Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 June 1903 — More Facts Concerning the Monon Wreck. [ARTICLE]

More Facts Concerning the Monon Wreck.

The Lafayette Evening Call of Thursday, gives the following concerning the Monon wreok which occurred at Ash Grove, that day. ‘ Southbound fast freight No. 71 was coming down the steep grade at a high rate of speed, about 2 o’clock a. m, when from a oause unknown, the train broke in two a mile north of Ash Grove and the trucks under one of the oars left the traok. Six cars followed into the ditch and four of them were completely demolished. One of these cars was of steel construction and was used to transport a large hew engine boiler. In this car three tramps were stealing a ride and when the crash came they were crushed' to death by the heavy boiler. Their lifeless bodies, terribly mangled, were found in a heap in one end of the oar, and scattered about the floor of the oar were lacerated portions of their hands and feet. It is a remarkable fact that none of the train crew was injured. The force of the wrecked oars plowed up the track for a distance of 100 feet. The ties were splintered and the rails were badly twisted. The debris was strewn along both sides of the traok, the oar in which the men were killed being hurled through a barbed. wire fence into p oorn field, 25 j feet out of the right of way, on the east side of the track. A fiat oar was sent down the track for a distance of 100 feet. The three men who were killed were so mangled that they oould not be identified and there was nothing about their persons that would tend to show who they were or where their homes were. The aooident oocurred at a point exactly midway between Louisville and Chioago, being 109 umes from each plaoe.”