Battle Creek, MI Train Wreck, Oct 1893 - 26 Mangled Bodies

Twenty-Six Mangled Bodies

Train Filled With Excursionist Wrecked At Battle Creek.

More Than A Score Badly Injured.

A Frightful Holocaust Caused By Disobedience Of Orders.

Passengers Roasted To Death.

Raymond & Whitcomb Excursion Train Filled with Returning World’s Fair Tourists Driven Like a Rod of Steel into a Pacific Express-Unlucky Thirteen Cars Crushed into Splinters About Sleeping Passengers-Then Fire Roasted Helpless Passengers Who Were Pinned Down by Debris-Terrible Suffering and Heroic Death of MRS. VAN DUSEN of Sprout Brook, N.Y.-Pitiful Scenes, of Which Those Who Would Rescue Were Powerless Spectators-Engineer Wooley of the Raymond & Whitcomb Train Says Conductor Scott Told Him That the Road Was Clear-The Engineer and Conductor Arrested and Held to be Tried for Manslaughter.

Battle Creek, Mich., Oct. 20.-Twenty-six heaps of charred, blackened flesh, all that remains of what less than twenty-four hours ago were men, women and children in the enjoyment of life, health and happiness, rest upon the floor of an improvised morgue in the basement of a furniture store in this city.

A mile away, in the City Hospital, are a score or more of human beings with gashed bodies and broken limbs.

Add to this an engineer and a conductor in jail, and the story is told in brief of the latest of railroad horrors, and one of the most appalling in character of this or recent years, which occurred here in the yards of the Grand Trunk Railroad when a Raymond & Whitcomb excursion train telescoped a Pacific Express.

The list of dead, most of whom are unidentified and the injured is as follows:

Dead.

HENRY, W.W., Woonsocket, R.I., lumber dealer; identified by business cards.
MAGOON, E.T., Providence, R.I.; identified by papers in a pocketbook.
VAN DUSEN, MRS. CHARLES, Sprout Brook, N.Y.; burned to a crisp.
VAN DUSEN, CHARLES, husband of above; died of injuries this afternoon.
WOMAN-Burned to crisp. No clothing remaining.
BOY-Apparently about twelve years old. Face and upper portion of head, as well as feet, burned to a crisp. Few red hairs remaining on back of neck. In pocket of coat, handkerchief with red border, chatelaine watch.
MALE-Paper in vest pocket with statement from John Monroe, banker, New-York, to Charles E. Wenzel, also a note written in German from Charles E. Wenzel to Dr. Howard E. Vance.
WOMAN-Burned; hands clenched and horrible expression of anguish on face. Had in pocket of skirt letters addressed to Mrs. F.R. Kenzie and signed by Mrs. M. Parker; envelope postmarked Stanford, Conn.; also $25 in money. In another pocket was a handkerchief with name F.R. Mekenzie. In red plush coat taken out of the debris with remains was a gold watch in leather case and a pair of rubbers in paper marked “Middletown, Conn.”
MALE-Supposed to be T.A. McGarvey of Ontario; gold open-faced watch in vest pocket.
MALE-Apparently about thirty-five years old; heavy build; in pocket of trousers several English gold sovereigns; jack knife with horn handle in vest; silver watch, gold spectacles; handkerchief with initials “H.G.” in Old English letters; trousers were brown, of the Old English front-flap style.
MALE-Apparently weighed about 180 pounds; clothing destroyed; burned beyond possibility of identification.
WOMAN-Burned beyond identification; no clothing remaining.
BABY-Burned beyond recognition.
MALE-Too badly burned for identification.
MALE-Weight about 180 pounds. Silk handkerchief in hand; clothing destroyed; no identification.
WOMAN-Burned to a crisp; no identification.
MALE-About 145 pounds; no papers; silver watch engraved with initials “W.A.”
WOMAN-Weight about 140 pounds; chain bracelet with key lock on right wrist; burned to a crisp.
WOMAN-Weight about 100 pounds; no identification.
WOMAN-Burned beyond identification; portion of black silk dress and blue striped underskirt remaining; also chain bracelet on right wrist.
WOMAN-Burned to a crisp.
MALE-Supposed, from papers, to be G.W. Beardsley of Watkins, N.Y. In pockets $30 in currency and two checks, one for $200 and the other for $100.
CHARRED TRUNK-Limbs and head missing. Medical examination necessary to determine sex.
The Same.
The Same.
MALE-Apparently about 150 pounds. Open face watch of Illinois make. No means of identification.
One of the female bodies is believed to be that of Mrs. W.W. Henry of Woonsocket, R.I.
One of the male bodies is believed to be William Lewis Wilson of 832 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Ill. A valise, with his visiting cards and other pieces, was found in the wreck.

The New York Times, New York, NY 21 Oct 1893