Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1894 — BIG FOUR WRECK. [ARTICLE]

BIG FOUR WRECK.

A Train Ditched by Striking Miners at Fontanet. At 1 o'clock, Friday morning, July 13, Big Four Express No. 7, west bound, was wrecked at Fontanet, by strike sympathizers. Engineer Mochrman, of Indianapolls, and fireman Fleck, of Mattoon, were buried under the wreck and instantly killed. Their bodies were crushed into an unrecognizable mass. The engine, baggage car, express car and the day coach are piled in the ditch a broken mass. The train was running at a high rate of speed, and when within a quarter of a mile of Fontanet it dashed through a misplaced switch. The crash was heard by the sheriffs and deputy marshals, who had been at tho scene of trouble all day, and a crowd soon gathered at the scene. The wreck is undoubtedly the work of a lawless mob of minerj that had possession pt Fontanet all day Thursday, and stopped and side-tracked five Big Four freight trains during the day to show their sympathy for the rail road strikers. The trouble was so threatening that Sheriff Stout and several deputies went to Fontanet.