Western Springs, IL Train Wreck, Jul 1912 - Cause of Accident; List of Dead

Chicago, Ill, July 15. -- Coroner Hoffman today continued his efforts to place the blame for the wreck on the C. B. and Q railroad in which thirteen persons were killed and nearly fifty injured. The Illinois State Railway commission joined in the investigation, while the railroad is making a separate probe.

It is positively settled today that efforts were made to stop the Omaha mail train at Western Springs where the accident occurred just before it hurled into the rear end of the Overland limited, bringing death and injury to the passengers in the two rear coaches of the stationery train.

Mrs. F. A. Wilcox, tower operator and also telegraph operator at Western Springs, received the message that No. 8, the mail train, was coming toward the motionless limited, full speed.

"If I had another minute," Mrs. Wilcox said, "I would have been down the track to flag the train. I had the boards against her, but felt sure she would go past in the fog."

Mrs. Wilcox said she heard the danger signal, the three torpedoes exploded by No. 2, and heard the crash. Then she phoned for doctors and nurses and fainted.

E. P. Eustis, passenger traffic manager places the blame for the wreck on George Bronson, engineer of No. 8, who died at the throttle and John Woodruff flagman of No. 2 who placed the torpedoes.

The bodies of two women and one girl remained unidentified this afternoon. The story of one real heroine comes from the wreck. She was Mrs. E.G. Pohlman, bride of eight months of a Santa Rose traveling salesman. When rescuers reached here she insisted that they care for her husband first. He was seriously but not fatally hurt. When rescuers reached her they found both her limbs and spine broken. She died on the way to the hospital.

The dead:
E. A. Bunch, twenty-eight years old, colored porter
P. A. Barclat, twenty-four years old, of Denver, student at Notre Dame, Ind.
Mrs. C. M. Hart, thirty-two years old, Canton, O.
Lillian Kelly, twenty-two years old, Boise, Idaho
M. E. Stern, thirty-five years old, Chicago
George Bronson, fifty-four years old, engineer mail train.
G. W. Tudor, forty years old, Oskaloosa, Ia.
Mrs. E. G. Polhmann, thirty-five years old, San Francisco

Four women, three girls and one man, as yet unidentified.

The most seriously injured are:

E. G. Pohlman, San Francisco;
Warren P. Dudley, Belmont, Mass;
H. O. Crain, fireman mail train;
Mrs. Warren P. Dudley, Belmont, Mass;
Father Gregory Scholz, Columbus, O.;
James W. Flach, Cincinnati;
Mrs. J. W. Flach;
Mrs. J. C. Krehl, Girard, O.;
H. F. Joy, Cincinnati
Miss Katherine Griswold, Milwaukee;
Miss Lyne Johnson, Chicago;
William McNair, Denver;
Mrs. E. W. Francis, Bedford, Ind.;
O. R. Marsh, Chicago;
John E. Parsons, Dixon, Ill.; and
Frank D. Hughes, Hinsdale, Ill., conductor of mail train.

Pending an official investigation, P. S. Eustis, passenger traffic manager of the railroad, in a statement, placed the blame of the accident on the engineer of the passenger train, which ran past the signal set for stop at Western Springs, clearing the west box at Hinsdale.

Hot Box Stops Passenger. The passenger train, No. 2, from Denver, due in Chicago at 7 a.m., stopped at Western Springs because of a "hot box" on one of the rear Pullman coaches.

At Western Springs Train No. 2 and the mail train, No. 8, run about nine minutes apart. Because of the heavy fog it is believed by some that the engineer of train No. 8 failed to see the signal at Hinsdale, a mile and a half west of the point where the collision occurred.

Crash Comes Without Warning. Without warning to passengers, save the popping of three torpedoes placed several hundred feet in the rear of the passenger train by the flagman, the heavy mail train crashed into the rear of the passenger.

The crash aroused the people of LaGrange, Western Springs and Hinsdale and hundreds were on the scene half an hour after the accident occurred. The rear Pullman car of the passenger train, the "Hamlet," was parted and the roof torn.

Plowing through the car, in which all of the killed except the engineer were found, the engine partially demolished the second, the "Fernwood."

Daily Commonwealth, Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin, 15 Jul 1912
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