Clayton, KS Train Plunges Into Washout, Sept 1910

FOUR KILLED IN CRASH ON ROCK ISLAND.

FAST TRAIN HITS WASHOUT NEAR CLAYTON, KAN., AND PLUNGES INTO DITCH.

Norton, Kas., Sept. 23. -- It is reported that eighteen persons were killed in the Rock Island wreck at Clayton.

Oberlin, Kas., Sept. 23. -- Definite details of the wreck on the Rock Island near Clayton, Kas., this morning are hard to get. The engineer and fireman and eighteen passengers are reported killed and about twenty wounded. Physicians from all surrounding towns have gone to assist in caring for the wounded. Most of the injured have been taken to a hospital in Norton.

Norton, Kas., Sept. 23. -- Eight persons are known to have been killed and several injured when Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific train No. 27, from St. Louis to Denver, plunged through a forty-foot trestle into a creek two miles west of Clayton, Kas., early today. The bodies of four have been recovered, while four others can be seen at the bottom of the creek pinned beneath the wreckage.
The known dead are:
FRANK PICKABAUGH, engineer, Goodland, Kas.
J. W. USHER, conductor, Kansas City.
PHILIP G. HUFFMAN, baggageman, Kansas City.
WILLIAM MILLER, fireman, Goodland, Kas.
The creek, usually only a few feet wide, had been turned into a torrent by a cloudburst which struck this section last night, washing out the trestle.
Owing to the isolated section of the country, news of the disaster did not reach this point until late this morning, the brakeman of the train and two passengers traveling to Clayton on foot. Relief trains were sent from Norton and Colby and a wrecking train sent from Philipsburg.
Both relief trains have arrived on the scene. Nothing can be done except to care for the injured until the wreck train arrives.
Although it is believed probable that others have been killed, only those bodies recovered and those which can be seen at the bottom of the creek pinned down by the wreckage have been located.
The train, which was composed of six coaches, was due to arrive in Denver at 7:25 this morning. Although the wreck occurred at about 2 o'clock officials of the road did not receive reports of it until long after daylight. Most of the passengers were asleep in the berths when the engine plunged into the creek and few, if any, of them escaped without some injury. It will be impossible to give the list of injured for several hours.
The locomotive and mail coach plunged into twenty feet of water. The third coach telescoped the smoker, while the first Pullman hangs poised on the edge of the approach. The observation car was the only one that remained on the track.

Claims Only Two Killed.
Chicago, Sept. 23. -- General Manager TINSMAN, of the Rock Island, received a report of the wreck on the road near Clayton, Kas., which stated that but two were killed, the engineer and conductor. TINSMAN declared that he is sure if more were killed that he would have been notified. His report said that there had been a cloudburst and the passenger train ran into a washout.

Lincoln Evening News Nebraska 1910-09-23

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SIXTEEN KILLED IN KANSAS WRECK.

ROCK ISLAND TRAIN PLUNGES INTO WATERY GAP.

NUMBER OF DEAD CARRIED INTO RAGING STREAM WITH WRECKAGE.

Norton, Kas., Sept. 24. -- Six bodies, bruised and twisted into shapeless things, remained to be identified here today when the officials of the Rock Island railroad resumed their work of reconstruction, following the wreck near Clayton yesterday in which sixteen persons were killed and eleven injured. Identification seems almost impossible, but the railroad officials are closely examining all clues.

Clayton, Kas., Sept. 24. -- Sixteen persons lost their lives and eleven others suffered injury in the wreck early yesterday morning, two miles east of town, of westbound Rock Island passenger train No. 27, which was due in Denver at 8:25 yesterday morning from Kansas City. Among the dead are:
E. PICKENBAUGH, Goodland, Kas., engineer.
A. V. HUFFMAN, Kansas City, Kas., baggageman.
J. W. USHER, Denver, Colo., conductor.
WILLIAM MILLS, fireman.
HERMAN MUELER, Smith Center, Kas.
JOHN STOOP, Boyle, Kas.
W. E. SHIVELY, Agra, Kas.
GILBERT M. YAMS, Fullerton, Nebr.
H. D. McINTYRE, Rexford, Kas.
O. E. JACOBY, Woodruff, Kas.
A. MYERS, Riverton, Ill.
MRS. A. MYERS, Riverton Ill.
B. H. MOYER, Defiance, O.
SALLIE ZEIGLER, Stratton, Colo.
W. J. BOWERS, Rexford, Kas.
G. H. JAMES, St. Edwards, Nebr.
Unidentified, body severed in two.
The injured:
G. D. BRACKEN, lineman, Goodland, Kas., arm injured.
MRS. H. F. SCOTT, Bennings, Kas., right arm broken.
VICTOR ENGLE, Birmingham, Ala., bruised and cut, not serious.
MRS. T. H. EVANS, Langton, Kas., head cut.
JOHN ZEIGLER, Straton, Colo., head and face cut.
D. DUGES, no address, side cut.
A. H. AVIS, Blue Rapids, Kas., left leg broken.
MRS. ANNA SMITH, Colorado Springs, Colo., hand and chest cut.
C. A. SMITH, Colorado Springs, Colo., hand and wrist cut.
HENRY AHLERS, Meta, Mo., slightly hurt.
HELEN BENSON, Colorado Springs, slight.
Most of the dead and injured were in the smoker and one of the day coaches.
Wreck Result Of Cloudburst.
The wreck was the result of a cloudburst, which carried out a steel bridge over what is normally almost a dry bed, turning the latter into a torrent, many yards wide and twenty feet deep, and washing out nearly a thousand feet of track in the vicinity of the wreck. The train, running at full speed, plunged into the gap, the engine and mail car going down into twenty feet of water and the chair car almost telescoped the smoker ahead of it, many of the passengers in these two cars being almost instantly killed. Others were carried into the raging stream with the wreckage and it was many hours before their bodies could be recovered.
Passengers in the Pullman and other day coaches hurled from their berths and chairs by the shock, hurried out into the storm and rendered what aid they could to the injured and extricating the mangled bodies of the dead.
Others hurried to Clayton, where news of the accident was wired to division headquarters and within half an hour physicians and nurses and a wreck train were being hurried to the scene from Norton, Colby, Goodland and Phillipsburg.
It was not until late yesterday afternoon, however, that the last body was recovered from the wreck. Members of the Topeka base ball team of the Western league on their way to Denver were occupants of the Pullman, but escaped injury.

Waterloo Evening Courier Iowa 1910-09-24
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!