Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1911-09-28
Is KILLED, 9 INJURED
AT NEENAH CROSSING
Northwestern Passenger Train Crashes Into a
Hayrack Loaded With Merrymakers Re-
turning from Dance in the Country.
FOUR OF THE INJURED WILL DIE
Most of Victims Were Employees of Menasha Paper Mills
Bodies of Dead Horribly Manged and Scattered Along
Track for 200 Feet---Train Crew Not Blamed

Neenah.-Thirteen persons were
killed, ten instantly, and ten others
seriously injured when a Northwest
ern train, northbound, struck
hayrack filled with Menasha merry
makers at grade crossing on the
southern outskirts of this city. Four
of the injured are so seriously hurt
that they can not live.
Thirty young people, who were re-
turning from a Saturday night
dance at the home of Peter Han
son, who lives on the road to Osh-
kosh, were singing as the big hay
rack was pulled up the slight in
cline to the Northwestern crossing,
a mile south Of the station in this
city. The next instant the speeding
Northwestern passenger train, bound
for the north, had ploughed through
the rear end of the big farm wagon,
and twenty-three of the thirty oc-
cupants Of the wagon were scattered
200 feet along the railroad right of
way, dead, dying, or dangerously
hurt. Those who were seated in the
front of the wagon escaped almost
without bruises.
The Dead.
James Drill, Chicago, aged "a.
Gustave Finn, Oshkosh, aged %.
Mrs. Gustave Finn, Oshkosh, aged
10
Frank Siegert, Menasha, aged 20.
John Hardt, Menasha, aged %;
died on way to hospital.
Agnes Zapatchsky, Menasha, aged
49,
Joseph shedgick, Menasha, aged
%.
Amanda Syring, Menasha, aged Fl.
Stephen Fox, Menasha, aged %.
Celia Rentz, Menasha, aged 20.
John Domnickomnachins Me-
hasha, aged %; died shortly after
reaching hospital
Joseph Sodolsky, Menasha, aged
FL
Anna Sodolsky, Menasha, aged 10.
The Injured.
Lei ulctd bOJ III N1C1Co11GlS cASOO = VI
Edward Goronski, Menasha, aged
%.
Felix Meix, Menasha, aged "a.
Joseph Grymiel, Menasha, aged 26.
Benjamin Dombrowski, Menasha,
aged %.
Benjamin Ramnck, Menasha, aged
81.
Anton Brezinski, Menasha, aged
26.
Mrs. Anton Brezinski, Menasha,
aged "a.
Only the driver, Peter Hanson,
who did not receive as much as a
scratch, was able to give coherent
account of the accident. He saw the
headlight of the northbound North
western train, underestimate the
distance, and, before he could urge
his overtaxed team across the tracks,
the monster locomotive had ground
through the vehicle with it's party of
| merrymakers.
Not one of the survivors, with the
exception of the driver, saw the train
or heard its approach; none realized
the danger until picked up. The
train had passed the scene fully 400
feet before it could be stopped.
Words fail to describe the scene
following the collision. Mangled
bodies were strewn along the tracks.
Six bodies were taken off the pilot
of the engine Dismembered parts
of many were left on the trail of
blood from the crossing to where
the train stopped. Three of the bod
les were so frightfully mangled that
Identification was made possible only
by the clothing they wore. One body
was shorn of head, arms and legs.
They were picked up half an hour
after the body had been taken to
the improvised morgue in the Me
nasha Furniture company building.
The driver and his horses escaped,
but the hayrack was smashed into
splinters. Pieces of wood were
ground into several of the dead.
Phillip Mott and Amanda Syring, in
iured, were thrown through the
foundation of the fagman's shanty
at one side of the track.
Two others of the persons killed
were hurled through a fagman's
shanty with such force as to over
turn the little structure. One OF
these was Mrs. Finn, who was pro-