Little Woods, LA Train Wreck, Nov 1908 - Frightful Wreck

FRIGHTFUL WRECK NEAR NEW ORLEANS

EIGHT PERSONS ARE INSTANTLY KILLED AND MANY OTHERS INJURED, SOME OF WHOM WILL DIE

Great Northern Train Runs Into Northeastern Train on Same Track, Crushing One Coach and Its Occupants - Wreck Victims Were Prominent People - Blame for Catastrophe Not Definitely Fixed - Conductor and Engineer of Great Northern Train Under Arrest.

THE VICTIMS OF THE WRECK

Instantly Killed

William Attaway, aged 3 years, Slidell, La.
C. B. Lowry, aged 45 years, General Manager American Creosoting Co., Slidell, La.
W. A. Martin, aged 45 years, Slidell.
C. A. Cranford, aged 45 years, Seminary, Miss.
J. K. P. Shows, aged 64 years, Morristown, Miss.
O. W. Travis, aged 38 years, Hattiesburg, Miss.
A. Heitkamp, aged 60 years, Pearl River, Miss.
Prof. C. E. Roos, aged 41 years, Alton, La.

The Injured

Jacob Salmen, aged 45, New Orleans.
J. A. Juick, aged 53, Hattiesburg, Miss., hip dislocated and right leg fractured.
D. B. Calhoun, aged 55 years, Olive, Mis., fracture of the right hip, serious.
Milton Spitzfaden, aged 17 years, news agent of Northeastern train, Algiers, La., general contusions and feet burned.
Peter McCarthy, aged 35 years, fireman of Great Northern train, leg and both arms broken.
Mrs. F. M. Attaway, aged 27 years, Slidell, La., slight bruises.
Mrs. Robert W. Hinton, aged 45 years, Lumberton, Miss., right leg broken.
Miss Florence Lyde, aged 25 years, Lumberton, right ankle sprained.
E. Heintz, aged 24 years, Covington, La., cut on forehead.
Rev. G. P. Harris, Magee, Miss., collar bone and right leg broken, left leg bruised and left hand cut.
Holmes Harrison, aged 42 years, New Orleans, ribs broken and hands cut.

All of the above are in hospitals here. Others less seriously injured are:

B. S. Wood, Nicholson, Miss.
F. A. Nixon, Seminary, Miss.
S. G. Seal, Passman, La.
J. J. Mason, Slidell, La.
J. Ricks, Mandeville, La.
A. Provost, Slidell, La.
W. H. Readman, Covington, La.
E. Grant, colored, Covington, La.
P. Arceneaux, Mandeville, La.
T. Roehl, New Orleans.
J. Peeples, Alton, La.

New Orleans States, Yesterday.

An awful price in human flesh and blood was paid for by an error made by a train crew of the New Orleans and Northeastern railroad at Little Woods this morning shortly after 8 o'clock. As the result of the failure to flag train No. 61 of the New Orleans Great Northern, eight persons were killed, so far as is known, and nearly a dozen more seriously injured in one of the most terrible wrecks, accompanied by an aftermath of most harrowing scenes, that has occurred here in years. The oversight on the part of the train crew of the New Orleans and Northeastern train was made more serious by a heavy mist that settled over that section.

Going at a high rate of speed, the Covington train of the New Orleans Great Northern, Ozone line, three minutes late, crashed into the rear coach of No. 9, of the New Orleans and Northeastern at Little Woods, about twelve miles outside of New Orleans, on the lake shore, burying eleven persons beneath the debris and seriously injuring nearly a dozen more.

Cause of the Wreck

The New Orleans and Northeastern train, which uses the same track out of New Orleans as does the New Orleans Great Northern, was twenty minutes late. It reached Little Woods shortly before 8:30 o'clock and made the usual stop. A heavy fog suffused the atmosphere at the time. By some oversight the crew of the NewOrleans and Northeastern failed to send a flagman ahead to flag the incoming Great Northern, due at Little Woods at that time, although it was known that the Great Northern train would soon make it appearance.

The nose of the engine tore its way through the entire length of the two rear coaches, and the sickening sound of splitting lumber, simultaneous with the pitiful wails of the unfortunate victims, was heartrendering and indescribable.

Engineer Blackman Stuck to Throttle

Just as the crash came Fireman McCarty jumped from the cab of the engine and escaped with internal injuries, though of a severe nature. A most miraculous escape from death was experienced by Engineer Blackman. Although he stuck to his post to the last, and was carried through the channel of death, he came out with but slight bruises.

Eight Bodies Quickly Found

It was not long before eight still bodies, some so horribly mangled as to be unrecognizable, were extricated from the ruins. The injured had, in the meantime, been taken to a place of refuge, where their injuries were attended to, and everything done to relieve their suffering.

The spot were [sic] the acident [sic] occurred resembles a slaughter pen. The search for bodies continue and every now and then bits of flesh are taken from the debris. The pile of wreckage was bespattered with blood, and in the search for more bodies the hands of the searching party, in some instances, were smeared with blood. An attempt to describe the extent of the horror of the scene would be futile.

How Mr. Salmen Was Hurt

Jake Salman was seated, engaged in conversation with C. B. Lowry, who was killed, in the coach ahead of the rear coach, when the crash came. Mr. Lowry, it seems, was crushed between the engine and the inner side of the coach, but Mr. Salmen, though struck by the engine and partially crushed by the broken timber, had space enough to permit of his not being crushed to death.

However, Mr. Salmen received such serious internal injuries that it is hardly expected that he will live very long. Besides receiving a fracture of several ribs and sustaining other internal injuries, one of his ears was mashed almost completely off. He also sustained a broken collar bone.

Much valuable and timely assistance was rendered by Inspector O'Connor, special Grady and Chief of Detectives Reynolds. Endowed with intuition, and with the experience of years in handling such cases, Inspector O'Connor and his valuable assistants set about in seing [sic] to the welfare of the injured, and the propert manner of procedure in extricating the dead bodies from under the pile of debris.

A. Lannes, a passenger in the Northeastern train when the crash came, gave the following account of the accident on his arrival at the Terminal Station.

The Biloxi Daily Herald, Biloxi, MS 12 Nov 1908

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Transcribed by Tim Taugher. Thanks, Tim!