Lincoln, NE Rock Island Passenger Train Wrecked, Aug 1894

CRUSHED AND ROASTED.

Awful Disaster on the Rock Island Road.

DEATH LIST SWELLED TO 24.

Heap of Ashes and Twisted Iron Left to Tell the Story.

ATTRIBUTED TO TRAIN WRECKERS.

Evidence That a Fiendish Crime Has Been Perpetrated -- Spikes Were Drawn and Fish Plates Were Loosened So That the Train Left the Track as Soon as It Struck the Bridge -- Harrowing Stories of the Survivors -- Only One Man of the Twenty-Four Thought to Have Been Killed by Fire, as the Others Were Probably Crushed to Death Under the Wreck Before the Flames Spread.

Lincoln, Neb., Aug. 11. -- It was nearly dark yesterday evening before the frightful mass of debris occupying the ravine where the Rock Island express was wrecked and burned, a few miles south of this city had cooled sufficiently to enable the big crowd gathered at the place in the hope of learning something of the fate of friends or relatives to inspect the charred mass in detail, but any hope they may have entertained of securing from the great ash pile information as to the identity of those who lost their lives in the holocaust was soon blasted.
The tones of water thrown on the twisted relics of the train and the bed of embers had been insufficient to prevent every vestige of combustible matter being destroyed. Occasionally a charred skull or a partially burned human bone was raked from the bed of the furnace, but nothing more remained to tell the tale of those who went down with the ill fated train, and time was required to determine just how many persons were lost in the wreck. The list of killed and injured as furnished by the coroner swells the fatalaties to 24, and are as follows:
Dead.
DR. C. H. PINNEY, Council Bluffs.
J. D. MAATTHEWS, commercial man, Omaha.
HARRY MORSE, Kansas City.
IKE DEPEW, engineer, Council Bluffs.
W. O. HAMBELL, lawyer, Fairbury, Neb.
C. D. STANNARD, conductor, St. Joseph.
JOHN MUNGER, grain dealer, Omaha.
H. R. PETERS, merchant, Council Bluffs.
E. H. ZERNIKE, lawyer, Lincoln, Neb.
Two unknown farmers.
ANDREW HANSEN, farmer, McPherson county, Neb.
Four unknown men.
CHARLES UNRUH, mother and son, Jansen, Neb.
A. B. EDDE, merchant, Pawnee, Neb.
M. BEAVER, merchant, Pawnee, Neb.
Two unknown farmers from Jansen, Neb.
Those marked as unknown are those passengers known to have been on the train by the brakeman and unaccounted for.
Injured.
Colonel C. J. BILLS, Second regiment Nebraska National Guard, Fairbury; deep flesh wounds in left leg.
HENRY C. FOOT, brakeman, Council Bluffs; leg broken.
JAY McDOWELL, Fairbury; legs cut and face bruised.
C. H. CHERRY, mail clerk, Kearney; badly bruised and cut.
F. F. SCOTT, express messenger, injured internally.
MRS. FISH, wife of a Burlington and Missouri River engineer, badly bruised.
O. S. BELL, traveling man, Lincoln; internal injuries.
J. E. PUETZ, traveling man, Lincoln; internal injuries.
A passenger named SOMRET, hurt about the head.
MRS. FRITZ and sister-in-law, Lincoln; bruised.
The body of DR. PINNEY of Council Bluffs was found in the wreckage, and although fearfully burned and merely a mas of flesh it ws recognized by papers which escaped entire destruction. He was a prominent Iowa physician.
From the confused tangle of conflicting stories told by excited eye-witnesses it has been definitely ascertained that only one man met his death in the flames.
The low moaning, which had been heard in the ruins of the smoker, had ceased before the flames reached it and the presumption is that all its unfortunate occupants were dead. One victim, whose name will never be known, lay under the tender, the upper edge of which lay across the thighs, crushing them into the hard gravel. As Colonel BILLS approached he begged piteously to be released and saved from the flames.
Colonel BILLS is a man of nerve and desicion, but he was confronted by a terrible alternative. To move the tender was an utter impossibility, and the long tongues of hungry flames were reached out greedily for their victim. For an instant he thought that only one of the man's legs were pinned down and he thought about amputating it. Then he saw both were fast, and while he hesitated helplessly for a moment, a gust of wind drove the flames and smoke upon him, blistering his face and scorching his clothes. Before he could recover himself the long fiery tongues had wrapped themselves about the body and head of their terrified victim and stilled his screams.
Theories About the Wreck.
There are two theories as to the wrecking of the train, it being conceded that the train was derailed by the removal of the rails for a part of the way across the trestle. There is plenty of evidence to prove this as a fact.
One theory is that strikers from South Omaha did the work, believing that a company of state troops, who were to have boarded the train at Fairbury, were aboard. The company missed connection, however.
This is not as generally credited as the other -- that the element that has been causing so much trouble in Oklahoma, who are bitter against the Rock Island, did the job, though, why they should come this distance to wreck a train that might have been wrecked nearer home is not explained.
The remains of ANDREW HANSEN, a farmer of McPherson county, Neb., were identified by a watch found lying in the midst of a pile of human bones.
The police have arrested a colored man named GEORGE DAVIS, who is suspected to be connected with the wrecking. Shortly after the wreck he applied to a hackman to be driven up town. He had been on the train, he said, and lost his coat. He was seen near the place where the wreck occurred, it is claimed, with a crowbar. The police say they have evidence sufficient to convict. His motive is not known.

Deed of Dastards.
Strong Evidence That Train Wreckers Caused the Disaster.
Lincoln, Neb. Aug. 11. -- All the indications point to train wreckers as the cause of the fearful wreck on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad, which involved the loss of 12 or more lives.
Marks made by a wrench on a loosened rail were plainly visible and the marks of a crowbar on the crossties were there.
The wood of the ties was deeply dented where the crowbar had been inserted and the rails lifted clear off the ties, and the spikes which had been pulled out were lying around loose on the bridge.
J. W. GLOVER, a section man, saw three well dressed men jump a freight and go west. He said each of the men carried a long, brand-new satchel. This gives rise to a suspicion that it may have been some of the Round Pond (O.T.) enemies of the Rock Island.
The Rock Island officials offer $1,000 reward for the capture of the train wreckers.
Crashed Into the Creek.
Train No. 8 is an accommodation called the "Fort Worth Accommodation" and is due here at 9:40 p. m. Thursday night it was about 10 minutes late and was making up time when it struck the trestle that crosses Salt creek about four miles from the city. When it struck the trestle the rails immediately spread and the engine drawing the two cars after it, went thumping along over the crossties for about 50 feet and then with a crash it fell about 40 feet to the bed of the creek below. The engine burst and glowing coals spreading ignited the wooden supports and the coaches behind it and in a few moments the bridge, dry as tinder from its long exposure to the sun, was one mass of flames.
The coals falling upon the coaches lying in the ditches set them afire and five minutes after the first warning the entire mass of cars with their loads of human freight below was a mass of flames.
Flames Mounted High.
It was an awful sight. The flames mounted high in the heavens, coloring the entire southern sky a brilliant red and from below shrieks of agony and pain were heard to issue. Willing hands were there to help, but little could be done. The engine had fallen first, then the combination car of smoker and express coach fell, partially upon that, and the rear coach falling behind it telescoped that car, thus pinioning those unfortunates who were in the smoker so that it was impossible to save them or for them to escape.
HARRY FOOTE, the brakeman, who did such efficient work at the wreck, says he is positive that there were at least 10 men in the smoker. Six of them he can describe. In addition to the crew he mentions a man whose name he does not know, employed by an elevator builder named COUNSELMAN at Narka, Kan. There were also several passengers who got on at Jansen and two who got on at Pawnee City.
Groans From the Smoker.
FOOTE says that when he took out FRED SCOTT, the baggagemaster who was crying for help, he heard a groan from the smoker and again another when he reached it, but that was all. Probably all were mercifully crushed to death when the car was smashed almost perfectly flat. One man was found lying outside the smoker. He was probably on the platform when the train went over. He was seriously, but not fatally injured and is not at the Opelt house. The passengers in the chair car were paralyzed with fright and could only lie on the bank and moan, rendering no assistance to the rescuers.
One family of Russians, consisting of a man, wife and child, were so completely strickenthat, like horses in a fire, they could not be induced to leave the car and had to be carried.
W. O. S. BELL; the Lincoln traveling man, was not killed, as at first reported, but terribly injured internally. He was taken to his home on North Sixteenth street.
Among the 13 passengers in the chair car were MRS. FRITZ and sister-in-law, who were badly shaken and bruised.
J. E. PUETZ, a Lincoln traveling man, had three ribs broken and received a mass of cuts and bruises, but it is thought he will recover.

The Newark Daily Advocate Ohio 1894-08-11
__________________

Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!