Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-09-15
FEAR KILLED
AS;iT'i1fiiA|N T1iiA FALLS
THROUGH BRIDGE
Two Cars of Texas Limited
Filled With Passengers Drop
Into Missouri Gully.
BODIES OF DROWNED
VICTIMS TAKEN OUT
Tracks Washed by Floods Give
Way--Nurse Saves Five
Passengers.
BY the Associated Press.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo-, Sept. 15.--Bez
tween thirty-five and forty-five per-
sons were killed or drowned and a
score of others injured early today
when the locomotive, baggage ear
and forward chair car of the St.
Louis and San Francisco train No 5
plunged through a trestle over Brush
creek, near Lebanon, Mo, and were
submerged by the swollen stream.
Most OF the, dead were drowned in
the chair car. and great proportion
of these were women and children.
Those who were able to escape
from their watery prison fought their
way out by breaking windows and
swimming 10 shore. 1t is estimated
there were sixty-five passengers in
the chair car.
Owing to poor communication with
the place of the wreck, it Is impos-
sible TO give a definite estimate of
how many escaped None of the
sleeping cars left the track, and the
passengers in them quickly formed
rescue parties.
One man in the chair car lost his
wife and five children.
When the accident occurred he was
thrown clear of the car, and swan to
shore. His wife and children died
while he stood helplessly near by.
Rains last week caused all small
streams in the vicinity to rise, and
the train was late because of the
floods. AS it passed Lebanon, ac-
cording to reports reaching here, its
speed was increased.
Railroad officials announced that
the injured would be brought to
oil aff Thn
weer placed in morgues at Lebanon.
Communication between Springfield
and the wreck is practically cut off.
making it impossible to get an early
list of fatalities.
The train was running over a trestle
when it left the track The bridge
was intact, but few yards beyond
the bridge the track was washed
away by waters from the gully.
Four cars and the locomotive were
overturned into the gully, swollen to
q temporary lake, which runs beside
the track The chair car and the
smoker were submerged. At 9:30 this
morning seven bodies had been taken
from the chair car, but ii is thought
that every person in the two cars
was drowned. This estimate was
based on statements of trainmen as
to the number of passengers in the
two cars.
The names of the identified dead
were given out at F'riscos Office here
today as follows:
Henry Wagner. Harrison, Ark.
Mrs. Elizabeth Rosteter, Alliance, Ohio
w. II. Chiidress, Billings. Mo.
John Meyers, wife and daughter,
Thayer, Mo.
Nurse Saves Five Passengers.
One of the passengers in the sub
merged chair car was Miss Mona
Campbell, nurse, of st. Louis. She
broke window and climbed out to
the side of the car.
Standing in water she felt about in
the water until she touched the hands
OF drowning passengers. As she
grasped a hand she pulled with all
her strength In this way she res
cued five passengers.
AT the Frisco general offices this
noon 1t was said that the cause of
the wreck was not clear, but that
this would be determined as soon as
the waters now receding had gone
back far enough to permit an inyesti-
cation to be made Reports received
at Frisco headquarters, however,
indicate that the train did not go
through a trestle as newspaper re-
ports from Springfield indicated, but
that the track which had been
washed by the water gave way.
The report in the main harmonizes
with telephone messages from Beba-
non stating that the train crossed the
trestle safely and then left the track,
falling over into flooded gully.