Fatal Railway Accident.

Collision South of Chicago.

Eleven Persons Killed and Thirty-Five Shockingly Scalded and Bruised-A Smoking-Car Thrown on the Engine and the Bottom Crushed In.

Chicago, Aug. 17.-A terrible accident occurred at 10:30 o’clock last night, near Lemont, on the Chicago and Alton railroad, an incoming freight-train coming into collision with the south-bound express passenger train, almost entirely wrecking the latter, killing six persons outright and fearfully injuring about thirty-seven others, many of whom, it is said, will die.

The cars caught fire, and numbers of the injured are burned badly, while others were scalded by hot water from the locomotive boiler.

Although Lemont is only twenty miles south of this city, the accident was not known here, except to the railroad officials, until between 12 and 7 o’clock this morning, and then only to persons who happened to ascertain that surgeons had been sent for to go to the wrecked train. It is impossible to give full particulars at present, but they will be sent later.

Among those injured is HON. J.W. SMITH, Warden of the Illinois State Penitentiary.

Six P.M.-The total number of the killed and those who died of their injuries by the collision on the Chicago and Alton Railroad, near Lemont, last night, is, up to 3 p.m. to-day, eleven, and of wounded thirty-five. The following is list furnished by the officials of the road, and is doubtless correct:

Killed.
JOHN MITZLER, an engineer belonging to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
Two firemen belonging to the colliding trains, names unknown.
FRANK BRIDGES, apparently a fireman.
N. DIVELBLISS, JR., of Springfield, Ill.
THOMAS MORTON, Porter in Anderson’s Hotel, Chicago.
R.J. BROSS, of the firm of J.V. Farwell & Co., Chicago.
Two men whose bodies are as yet unidentified.

Injured.
CAPT. JOHN A. SMITH, Warden of the Illinois Penitentiary at Joliet, badly scalded; cannot recover.
J.F. FLEURY, Purchasing agent for the penitentiary at Joliet, fatally; will scarcely live till night.
ANTON FINKELMAN, of St. Louis, badly; probably fatally.
MR. MCCANTRELL, of Chicago, badly bruised.
WILLIAM MITCHELL, of Duck’s Island, ME., badly scalded.
ALEXANDER MONTEITH, of Duck’s Island, badly scalded.
THOMAS STRONG, of Muskegan, Mich., scalded.
THOMAS CROWLEY, of Chicago, scalded.
WILLIAM CURRANT or CONANT, of Duck’s Island, ME., scalded.
J. LEMOTTE, of Philadelphia, badly scalded.
JOHN SHERRIES, of Glasgow, Scotland, badly hurt; ruptured.
ALEXANDER HALLSETT, of Duck’s Island, ME., scalded.
A. BERDEN, scalded.
JOHN WHALEN, of Akron, Ohio, back and hands scalded.
HENRY SMALL, of Akron, scalded.
J.E. CUNNINGHAM, baggage man, leg broken.
JAMES O’NEILL, engineer of the passenger train, both legs broken.
The engineer of the coal train was badly bruised.
GEORGE RENTIL, of Chicago, had his back and arms scalded.
A. HICKMAN, an artist, of Chicago, was badly scalded on the head and hands, and bruised.
JACOB CLOSE, fatally injured.
JACOB CORDOVANT, of Oshkosh, Wis., will probably die.
ISAAC MILLS, of New York, was slightly scalded.
MARTIN CARLETON, of Bloomington, scalded.
WM. RICHARDSON, of Chicago, scalded.
L.A. HAMLIN, of Dwight, Ill., slightly scalded.
JOHN O’KEEFE, of Akron, Ohio, scalded.
JAMES T. DOYLE, scalded.
JOHN SPEARS, of Chicago, scalded.
M. ST. JOHN, of Chicago, scalded.

The Train Not On Fire.

The train did not take fire, as was previously reported, and all the passengers killed or injured were in the second-class car, which was also used as a smoking car, and, with the exception of the fireman, engineer and train-men, the casualties were all caused by steam. None of the regular passenger-coaches or sleepers were thrown from the track or in any way injured. No person in any of them was hurt.

What The Officers Say.

The following account of the accident is from the statements of the officers of the road: The regular passenger-train for St. Louis left here at 9 p.m., and consisted of a baggage-car, express-car, and three day coaches, the head one as second-class or smoking car, and two sleepers. At 10:20 p.m., when three miles north of Lemont, and about twenty-two miles south of this city, at a curve in the road, suddenly appeared a coal train of thirty-five cars, running at a rate of about twenty miles an hour, and neither engineer saw the other’s engine until it was too late to reverse, a fact accounted for by the curve in the road, and partly by the dense fog. The two trains came together with fearful force. Being on the curve, however, both engines left the track and passed each other, that attached to the coal-train striking the baggage car a few feet from the end, breaking the coupling between it and the smoking-car, which the engine struck square in the end, and with such force as to throw the forward end in the air, so that the engine ran under it, tearing the floor completely out and hurling the fifty or sixty unfortunates who were in the car in a struggling mass to the lower end, where there was no chance for escape, and then ensued a scene of horrors which cannot adequately be described.

A Scalding Steam Bath.

The smoke stack and dome of the engine were knocked off by the collision and broken timbers of the smoking-car penetrated the boiler, letting loose a dense volume of hot steam, which poured into the car, blinding and scalding the helpless inmates, who with shrieks struggled vainly to extricate themselves. Meantime Conductor RUSSELL, of the passenger-train, who was unhurt, and a number of passengers from the rear coaches, came forward and endeavored to assist the poor victims, but there was little left to do beyond taking from the wreck the dying and wounded, many of whom were fearfully scalded. Seven died soon after they were taken out, and four have since died.

Relieving The Sufferers.

The point where the accident occurred is near what is now know as the Sag, a low marshy meadow, about half way between Lemont and Willow Spring Station and there was not a house in the neighborhood. The unhurt passengers, however, took the bedding from the sleepers and ministered as much as was possible under the circumstances to the wounded, while Conductor RUSSELL hurried back on foot to Lemont, and telegraphed Superintendent MCMULLEN here for surgeons and aid. Mr. MCMULLEN hastily for together half a dozen physicians and supplies of such articles as were necessary, and started abut midnight with a special train for the scene of the disaster, arriving there about 1:30 A.M.

The Wounded and Dead Brought To Chicago.

Everything possible was done for the sufferers, and at 6 A.M. the train returned to the city, bringing the uninjured coaches of the wrecked train and all the dead and wounded, except two firemen who were left at Lemont for burial. On the arrival of the train those of the wounded who reside here were taken to their homes, and the others were taken to the hospital, with the exception of CAPT. SMITH and MR. FLEURY, who were taken to the West-side Briggs House. Neither of these gentlemen, it is feared, can recover.

Cause of the Accident.

The cause of the accident was the criminal recklessness of the conductor and engineer of the coal-train, whose duty it was to wait at Lemont until the passenger-train had passed, unless they had received positive orders to proceed. This the officers of the road say was not the case, and that the coal-train should have stayed at Lemont.

Disappearance of the Coal-Train Conductor.

The conductor of the coal-train, named BERNARD, had been running the train for a year, and was considered a first-class man. He has not been seen since the disaster, and it is thought he has escaped and fled, as the last seen of him he was in the caboose of his train, which was uninjured.

The Passenger-Train Officers Exonerated.

No blame is attached to the officers of the passenger-train, which is said to have been on time, and had the right of way.

Trains Running “As Usual.”

The roadway was cleared of the wreck, and trains will run out from here to-night as usual.

The New York Times, New York, NY 18 Aug 1873
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Transcribed by June. Thanks June!