Montez, LA Train Collision, Nov 1912

THIRTY REPORTED KILLED IN MISSISSIPPI WRECK

Freight Train Crashed Into Rear End of Excursion Train on Yazoo Mississippi Valley

COACHES BURNED

Flames Break Out Among Dead and Injured -- Blacks Vie With Whites In Heroism

By Associated Press
New Orleans, Nov. 11 -- Thirty persons are reported killed and more than fifty injured in a wreck on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley railroad at midnight last night, when a freight train crashed into an excursion passenger train bound from New Orleans to Woodville, Mississippi.
The wreck was caused by a through freight crashing into the rear of an excursion train of ten coaches. The two rear coaches were telescoped. Five of the coaches burned and many of the bodies of victims are believed to have been cremated. Most of the dead are negroes. The wreck occurred about thirty miles north of here near Montez, Louisiana.
Many of the injured are white. An official statement issued by the railroad company places the blame for the disaster on a brakeman who is charged with failure to obey orders and signal the freight train.
The excursion train left New Orleans drawn by two engines. On approaching Montez, one of the engines broke down and the engineer signaled to the brakeman to go back and flag the freight train, which was running twenty-five minutes behind the excursion. The freight tore into the rear of the crowded passenger train at a speed of about thirty miles an hour.
Of the fourteen bodies recovered so far, nine were negroes and five white persons. The white dead:
MRS. VICTORIA MONTEUCE, of Vachary, Louisiana.
MRS. JENNIE CONEAUX, Vachary, Louisiana.
MRS. CHARLES GRECO, Vachary, Louisiana.
MRS. THOS. GRUNNESS, New Orleans.
An unidentified white child.
Almost as soon as the collision occurred the two rear coaches, which were telescoped by the freight engine, caught fire. The passengers who escaped injury rushed into the coaches and dragged dead and injured from the flames.
Several of the occupants of the forward coaches were badly burned in their efforts to save the less fortunate. Excited women and children ran wildly about searching for relatives and friends. White men risked their lives to save injured negroes from the fire and negro men rushed into the steam and flames to rescue white persons as well as members of their own race.

Wichita Daily Times Wichita Falls Texas 1912-11-11
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!