Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 September 1920 — BAD FREIGHT WRECK AT LEE [ARTICLE]

BAD FREIGHT WRECK AT LEE

Several Loaded Freight Cars Consumed by Fire Early Yesterday. Some eight or ten loaded freight cars piled up nea. the crossing west of Lee, near Fred Stiers’s farm, at about 1 a. m. yesterday, and the cars caught fire' and all of them were burned, including one car of flpur, a car of feed, a car of oats and a carload of tractors. It was difficult to learn very much about the cars destroyed, but there were several others and the loss will total many thousands of dollars. There was a car or two of coke or coal in the number wrecked and the heat was so intense that it ‘was difficult to get close to the wreckage. All the Monon trains detoured via San Pierro, and at last reports it seemed doubtful whether any trains would be able to get through before tomorrow. The wreck is said to have been caused from a hot box and the burning off of a spindle to one of the car axles. The train was a south bound extra. No trains could get through, of course, and it was thought none would be through Rensselaer before late afternoon yesterday.