Chicago, IL Freight Train Collision, July 1894

COLLISION OF FREIGHT TRAINS.

TWO DEPUTY UNITED STATES MARSHALS KILLED AND TWO OTHERS INJURED.

Chicago, July 13. -- Two deputy United States marshals met their deaths and two others were more or less seriously injured at 1 o'clock yesterday afternoon in a collision between freight trains on the Wisconsin Central tracks near Sixteenth and Jackson Streets crossing. Two locomotives and several cars were wrecked in the accident, and the 3-story brick warehouse of Burdett, Smith & Company, stove manufacturers,
occupied jointly by that firm and the Norton Brothers' company, manufacturers of tinware, was partly destroyed.
The men who met death were:
J. B. BRISTOL, deputy United States marshal, crushed under a boxcar and taken out dead.
W. A. PROSS, deputy United States marshal, both legs crushed and injured internally; died at county hospital.
The injured were:
ANDREW BLAES, United States deputy marshal, left foot and leg mangled, leg amputated; condition critical.
AUGUSTINE WRIGHT, deputy marshal from Baltimore; not seriously.
The Baltimore and Ohio and Wisconsin Central jointly use this track, and by some misunderstanding of orders both trains were moving toward each other on the same track. They met on a curve, and the impact, as the two engines came together, was tremendous. Both engines were buried under the mass of shattered cars they were hauling, and the helpless deputies, who were riding on top of the cars next the engine, were caught and crushed beneath the debris. Fire broke out in the wreckage, but was soon controlled by the fire department. The train crews, seeing that a collision was inevitable, saved themselves by jumping.

Piqua Daily Call Ohio 1894-07-13
__________________

Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!