Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1891 — ANOTHER FATAL WRECK [ARTICLE]

ANOTHER FATAL WRECK

OMAHA AND DENVER EXPRESS IN THE DITCH. Running at tbe Kate of Fifty Mile. Pei Hour, the Wonder Is that More Were Not Killed—List of the Victims. Crashed Into a Siding. A frightful accident occurred on. the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy main line two miles from Monm m.h, 111., when the Omaha and Denver fast express crashed into an open switch, instantly killing four persons and seriously injuring a score or more of others. The fedlowing are the killed: George Courtney, foreman of engineers A. A. Emery, engineer. Mrs. George Alien, of Lanioui. lowa, T. A. Johnson, of Avon. 111. The following persons wore seriouslj injured: W. P. Anderson, engine fireman, of Galesburg. III.; scalded and bruised. John Burner, aged 40, Foireston, 111., married: lost left arm. ■ ~ T. J. Kirby, 34 years of age. unmarried, stock dealer, of Lenox. Iowa; left arm off. 8. W. Cooper, aged 36, Corning, Iowa; scalp wound and haud Injured. Louis \V Igors, of Oakland, Neb., aged 57; bruised on left side. Agnes Sillier, aged 20, Brookfield, Ohio; cut, over left eve. The fol’owing persons were slight y injur, d: Jumas Miller. Brookfiol 1, Ohio, aged 47; rlgh! arm slightly bruised. Oather'ne Miller. Brook field; arm bruised. Mrs. Catherine Corns, aged 00. Murray, Iowa: left eye and face sightly braised, E. S. McDonald, aged 42, South Milford, Ind. : ciavide fractured. Elizabeth J. McDonald, his mother, aged 74: injury to left shoulder. E. Rowe, Shenandoah, lowa, aged 50; band cut and leg hurt Forest Rowe, his son, aged 19; head slightly hurt Jeremiah Canty, Glenlyon, Pa.; shoulder and head slightly cut Nate Peters. 1028 Heklin avenue, Chicago; shoulder slightly bruised. Oscar Zimmerman, aged 30, Monmouth, Ill.; band cut by glass. L. S. Brlcher, aged 25, High Creek. Iowa; scalp wound. Mrs. A. C. Swope, aged 44, Harrisburg, Pa.: slight leg bruise. A. C. Swope, aged 47, Harrisburg, Pa.; sightly bruised. George Allen, Lamoni, Iowa; slight bruise. E. D. Evans, Genesee, IVis.; right shoulder Injured. James Farrell, New Loudon, Iowa; slight cut In head. James Scarborough, aged 45, Monmouth; slight cut P. E. Nelson, Anacortes, Wash.; head badly cut The wonder is that a hundred lives were not lost, for the train of t“n cars was heavily loaded and tho destruction of the coaches, with the exception of two sleepers, is complete. No! 5, the ill-fated train, -was made up of two sleepers, three chair cars, one smoker, one baggage car, one express and two mail cars. Many of the passengers were Chicagoans, but, strange to say, not one seriously injured, is from tnat city. The train had been running at a high rate of spee 1 when, without a moment’s warning, it was hurled off the rails and into the empty freight cars standing on tho side track. All the cars except two sleeepers were overturned and completely ruined. Those passengers who were not injured were scared out of their senses. Women s roamed and fainted, and the cries from among tho debris were frightful. . Shortly after the accident Superintendent Wilson and Super.nlendent Rice With a force of assistants arrived and began caring for the hurt. All those who were able to be moved were taken by Mr. Wilson to Burlington, where he will have them cored for. The company states that the cause of the accident was the malicious d sp'acementof the switch leading to the pottery works. Certain it is the open switch caused the disaster. Nobody knows how it was opened. Super.ntendent Wilson says seven trains passed over tho line since the switch was used. Yet after the crash one of tho train officials ran to the switch and found it partly thrown, with the lock gone and the pin out Tho Superintendent says the switch could not have been partly turned and a train pass over it without being derailed. He declares that to be an impossibility.and states that the switch was turned between the time the seventh train passed the switch and the hour when the express was due. He believes that some malicious scoundrel purposely turned the switch. George Courtney, the traveling engineer. was on ; of the oldest employes of the road. He boarded the engine and took a seat by the engineer to sjr how th! locomotive, which was a brand-new one, was working. His first work for the road was done long before the war, and probably no man on the division was more popular among tho men or honor.d with more confidence by the company. There were some remarkable escapes. Oscar Zimmerman was pitched through the window of the smoking car a id was unhurt A terrible s eno and loss of life by tho prompt action of Baggageman John Dore, of Chicago who extinguished the flames that caught ip the car immediately after the crash. One of the saddest casualties occurred in the first chair car. George Allen, his w fe, and baby were sitting in the front of the car when the wr ck occurred. Mrs. Alien was thrown against tho window and killed. The child was hurl d across the car, bot escaped injury. Mr. Allen was a so unhurt, but heartbroken by the death of his wife. When the train left the main track and started on the siding Engineer Emery reverse 1 his engine and stuck to his post, but the engine left the track after running a few feet on the siding, and all of the seven cars, with the exception of the roar one, a Pullman steeper, went into the d tch. Engineer Erne -y, Travelog Engineer Courtney and Fireman Peter Anderson went down witjh the engine. The two engineers were killed instantly and t ic fireman is probably fatahy iujurod. Those Jn the smoking car escaped wiih their lives. Standing on the steps of the next car were two students of Hedding College, Frank L. Johnson, of Avon, and VV. R. Harding, of Abingdon. The/ jumped, and Johnson was killed by a blow ou the head from a flying timber. Few on tho train escaped without being cut by broken glass or badly bruised by being thrown against seats when the shock came. As the train was running behind time when it reached Galesburg, Conductor Hughes laughingly blamed the engineer. “All right; hold on to your hats this ti re.” replied Fmery, as he pulled the throttle and started on the ride to his death. At tho time the train ran onto the open switch it wai running at tne rate of fifty miles an hour. As far as the matter has thus far been investigated it looks as if the wrecking of the train was the res iltof a weii-laid plan. The target light had been extinguished, and everything tends to show that the wreck was prearranged, The road’s officials are looking for the person or persons who turned the switch.