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A Frightful fiallroad AccidentA terrible wreck occurred on the West ern North Carolina Railroad at two o'clock a. m. last Thursday one and a half miles from Statesville. As a west bound passenger train, loaded with sov-onty-five passengers, reached Bostian’s bridgo, the train left the track and engine with lour cars, were hurled into the creek seventy feet below. The cars were piled upon each other. Between twenty and thirty persons were killed and the rest wore all injured except four.The track for fully a half mile east of and across the bridge is down grade and perfectly straight. The approach to the bridge i9 upon a very heavy fill, and the train was no doubt moving at a very rapid rato, as the structure is of such a character as to be thought as solid as tho earth itself. It is built of rock and brick, and has five arches or spans. It is perhaps 200 feet long.Tho embankments on either side are very abrupt, and tho height from the ground at the centre arch to the track level abovo is 70 feet.The train was composed of engine, combination baggage and smoking car, first class car, the sleeping car “Saluda,” and Superintendent Bridgers' private car Daisy.”Tho track, together with the cross ties, throughout tho whole length of the bridgo, were swept clear from the string era and carried into the gorge with the wreck, but the bridgo itself was left without a mark of damage upon it. The steel rails were twisted into every conceivable shape, and interwoven in tho wreck in every direction.The train fell from the north side of the track. The ongine fell partially upon the embankment on the west side of the creek. The first-class coaoh lies on top of tho second-class, and Supt. Bridgers' partly covers tho sleeper. Engineer West was found pinioned under his cab, while within an arm’s reach of him were the bodies of two of the unknown female passengers. How their bodies got from the first class coach to the engine will never be known.List of Dead.—Wm. West, engineer, Salisbury ; Warren Fry, fireman ; H. K. Linster, baggage master, Statesville; W. M. Houston, Greensboro ; Perry Barnett, Asheville; Samuel Gorman, Asheville ; Chas. Bennett, Hondersonville; W. J. Fisher, Campobella, S. C.; W. E. Winslow, Asheville ; John Davis, Statesville; J. B. Austin, Hickory ; Mrs. Geo. McCormick, Cleveland; Mrs. Page; unknown elderly lady ; unknown lady, ring on finger marked T. H. W. to M. ft. R.; unknown colored man; Mrs. Poole, Wil-liamston; T. Brodio, New York ; Rov. J. M. Sikos, Clarksville, Tenn.; Dock Well, porter; Miss Ophelia Moore, Helena, Arkansas.List of Injured.—A. L. Sink, Lexington, badly hurt; George Brawley, Atlanta ; Conductor Spaugh, will recover; H. C. deeper, conductor sleeping car, will live ; porter of the sleeper; A. W. Lawson, Louisville, Ky.; Miss L. Poole, William ston, will recover; Mrs. R. C. Moore, Helena, Arkansas; Mrs. A. L. Sink, Lexington, badly hurt; B. M. Estus, Jr., Memphis, Tenn.; Flagman Shoaf, Lexington ; John Gaze, Asheville, not seriously ; Geo. W. Sanderlin, State Auditor, will recover; P. E. Ransom, cut on the head; R. E. Johnson, news-boy; Otto Ramsay, Norfolk, Ya., very sligbly ; Holler, Catawba county, seriously.Col. Benneham Cameron, of the governor’s staff, gives your oorrespondont the following further particulars:I was on route with auditor Sanderlin to Cleveland. N. C. and having lost sleep tho night beforo was sleeping soundly in tho sleeper at tho time of the accident. The shock aroused mo to complete consciousness and was not aware that I was hurt or of what had happened.Then exerting all my strength, I raised tho upper berth a foot or so and got hold on the iron grating overhead and pulled myself out of tho water and out of the upper berth.Hero a Mrs. Moore askod for help and I got her out at a window. I went back and shoutod for Sanderlin, without reply then 1 took out Mrs. Moore's daughter and returning, called again for SanderliD, getting this time a taint reply, and groping my way to him dragged and pulled him to a broken window out of the water and the fresh air revived us both.I was in the forward right lower berth, my first sensation was that the windows were closing in on me, and that the car was on its left side and the water was coming in. The first effort to escape showed me that tho water had come up to the lower edge of the berth abovo me, and that my left foot was firmly bound in some way, and I felt that I was smothering, though tho water did not rise any higher nor tho car sink any lower.I called and yelled at the top of my voice, but heard no answer except tho groans and cries from other sufferers, then 1 recalled my thoughts and set to work to extricate my left foot and succeeded.Hearing a cry from a lady I went to her relief, but found that she was held down and all my strength could not pull her out. Feeling under tho water I found that her clothing was attached to something. I tore it off and got her out. She was very weak and faint and I laid her on a cushion. I asked her name and she said she was traveling with Mrs. Hix, and she herself was Mrs White, from Memphis, Tenn.As no one else responded to my call, Does any one need help, I proposed to Sanderlin, to stay with the three ladies, while I should go for outside help. Bareheaded and barefooted and in night cloth ing I tramped to a farm house, and securing conveyance I came to Statesville and roused the town and then returned.Great interest is felt everywhere about Dr. Geo. W. Sanderlin who was injured in the wreck. His injuries are not serious, though they are extremely painful; and from his big toe, which is badly bruised, to his hoad ho is painfully bruised. Ointment and plasters cover most of his body, and he suffers much pain. But the poultices and ointments will soon mako him well. He is devoutly grateful for his re covery and thankful for tho interest manifested. I interviewed him to day, and he said:On retiring I showed the porter (afterwards killed) a depression on my forehead and told him I had received it in a railroad disaster on tho Chesapeake A Ohio railroad in Virginia some summers ago by the porter making up my berth in the wrong manner, and 1 didn’t want to get into any railroad disaster again. Knowing I must rise at 5 o’clock tho next morning to change cars at Marion, I retired to my birth immediately on reaching Greensboro. I was soon asleep, and continued so until I reached the bridge con nected with the dreadful disaster. The train due at Statesville at 2 o’clock thatnight was forty minutes late; it was therefore a quarter of three o'clock when I was awakened by feeling tbe train make two sudden jumps or jars, and in a moment afterwards I felt myself gowing down, down, down, I could not tell whether. My heart woll nigh stopped beating, In a short while there came an instantaneous slop and crash. Immediately shrieks and cries for help went up from all the cars—from sleeping ear to engine. I found myself overwhelmed with a mass of debris or wreckage. My right leg was pinioned by a sharp piece of iron underneath and heavy pieces of wood lying upon it from above. I found myself also lying in the water, but fortunately it reached only to ray waist.I was stunned by the fall and must buve remained so for sometime. When I aroused I called out for help, and Colonel Cameron, who had for Borne time been searching for me heard me and come immediately to my help through a window in the upper part of the car. After work ing away for a long time he succeeded in detaching one piece of timber after another until my leg was free. Meantime the water was rising higher around me and I should most likely have been drowned but for Col. Cameron’s timely coming to my relief.Only a lew feet from rao Mrs. Pool, of Williamston, and her daughter were lying in the water. The daughter held her mother’s bead out of the water until she was exhausted, and then letting it go, in a few moments her mother was drowned.The daughter was barely saved in time to escape drowning. Near me also lay Miss Moore, of Arkansas, with crushed head, and bermothcr, Mrs. Moore badly j injured. From one end of the sleeper to the other men and women—the larger proportion women—were dead or dying. Only four in this car escaped I could hear the convulsive shrieks and gasping of the dying in the other cars. A large proportion of those killed died within a 1 few minutes after the cars fell.We had fallen a distance of nearly one hundred feet. I fell from the central arch, and for hours lay there looking up ■ viewing the place from whence I had fallen. It was a long lime before relief came to us, but when the disater became known no people could have worked more nobly than the people living in the neighborhood of the wreck, and also the people of Statesville near by. It was tbe : most terrible wreck known to the railroad annals of this Stale and the horrors ; of it beggars description. I feel grateful to my friends all over the State for their kindly interest and sympathy, and though terribly bruised and sorely wounded I hope to bo fully recovered within a few wooks.Mr. Sink and wife who were married in Lexington, N. C. and started for a mountain trip are both critically hurt. Mr. Sink was supposed to bo dying last night, but is improving today.The recovery of both is now thought very probableTho authorities of the road claim that tho wreck was due to the work of wreckers. In support of this they say that the spikes and bolls which held the rails and crossties to tho wooden stringers across the viaduct had boon deliberately drawn by some person unknown, and the train thereby wrecked. To prove this they will produce as evidence spikes, with marks upon them indicating that they had boon freshly drawn, and bolts with the taps removed with no marks or breaks in the threads to indicate that it had been done by violence. These bolts and spikes, we understand, were found upon the top of the bridge by Superintendent Bridgers, and as soon as ho discovered them a number of tbe crowd were called to witness their position and condition.One thing appears to be reasonably sure, and that is that the engine did not leave tho track first.It has been asserted that at least some of the baggage on tbe wrecked train was gone through by robbers, J. P. Mudd, D. M. Drennen, Mrs. W. N. Malone and Miss Jean Daniel, of Birmingham, Alabama, and Miss Ella Houston and Miss Emma Houston, of Athens, Alabama, had baggage on the train consisting of clothing, diamonds and other jewelry, valued at $2,500. This party got off the train at Statesville, to break their journey by a day’s rest. Tho condition of somo of their trunks (of which there were six) after being taken from the wreck was such as to lead them to believe that they bad been robbed, No jewelry was found.J. C. Bodie, of Chicago, a drummer, also had valuable diamonds in his baggage, it is said, and only one ring, a $500 one, was recovered. This was found in the fob pocket of his trousers, together with a $50 bill, when be was being undressed, and the discovery was due to the suggestion of some one who bad seon him put the money in that particular pocket the day before in Statesville.Tbe trunks and valises taken from the wreck were almost torn to shreds, and as they were piled on tho platform and in the freight depot at Statesville for assortment, presented a confused and jumbled mass. Nearly every article was a complete loss.One remarkable feature connected with those killed outright was that the necks of all but two of them were found to have beon broken.At the coroner inquest on tho bodies of the persons killed in the wreck tho Jury returned the following verdict:After being sworn find from tho testimony and our personal examination that the above named persons came to their death by the wrecking of the train on tho Western North Carolina railroad at Bostian’s Bridge, over Third Creek, in Iredell county, N. C., on Thursday morn ing Aug. 21, 1891. Tho said wrecking of the train being caused by a loose rail, the bolts and spikes of the same having been-taken out by some person or persons un known to the jury, with tools or implements belonging to said railroad company which said tools or implement were by gross negligence on the part of said railroad company left in an open shed accessible to every passerby. We do also find that several of the cross ties at and near the break in the said railroad track, where said rail was displaced were unsound and should have been replaced, and that the superstruction on the bridge was in part defective, and further that the high rate of speed maintained in running trains over this bridge deserves and has the censure and condemnation of this jury.G. F. Shepperd, P. C. Carlton, J. Stephany, J. CJ. Lamprechts, M. C. Williams, J. S. Ramsey, Jurors. G. W. Clegg, Coroner.Mr. J. S. Ramsey of tho jury, signed the report but does not believe that any rail was loosened or misplaced before the wreck.
Newspaper Details
Charlotte Democrat
Charlotte, North Carolina, US
Fri, Sep 04, 1891
Page 2
Full Page
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Anonymous
USA 05 Nov 2024
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