Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1893 — TEN MEN WERE KILLED [ARTICLE]

TEN MEN WERE KILLED

DISASTROUS WRECK ON THE BIG FOUR RAILROAD. fast Passenger Train Leaves the Track and Crashes Into the Depot—All the Trftlnnaen Met Death at Once—Others Killed on the Platform. Brakes Wouldn't Work. Ten men were killed and six wero seriously injured by a disastrous wreck on the Big Four Bailroad at Lafayette, 'lnd., at 1:30 o’clock Monday morning* The dead are: E. D. Meyers, a mall clerk of Cincinnati. A. R. Chadwick, mail cleik, Cincinnati. Jesse H. Long, mall clerk, Lebanon, Ind. Express Messenger McMahan, of Cincinnati. C. 8. Cahill traveler, Indiana. Otto Jesselson, Alhambra Hotel, Chicago, passenger going to train. Mike Welsh, engineer. Indianapolis, a Mclnnis, fireman, Urbana, Ohio. Charles Myers, bus driver, Lafayette. John Lennon, driver mail wagon, Lafayette. The injured are: Lottas Burganhole, Milwankee, Wls. William Place, Frankfort, Ind. Jeff Reese, Kempton, Ind. Richard Jone 9, Pontiac. 11L Lewis Leffler, Fowler, Ind. Richard Jones, Logansport, Ind. The accident occurred at the depot on a sharp curve and was caused, It is thought, by the failure of the air brakes to work while the train was entering the city on a sharp downgrade. The engine and three cars, including two mail coaches, one express car, and a combination smoker and baggage car, loft the track while running at a terrific rate. The ladies’ coach and three through sleepers did not leave the track. All the trainmen were killed.- None of the passengers was injured. As the engine left the track it struck and instantly killed three men standing on the platform. They were Otto Jesselson, who had purchased a ticket and was waiting to board the train; Charles Myers, a bus driver; and John Lennon, who was in charge of the United States mail wagon at the depot. The dead that lay under the immense pile of wreckage were not removed for three hours after the accident, a wrecking train being necessary to do the work. High bluffs rise on the west bank of the Wabash just opposite the city, and there is a long and steep grade at that point. The ill-fated train must have been a mile up the grade from the river when the engineer discovered that there was something wrong with the air, for the vigorous whistling of the engine for brakes could be heard when the train was still a mile west of the city. The engineer’s desperate efforts to stop the train was shown by the large amount of sand Jhrown by him on the bridge thiough which the train came just before the fatal crash. The speed by that time had increased so terrincally, however, that its control was beyond human agency. With almost light-ning-like speed the monster engine dnshed around the turves and across the long : bridge, although the man at the throttle had reversed the machinery, and immense streams of fire were being dashed from the driving wheels running in opposite direction to that of the swiftly flying cars that followed. Just after leaving the east end of the long bridge over the Wabash the tracks describe a semicircle, at the midway point of which she Union station is located. When the engine struck that sharp curve it lelt the track, followed by the cars in an awful swirl, and they piled upon each other 101 feet away, after crashing through train sheds and bringing down tons of ■ structural iron to add to the teirors of the Bituat|on.