Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1912 — THROWN THROUGH BOX CAR. [ARTICLE]

THROWN THROUGH BOX CAR.

Engineer's Body Badly Mangled and His Fireman Hurt When Locomotive Boiler Blows Up. Bloomington. Ind.. April 22. Weaver Hillerman, an engineer, was instantly ki/ied in a boiler explosion c.n engine No. 217 on the Monon railroad at the local yards Sunday afternoon. Orville Clay, his fireman, was blown one hundred feet through the air into a field, but escaped serious injuries. The body of Hillerman was blown through both sides cif a box car standing on a side track forty feet away and badly mangled. The head was crushed, the right foot was torn off and many bones in the body were broken. The accident occurred at 12:03 o’clock, just as the enginemen were i preparing to eat their noon day luncheon. It is said that crown sheet of the engine had dropped down, and while watching for signals from the switchmen Hil’.erman started the injection pump, not noticing from his vlater guage that there was no wated in the boilers. The instant the cold water hit the red hot sheets the explosion followed. Clay owes his life to the fact that he was sitting in the gangway, near the tender, and did not receive the full fofee of the explosion. The thirty-ton boiler was hurled end over end for a distance of 150 feet high in the air and fell into the field. Hillerman had been extra engineer only two months. A wife and two small children survive. Clay | had been on the road only a month and was married this winter. Hillerman as a member of the W. O. W. and the Brotherhood of Railroad Firemen. Remember The Democrat office is now located on West Washington street, nearly opposite the postoffice.