Battle Creek, MI Train Wreck, Oct 1893 - More Details

At the moment of the crash, Henry Canfield, one of the night clerks in the Grand Trunk office, a short distance away, pulled the fire-alarm box and also telephoned to the engine house for aid. The nearest hydrant was nearly 2,000 feet away, and when a line of hose was laid the pressure was not sufficient to throw a stream.

Finally a stream was secured from another hydrant, but by the time a supply of water was available the telescoped coaches had been reduced to fragments of charred timber, little more than the tracks remaining.

The firemen the commenced the gruesome work of recovering what remained of the victims. The injured were placed in buggies and carts and taken to the Nichols Home, where a corps of physicians and nurses were in waiting to minister to their sufferings.

The first body was found at 6 o’clock, and a few minutes after a dozen were discovered in a heap around the stove of the second car. The task continued until twenty-six bodies or portions of human beings had been brought out of the debris. For want of a sufficient number of stretchers, boards were nailed together, and a freight car standing on the side track was converted into a temporary morgue.

After a wrecking crew set to work, the debris again sorted and afterward burned, and to-night there is nothing in the railroad yards but a heap of ashes to tell the story of one of the most awful holocausts in the history of railroading.

No pen can describe the last moments of Mrs. CHARLES VAN DUSEN. She had succeeded in getting half way out of the window, but her limbs were pinioned by the heavy framework of the seat she had been occupying with her husband, and this had taken fire. Thus held, roasting from feet up, she pleaded and begged for the help that those outside were helpless to give. Despite her terrible agony she retained consciousness to the last, and as the flames crept up and surrounded her she called out her name and address and that of friends to be notified.

“I am a teacher in the Methodist Sunday school at Sprout, N.Y.,” she cried; “say I died like a Christian.” Then the side of the car gave way and she fell back into the flames.

Her husband had meanwhile been rescued from the next car, into which he had been driven by the force of the collision. Both limbs were fractured and he had also received internal injuries. He retained consciousness until his death this afternoon, but was kept in ignorance of the fate of his wife.

In his last breath he asked the Rev. Dr. George B. Kulp to send his love to the two children he had left at home, and also to give them his watch. He was forty-seven years old and a Deacon in the Methodist church of his native village.

Many of the articles found in the debris may lead to the identification of some, at least, of the long list of unrecognizable dead. These include a handkerchief marked E. Wirtz; a card of A. Allen & Co., 51 Bay Street, Toronto; a card of the Meriden Fire Insurance Company, Meriden, Conn., with pencil writing that cannot be deciphered; a lady’s watch, with the name engraved-Ann Richard-and case numbered 7,071; an envelope addressed to Gage Roberts, postmarked New York City; a letter addressed to Miss Warren Garland, New York; a letter from Sheldon & Henry of Woonsocket, R.I., introducing W.W. Henry to friends in Chicago, and with which was a round trip ticket Boston to Chicago; a bank book 120,241, Manhattan Bank, New York, in name of Henry J. Archbell; a bundle of personal articles with card of Henry Opperman, passenger agent, 849 Broadway, New-York; a letter addressed Gus Roberts, 99 Nassau Street, New-York; a bundle with letter addressed to James G. Worthman, 431 East Eightieth Street, New-York.

That WILLIAM LEWIS WILSON of Evanston, Ill., is one of the victims is evident from the contents of a valise that partially escaped the flames. These included some underwear and linen and a copy of the rules of the League of American Wheelmen, with his name and the words “Northwestern University” on the flyleaf.

After the wreck, Engineer Wooley of the special train remained upon the spot and viewed the horror that had been cause by his neglect of orders. After the last of the injured had been taken away he went to his home.

This afternoon warrants were sworn out by Prosecuting Attorney Clark, charging Wooley and Scott with manslaughter.

Wooley was found at his home by Sheriff King and taken before Justice Henry, who set the preliminary hearing for Monday and fixed bail at $3,000. After this had been done Wooley, who was on the verge of prostration physically and mentally, asked permission to make a statement, which the Justice reduced to writing.

“When my engine was coupled on the train at the depot,” he began, “Conductor Scott asked me if I was ready to go. I said no; that I had not oiled my engine yet. I took my oil can and got off on the side furthest from the depot, on the south side. Scott came around on my side of the engine and handed me my orders, and said to me, ‘No. 9 has gone through.’ He said the dispatcher was crazy about us not getting out of there.

“I hurried up and got through oiling my engine, got up in the cab, and at that time Conductor Scott was over near the platform. He asked me if I was ready to go. I asked him if he was sure No. 9 had gone through.

“He said, ‘Yes, she has.’

“I got up on my seat and started the engine. After I got into the yards I saw a headlight. I thought at first it was the switch engine, but in a moment I saw that she was coming too fast.

“I shut the throttle and reversed my engine. My train came to a stop and was standing still when No. 9 struck my engine.

“I asked my firemen, after the wreck, if he remembered what Scott said to me. He said he did. He said that Scott told me that No. 9 had one through.”

Conductor Scott was arrested late tonight and was taken before Justice Henry. He gave bonds in $3,000 to appear on Monday. He made a brief statement to the effect that he gave the engineer a duplicate of the order he received, that he supposed the engineer understood it, that he afterward went into the baggage car and did not know the engineer had gone over the siding and taken the single track until the collision occurred. Up to 10:30 P.M. Engineer Woolley had been unable to find a bondsman, and he will probably remain in jail until the hearing.

It is reported from the hospital that FRANK H. SMITH, of Fort Plain, N.Y., whose limbs were so badly crushed as to compel amputation, cannot live more than an hour. This will bring the death list to twenty-seven.

The railroad officials say that outside of the legal proceedings they will hold an independent and searching inquiry into the cause of the calamity with the view of placing the blame where it belongs.

State Railroad Commissioner Billings arrived to-night and will open an inquiry next week.

Mr. Whitcomb of the firm of Raymond & Whitcomb at 31 East Fourteenth Street said that the firm’s train that was in the collision was a Boston vestibule train, second section No. 6, consisting of four Pullman sleeping cars and a dining room car, and that there were no New-Yorkers in it.

He had heard by telephone from his Boston agents that the train was in charge of an agent named Hewitt, who had telegraphed to the Boston agents that no one in the Raymond & Whitcomb train was injured.

Mr. Whitcomb said a vestibuled section is like a rod of steel, and he has never heard of one being telescoped. The collision of one with and ordinary express train was like a collision between a steel rod and a barn door.

The Raymond & Whitcomb train was delayed four hours by the collision, and left the scene of the accident at 7 o’clock in the morning.

Express train No. 9 was a local train, leaving Niagara Falls at 6:20 A.M. and Port Huron, Mich., at 8:46 P.M.

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