ANOTHER HORROR.

TWENTY-FIVE PERSONS KILLED IN A WRECK IN COLORADO.

Passenger and Freight Trains Collide -- Cars Burn Up and Many Persons Are Roasted Alive.

New Castle, Col., Sept. 10. -- The most disastrous railway wreck that has every happened in Colorado occurred at 12:15 Friday morning, a mile and a half west of this town. Denver and Rio Grande passenger train No. 1 west-bound collided with a Colorado Midland stock train going east, wrecking both engines and several cars in both trains. Shortly after the collision fire broke out in the ruins. The mail, baggage and express cars, smoker, day coach and a tourist sleeper were burned. A number of passengers who were not killed outright, but who were pinned in the wreckage and could not be extricated, perished in the flames. There were about 200 passengers. It is established that 25 persons were killed and as many more bruised, scalded and burned, of whom over six are likely to die of their injuries.
Partial List of Dead and Injured.
As yet it has not been possible to obtain a full list of the dead and injured. Following is a partial list:
Dead:
MRS. ALEXANDER HARTMAN and two Children, Hersher, Ill.
Engineer OSTRANDER.
ROBERT HOLLAND, fireman.
JAMES KEENAN, postal clerk.
CHARLES LEEPER, Clarion, Pa.
JAMES ERRICK, Chicago.
Injured:
ALEXANDER HARTMAN, Hersher, Ill., both legs broken; will die.
ROBERT GORDON, engineer, ruptured and terribly bruised; may die.
Fireman HINES, terribly burned; cannot recover.
MISS PEARL CORNELL, Oregon; leg broken.
JOHN H. STANDARD, Blackfoot, Idaho; cut and burned, both legs broken.
J. H. SHEETS, Iowa; right hand cut.
R. W. SHOLTS, Clarion, Pa.
JAMES C. FOLEY, express messanger, Denver; bruised.
WILLIAM MESSEGER, express messenger, Denver; bruised.
W. L. HAWTHORNE, couductor; bruised.
P. H. McAVERY, Victor, Col.; burned about the head, back bruised.
FRANK P. MANNIX, Victor, Col.; slightly bruised.
Brakeman KNAPP, leg crushed.
J. C. YEAGER, Victor, Col., badly hurt.
R. H. BIRCKLEY, back hurt.
MARY ISRAEL and son NATHAN, both horribly cut.
O. V. TYSON, bruises.
J. H. STANDARD and ALEXANDER HARTMAN have been removed to the hospital at Salida. Both will probably die.
HARTMAN is a minister from Herschen, Ill., who was traveling with his wife and two children to the coast. From the day coach few escaped.
Four more bodies have been brought in which were burned beyond any possiblity of identification. Very slow progress is being made in getting out the bodies.
The sides of the car pinned down the passengers, many of whom were roasted in plain sight of those who wanted to help them. The passenger engine exploded and the cars were ablaze in two minutes. Little baggage and no mail were saved. General Superintendent SAMPLE and Surgeon DEAN are on the field working hard.
At Worst Point on Road.
The accident occurred at the worst possible point. Two minutes running time and they could have avoided the wreck, as each engineer could have seen the approach of the other train. The trains collided on a curve or bend round a mountain, and there was not opportunity to avoid the wreck or even to slacken speed. The surviving trainmen say the trains were not running fast, but the facts seems to be that both the passenger and freight were going at full speed -- about 20 miles an hour for the passenger and the freight 10 or 12.
The Rio Grande Junction road, on which the wreck occurred in a joint track operated by the Denver & Rio Grande and Colorado Midland companies. It is a single standard gauge track, 77 miles long, running from New Castle to Grand Junction, connecting the two roads with the Rio Grande Western. Along the road of the West Grand river and nearly all the way are high bluffs on one side of the track and the stream on the other, it being from 15 to 20 feet below the surface of the track.
Passenger Train Was Late.
The Rio Grande passenger train was due at New Castle at 11:05 p. m., and should have reached the point 1 1/2 miles beyond New Castle, where the accident occurred, by 11:10. The train must therefore have been at least one hour late, as the accident occurred at 12:15 a. m.
One report as to the cause of the accident is to the effect that Conductor BURBANK, of the Colorado Midland stock train, made a mistake of ten minutes in figuring on the time when the Rio Grande passenger train passed New Castle, and that, therefore, he was chiefly responsible for the disaster. Engineer OSTRANDER, of the stock train, could either confirm or deny this report if he were alive, but it is believed he is under the debris.
Gas Cylinders Explode.
W. L. HAWTHORNE, conductor of the passenger train, was in the smoking car at the time of the collision and was thrown about and severely bruised. He says that the gay sylinder under one of the wrecked cars exploded, and everything appeared to be in flames within a short time. He says he does not think more than two or three passengers in the smoker were burned to death, but will not say there were not more than that number.
Few In Day Coach Escaped.
The passengers in the day coach fared the worst. Out of 29 people in that coach only six are now known to have escaped. All was confusion and some may have escaped unnoticed.
As in all similar accidents, the engine men are the first to lose their lives. Engineer OSTRANDER went down with his hand on the lever.
ROBERT HOLLAND, fireman on the passenger, was so badly hurt that he died at five o'clock. Engineer GORDON, of the passenger, may live, although he is badly injured and at first was thought to be fatally hurt. He suffered great pain from a rupture in addition to other injuries. He was thrown over a barb wire fence by the force of the collision.
HINES, the Midland fireman, was so badly hurt that the doctors who examined him at five o'clock said that he could not recover. He was shockingly burned, but bore his pain bravely. JAMES KEENAN, the postal clerk, will not live until noon, the doctors say. He is terribly scalded.
A Thrilling Escape.
Two express passengers on the Rio Grande train saved their lives, but their escape was a thrilling one. They were JAMES C. FOLEY and WILLIAM S. MESSEGER, both of Denver.
They had piled up the through baggage in one end of the car and were busy with the egg cases in the other and when the shock came they were pitched headlong about the car, and when it toppled over they wre stunned and bruised by the loose baggage. It was several minutes before they were able to aid themselves. The the car commenced to fill with smoke, and death by burning or suffocation seemed their fate. They realized their position and began a battle with an ax to liberate themselves. Finally, as the car burst into flames they saw daylight through the hole they were cutting, and by the aid of some men outside, they were able to pull themselves through bruised and bleeding, but still safe.
MISS PEARL CORNELL, of Oregon, had her leg broken. This lady was returning from a visit to friends in the east, and was in a collision at Glen Falls, Idaho, on her way east.
T. F. DANIELS, the passenger brakeman, who was unhurt, came back to this place and notified the railway officials of the accident. A special train was sent out with physicians and nurses as soon as possible. At 3:40 a. m. another special relief train was sent from Glenwood Springs, where news of the wreck caused great excitement. Neighboring ranch houses were used for the reception of the injured and all did what they could to help. Superintendent CHOATE and officers of the Rio Grande did everything possible to relieve the suffering.
The track will not be cleared before Saturday night, and passengers will have to be transferred around the wreck.
At least two cars of stock were wrecked, and the road strewn with dead animals.
Some excitement was occasioned by two Italians attempting to break open trunks taken from the baggage car. Marshal PEARSON shot at one, and thinks he hit him. The other, NICK FICK, was arrested and taken to jail.
The express car and its contents of the wrecked passenger train was entirely consumed by fire.
Passenger's Account of the Wreck.
FRANK P. MANNIX, editor of the Victor Record, was a passenger on the Denver & Rio Grande train.
"I was in the smoker when the collision happened," he said, "and was jammed down in the seat. I saw daylight on the side and managed to pull myself out, and with the help of Brakeman DANIELS helped to pull three people from the wreck. At the time of the collision the tank under the smoker exploded and set fire to the train. The scene was awful."
"The mail, baggage, smoker, day coach and a tourist sleeper were burned, the rear Pullman and a private car remaining on the track."
MR. MANNIX is of the opinion that at least 40 are dead and burned.

Dubuque Daily Herald Iowa 1897-09-11
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!