Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 December 1897 — The Monon Has Another Wreck. [ARTICLE]

The Monon Has Another Wreck.

There was another costly wreck on the Monon, Wednesday, the fourth within less than three weeks. It occurred at the bridge crossing Little Wea,creek, five miles south of Lafayette. Eighteen cars of extra freight train No. 97, in charge of Conductor Charles Ellsberry, were reduced to kindling wood, their contents scattered and the bridge crossing the stream wrecked. The first car behind the engine was loaded, with building stone,

1 and just before the bridge was reached one of the heavy pieces jostled off between it and the following car. In its fall it broke the trucks of the car, which,; becoming derailed, demolished the guard rails on the bridge. One after another of the cars toppled over into the ravine below, tearing away the bridge as they fell. Four cafs and the caboose were all that remained on the track. The debris was piled seventy-five feet high in a ruined mass. Brakeman Charles Wheat had a narrow escape from death by jumping, spraining an ankle and seriously injuring his hip. Freight traffic was suspended and the mail trains considerably delayed.