Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 January 1907 — WAS BLAST OF DEATH [ARTICLE]

WAS BLAST OF DEATH

Car of Powder Blows Up and Wrecks a Big Four Passenger Train. TWENTY-NINE .PEOPLE KILLED Thirty-Five Others Wounded, and Some of the Dead Cremated. Somebody’s Blunder at Fowler, Ind Sends Sixteen to Eternity, More Than Flail' of Them Through Flames. Terre Haute, Ind., Jan. 21.—Twentynine charred, broken and mutilated bodies have been taken from the smouldering ruins of passenger train No. 8 on the Illg Four railroad, which was destroyed by the explosion of a car load of powder as it passed a freight train at Sandford, Ind., nine milei west of here. The cause of the disaster has not been fully explained, and several theories are advanced. The result was terrible. The shock was felt for thirty miles, many believing it an earthquake. The three coaches of the passenger train were filled. Train Blown from the Track. The entire train including the engine was blown from the track, the coaches demolished, the engine hurled fifty feet and the passengers either blown to pieces, consumed by fire or rescued in a more or less injured condition. At least thirty-five injured, some fatally, are at the hospitals here and at I’aris, 111. Several are also being cared for at Sandford. The full extent of the disaster has been revealed, but the death list will not be complete UQill workmen now clearing the debris have finished their task. Revised List of the Dead. Following is the revised list of dead: William Thompson, Sandford, Ind.; J. W. Southerland, Paris, Ill.; John Franklin, Mattoon, 111. (brakeman on No. 3i; A. D. Hector, farmer, address unknown; Charles Gosnell, Paris, Ill.; Noah Wolfe and, A. A. Picks, Sandford. Ind.; Frank Fielder, Bellefontaine, O.; John A. Bowen, Ashmore, Ill.; Mrs. Josiah Wolfe, Sandford, Ind., and two children; J. W. Southcott, express clerk; A. Kuykendall, fireman Peoria division,Vandalia, Ind.; Clark Steele, Sandford, Ind.; Paul Kiever, Indianapolis; James Fenton and J. W. S. Miller. Sandford, Ind.; ten uniidentified bodies: Will Davis, of Vermillion.

LONG LIST OF THE INJURED Theories Only as to What Caused the Explosion. A revised list of injured is as follows: At Terre Haute—Kleth Brian, Salem, 0., and Miss Cora Buckley, Terre Haute,serious;L. F. Rose, engineer maintenance of way, Big Four, Mattoon, Ill..knee fractured; Mrs. L. F. Rose, Mattoon. 111., slight; Miss Bess Southcott, Shelbyville, 111., eye destroyed; Miss Bess Southcott, Shelbyville, 111., eye destroyed: Miss Anna Cummings. Terre Haute, serlops; Miss Frances Jones, Terre Haute, slight; H. C. Sisk, Terre Haute, face cut; Dr. H. Hnslett. Grandview, 111., serious. At Paris. Ill.—John E. Epperson, Westfield, 111., ankle broken: John O. Lawyer, Charleston, ankle broken; Charles Wiley, Kansas. 111., head cut, breast crushed: Perry Duck. Sandford, Ind., crushed and head injured; Lindsey Eddington, Sandford, Ind., head cut and bruised: Joseph Hendricks, Mattoon. 111., head and face ent; Charles Yogas, Westville. 111., probably die: Saxe Wolfe, Sandford, Ind., head badly injured: Charles Root, Mattoon, 111., head cut. wrist broken; Frank Thomas, conductor. Mattoon. 111., arms and face cut; Alvin Dane. Paris, 111., neck and head cut; U. S. Wishard, Franklin. Ind., internally injured: Harry Jarred, fireman, Mattoon, 111., concussion of brain; Louis Price, Vermillion. 111., head and face bruised; George Richards, Memphis. Tenn., head and face cut; A. B. Carpenter, Vermillion, 111., eye destroyed, serious; Oscar Gilbert, face and neck cut. At Sanford—Tracy Rhoden, head badly cut: Harry Sblckel, slight cuts; Miss Mary Earhart, head, face and eyes injured; H. Blakeley, serious—all residents of Sandford. Thos. C. Ainsworth, head and face cut; sent home to Aurora, 111. A searching party found the body ot a lad named Klever hanging in a tree several hundred feet from the scene of the explosion. The boy was 12 years old. His home was at Paris, 111. According to trainmen of the freight the explosion of the powder was caused by the concussion made by the passing passenger train, which was slowing down for the station at Sandford. Another story is that gas escaping from an oil pipe line nearby entered the car containing the powder and a spark from the passing engine Ignited the gas. The belief was expressed by one or two persons that the disaster was due to the act of a tramp or an Intoxicated man who may have fired a shot into the car. But the fact is no one knows what caused It. Cars were literally torn to pieces by the terrible force of the explosion. Huge masses of iron were found hundreds of feet from the track. The tanh of the passenger engine was hurled nearly 100 feet, landing in a gravel road. Not a home in Sandford escaped. Windows were shattered, dishes and

furniture broken and In some instances doors were torn from their hinges.

some: one blunders again s. Sixteen Persons Die Horribly Because of the Blunder. Fowler, Ind-, Jan. 21. A least sixteen persons were crushed or burned to death in a collision between the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Ixmis “Queen City” flyer, which left Chicago at 11:30 p. di., and a freight train. Five persons were seriously injured and several more slightly hurt. The passenger train was running at a speed of fifty miles an hour, and consisted of a combination coach, three Pullman sleepers and a Big Four private car occupied by Mrs. C. E. Schaff, wife of the vice president of the railread. The entire train was destroyed by tire except the private car and one sleeper. Seven of the dead have been iden+ifled. Eleven of tho victims were burned to death in the combination coach, and but two of these have been Identified, as the bodies were almost entirely consumed by the fire. With but one exception every' member of the passenger train crew perished. Following is the list of the identified dead and the injured: Indentified dead W. B. Harris, Indianapolis; Peter J. Hiddinger, Indianapolis, conductor of passenger train; I. H. Magee, baggagemaster, Indianapolis; J. A. Shannon, Williamsport, Ind.; Henry E. Olcott, Cincinnati, fireman of the passenger train; Henry A. Price, Long Beach. Cal., and Mrs. Henry A. Price, bis wife. The seriously injured are these: E. XV. Tripp, Indianapolis, engineer of passenger train; Minor Griffin, Shelbyville, Ind., fireman of freight engine; H. W. Link, Hastings, Mich.; S. A. Douglass, Freeport, Ill.; John Meyer, New York. 1 he collision occurred SCO feet from a switch near this place. The passenger train in the heavy fog ran by a telegraphic block signal to stop. The red light was not obeyed. The engine and tender telescoped the combination coach, causing a mass of wreckage under which the passengers in the car were wedged. Seats were hhrled through the roof and It was here the dead were burned, many of them beyond recognition.