Macon, GA area Train Wreck, Feb 1910

FIVE LOSE LIVES IN TRAIN WRECK.
Eight Others Seriously Hurt in Collision.
CARS AND ENGINES PILED UP.
Thrown Into Confused Heap of Debris. Orangeburg Traveling Man Among
the Victims.

Macon, Ga., Feb. 14 [1910]—Five persons were instantly killed, eight
seriously injured and a score slightly injured when passenger trains
No. 2 and No. 5 on the Georgia Southern & Florida railroad met head-on
this afternoon at 5 o'clock, 19 miles below Macon, between Wellston
and Bonaire.

The dead: W. J. Yates, Macon, engineer on train No. 5; Flagman A. R.
Johnson, Macon; Conductor I. B. Ingalls, Macon, traveling as
passenger; Conductor Dupree, of Kathleen, Ga., traveling as passenger;
one unknown white man.

Seriously injured: Leroy Fuss, engineer, train No. 2, badly cut on
head and chin; Robert Williams, colored, mail clerk, Macon, hurt in
back; W. M. Elder, Worth, Ga., bruised in back. W. H. [?] Wheeler,
Wellston, bruised about trunk; J. F. [James Franklin "Jimmy"] Blount,
Orangeburg, S. C., traveling salesman, painfully hurt about head;
George Bernhardt, flagman, painfully hurt on head; W. H. Carson,
newsboy, cut on head; Loretta Putnam, colored, badly hurt in head and
side.

It is stated that the accident was caused by the crew of train No. 2
misreading orders to meet train No. 5 at Bonaire.

A wrecking train and relief train were sent out from Macon as soon as
the news of the disaster reached the head office of the road. The
relief train reached Macon at 11 o'clock bearing the bodies of the
dead and injured.

Both engines, the mail and baggage cars and two day coaches were
completely demolished. The trains were not running at a great rate of
speed, but they met on a curve and the engineers had little chance to
prevent the accident.

The wreck occurred in a dismal swamp and passengers described the
cries of the wounded and dying as most pitiful and heart rending.
Several hours elapsed before medical aid reached the scene. Many
women passengers bound the wounds of the injured with bandages torn
from their clothing.

The body of Engineer Yates still lies buried beneath his engine. It
will require several hours to remove the debris so that his body may
be extricated. [from The State (Columbia, SC), Feb. 15 [?], 1910,
located by Martha Catoe Peebles, transcribed by Liz Blount]

J. F. BLOUNT SUCCUMBS AS RESULT OF WRECK—Orangeburg Man Injured in
Collision Near Macon Dies—Colored Fireman Also Passes Away.

Macon, Ga., Feb. 15 [1910]—Two other deaths occurred today as a result
of the collision last night on the Georgia Southern & Florida
railroad, 19 miles south of Macon. Those dying today were J. F.
Blount, a traveling salesman of Orangeburg, S. C., and James Stevens,
colored fireman on train No. 2. Mr. Blount was a member of a
prominent family and was to have been married in about a month.

It was reported at a local hospital tonight that A. H. Taylor, express
messenger of Nashville, Tenn., would live but a few hours.

[Note: J. F. Blount is James Franklin "Jimmy" Blount, son of Miles
Blount and Louisa Taft Blount, of St. George, SC. Report from The
State (Columbia, SC), Feb. 16, 1910, located by Martha Catoe Peebles,
transcribed by Liz Blount]
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