way be,
tween for the undertakerS preparing the
bodies for shipment.
Although debris from the wreck had
| been cleared away, trains this morning
were still running over temporary tracks.
The hulks of the two engines remained
alongside the rails, and almost entirely
| buried in a bank of clay.
II did not realize it was a wreck.
said he. lit sounded as if man had
thrown Il brick Oh the floor. The car
coll l,.. IL, ,,f
were the mail and baggage cars. Ahead
of these were one smoker and n Pull,
man | looked out and saw the engine
overturn before | realized it. 1t did not
feel like a wreck
Il saw some terrible things. One man
had his head completely cut off above
the eyes. Another man had been driven
head first into a window. The glass was
broken and was cutting him where his
head rested on the sill and under all
that awful weight above. He screamed
and cried for some one to kill him.
II found stick and broke the glass
under his cheek where it lay on the sill
and the mans lower jaw with the bone
and five or six teeth in it fell on the
ground at my feet.
There vas an old man running about
pleading for us to save his son. He
was badly hurt himself, but he pleaded
and wept for aid to bring his son out of
the debris. | saw the son later when
he was brought out. He was cut Ell
tirely III two. We had the mangled
body kept out of sight of the father
and let the old man believe his son was
still in the wreck.
Miss Mae Hoffman of Waterloo was
accounted the most beautiful woman in
Waterloo. She was one of a party of
three couples who were starting out on a
pleasure trip. She was horribly crushed
and mangled. Some months ago she took
third prize in a national beauty contest
conducted by the New York World, il
is said and recently won prize as q
stenographer in a Chicago competition.
George W. Downing of Ninton was in
the smoker, the second car from the To- !
connective. He was pinned down under
q seat
The first / knew" he said. 1.-The cal
Just 'squashed' The other car came
right back through into us. Two men
sitting in front of us were crushed to
death. and we were down on the bottoms
with what seemed the world piled on top
of u.s."
On the seat with Mr.. Downey sat +. |
G.. Fulmer of Vinton, who was not in.
jured. The first thing he realized the
men in front of him were crushed back |
against them.
We were sitting in a double seat.
said he "A man sat facing u.s. He and
the seat came crashing back on us and
fiattened us to the floor. There we lay
under living man and two dead men
who were literally smashed and whose |
blood ran down on us through the |
uracEaUp -