Lorenzo, IL Train Wreck, Apr 1889

SAD ACCIDENT.

Rear-End Collision on the Santa Fe Road at Lorenzo, Ill.

Four Persons Killed Outright and Others Injured by Escaping Steam – Sad Ending of a Pleasure Trip to the Far West.

CHICAGO, April 11. --An accident occurred on the Chicago, Sante Fe & California railroad, near Joliet, yesterday morning. The regular east-bound train was just leaving Lorenzo station, which is fifty miles from Chicago, at half-past four o'clock, when the accident occurred. Attached to the rear of the train was a private car occupied by MR. J. F. HART, mayor of Brookline, Mass., and a director of the California Central railroad. The party in the car consisted of MR. HART and his wife, his son, HENRY ROBERT HART; his niece, MISS WINSLOW; a porter known only as HARRY, and a cook. Just as the train was pulling out of the station an extra stock train following ran into the rear of the passenger train at a good speed, demolishing the private car and damaging the freight engine so that large quantities of steam escaped, scalding those who had escaped from the effects of the crash.

As soon as the wreck could be cleared to allow of the removal of the dead and wounded they were found to be as follows:

KILLED.
MISS WINSLOW.
HENRY HART.
HARRY, the porter.
THOMAS SMITH.

SCALDED.
J. F. HART.
MRS. J. F. HART.

The engineer and _______ (?) of the freight train jumped and escaped injury. None of the cars, except that of MR. HART, was seriously damaged, and none of the passengers in the other coaches were hurt. It is impossible, as yet to locate the blame for the disaster. The dead and wounded were put upon the train and brought to this city. The bodies of the dead were taken to an undertaking establishment and the wounded were conveyed to Mercy Hospital.

The passenger train was running on time, and the extra freight, through some inexcusable error of the train-dispatcher, was allowed to follow. At Lorenzo the grade is very steep, and the engineer of the extra saw that his train was unmanageable just as he perceived the tail lamps of the passenger.. He whistled for brakes. It was too late. His engine crashed into the private car, driving it upon the steps of the Pullman car Santa Anna. In addition to being scalded, MR. J. L. HART had both legs broken. HENRY W. LAMB, also in the private car, was scalded about the face and body. PALMER, the freight brakeman, was hurled over the freight engine into the mass of debris, and escaped with a bad scald of his fact and both hands terribly burned. JOHN BYNDER (?), engineer of the passenger train, was severely hurt. The wrecked coach was the private car of General Manager McCOOL of the California Central railroad, a Western branch of the Sante Fe. The occupants were a party of MR. McCOOL'S friends from Massachusetts who had been spending a few weeks with his family at Los Angeles and were returning home. It can not be learned that MR. McCOOL was in the car. It was stated by one of the train men that a number of wounded persons were left at Lorenzo.

The Rolla New Era Missouri 1889-04-13
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!