Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 November 1903 — MANY STUDENTS DIE. [ARTICLE]

MANY STUDENTS DIE.

Fifteen Football Players and Friends Perish in Wreck. Fifty of 1,200 from Purdue University Are Badly Injured. Special Lafayette Train Strikes Coal Cars Entering Indianapolis. Coaches Holding College Boys Are Smashed and Hurled Down a Steep Bank. Fifteen students of Pnrdue University, among them several members of the football team, were killed and fifty or more others in a total of 1,200 players or “rooters” on a special train were injured In a terrific collision on the Big Four Railway while entering Indianapolis Saturday morning. The students' special from Lafayette ran into a coal train at Riverside Park, crushing to splinters a coach containing seventy students and friends, telescoping a second coach and hurling it down a 15-foot embankment with its 100 occupants, nnd upsetting and smashing the third coach. In the tangled masses of twisted iron and broken wood the victims were mangled, beheaded or held prisoner till rescuers could chop them out. Aa fast aa the willing boys and men extricated the corpses the unconscious and less seriously injured, and carried them to adjacent grass plots, the girls and women among the excursionists lent their aid In ministering to the sufferers. Holiday dresses were stained with blood, but no pne thought of them. Agonizing groans fitted the air and these came no less from the Injured than from the more fortunate, for all were close friends. The collision tools place at 10:20 o’clock, while the students tvere entering the city for the football game between Purdue and Indiana universities for the State championship. A switch ingine was backing a cut of coal cars an the main track at a gravel pit, where a deep cut obscured the track ahead of each engineer. Blame for the disastrous collision has not yet been placed. “We had no orders to vacate the track,” said Lon Akers, conductor of the freight train. “The fault, if there ia any, cannot fall on our shoulders. We have orders to get out of the way of regular trains. No orders wero given ns that a special was coming in.” Names of the Dead. Following is the list of the dead. Coats, J. 0., Berwin, Pa. Drollinger, Gabriel S., Lafayette, ImL, substitute; beheaded. Furr, Charles, Veedersburg, Ind., guard. Grube, Charles, Butler, Ind., substitute) player. Hamilton, W. D., Lafayette, center rush. Hamilton, Jay, Huntington, Ind., substitute. Howard. N. R., Lafayette, president of the Indiana Laundrymen’S Association. McClair, Patrick, Chicago, trainer. Powell, R. J., Corpus Christ!, Texas, end player. Price, Bert, Spencer, Ind., substitute. Rohertson, E. C., Indianapolis, assistant coach and captain of team two years ago. Roush, Walter L., Pittsburg, Pa., subitltute. Shaw, G. L., Lafayette, Ind. Squibb, Samuel, Lawrenceburg, Ind., substitute. Tsuitt, Samuel, NoblesTille, Ind., substitute.

Details of the Collision. The special train bore the Purdne football team —professors, students and “rootera" —numbering altogether nearly 1,200. It consisted of twelve coaches and was running as the first section at high speed. In the first eoach back of the engine were the Purdne football team, substitute players and managers. Three players, the assistant coach, trainer and seven substitute players of the university team were killed and every one of the fifty-three other persons In the car were either fatally or seriously iujured. From the twelve coaches were coming the joyous cries of 1,200 rooters for Purdue clad In gala dress, with colors streaming, while in the front coach snt twenty great muscular fellows, on whom the hopes of a brilliant victory on the gridiron was confidently placed. Aronnd a curve at the Eighteenth street cut Engineer W. H. Schnmaker found directly in front of him the freight engine snd coal cars moving slowly from a switch leading ont of the gravel pit. He reversed his engine and jumped. The crash hurled the passenger engine and three front coaches against the steel freight care loaded with coal that plowed their way through and buried under a pile of wreckage weighing many tons fully sixty college boys. The first car, In which were the players, was completely demolished, the roof being torn sway and landing across a car of coal, while the body of the car was reduced to kindling wood against the aide of the steel freight car. The second ooach, containing the bend musicians, waa partly telescoped, while the third coach was overturned and hurled down the 16-foot embankment The other coaches did not leave the track. President Stone of the university, with hie family, waa in the fifth coach and was net injured.

Immediately after the shock ths ptfsengtrs, men and women, began fjbs frantic work of touring sway tho wreckage and polling out dead and dying classmates and fraternity brothers. Ths yonng women, dressed in bright colors for the holiday, performed heroic work. Though the bodies were in several Instances horribly mangled, ons completely and one partly beheaded, the girls took upon their laps the head* of the dying and injured and soothed their sufferings as best they could until the surgeons arrived. Their bloodstained and grimy garments were gloomy witnesses of their heroism. i A general alarm waa Bounded and every assistance the city could afford was rushed to the wreck, which was three miles from the business center. Surgeons dashed np in automobiles, fire wagons, unbalances, express wagons, undertakers’ vehicles, private conveyances and even delivery wagons were sent to carry away the dead and injured. While these wore being carried to the morgues and hospitals the work of tearing away the wreck and rescuing those pinned beneath went on. ’ Big, muscular students cried aloud as they stood over the bodies of their, dead friends and fellow workers or gazed helpless upon the sufferings of their college mates writhing in pain. To add to the horror the wreckage caught fire, but the flames were extinguished by the students after a hard fight. The condition of some of the dead was frightful. One body was entirely beheaded. Others were ter ribly mutilated in other ways. The Purdue football team played against the Chicago University eleven on Marshall field a few weeks ago and made a good showing against the Maroons. They were to hnve played in Indianapolis Saturday with the University of Indiana' team, and the game was to settle the State championship. Purdue is a member of the “big nine” college conference and the team,!while not counted In the race for the championship of the West, is a contender for secondary honors. Purdue Unisersity’s officials have announoed that the institution will engage in no more football games this year.