Battle Creek, Michigan

Train Wreck

October 20, 1893

TERRIBLE SLAUGHTER

Twenty-six Persons Killed In a Wreck at Battle Creek, Mich.

MANY BURNED BEYOND RECOGNITION

A Crew of a Raymond Excursion Train Disobey Orders and Collided With an Express --- The Coaches Are Telescoped, People Crushed and Fire Adds to the Horror of the Scene --- Many Injured --- A Number of the Dead Will Never be Identified.

BATTLE CREEK, Mich., Oct. 20. --- The worst accident this year occurred about 4 o'clock this morning in the yards of the Chicago & Grand Trunk close by the round house in this city by which at least twenty-five people lost their lives and about as many more were badly injured. It was a Raymond & Whitcomb special train with passengers from New York and Boston returning from Chicago. The train was in charge of Conductor SCOTT of this city, and Engineer WOOLEY and took orders at this station to meet at Nichols No. 9 Pacific express going west, due at this station at 1:35 o'clock, but which was nearly three hours late.

The conductor or engineer or both, of the Raymond special, disobeyed orders and passed Nichols station and collided with the Pacific express coming west at the rate of thirty miles an hour. The two engines were driven into each other and were a total wreck. The one on the express was No. 158, a new cook engine in use only two weeks. The engineer and fireman, when they saw that a collision was inevitable, shut off the steam, reversed the engines, put on brakes and all jumped and escaped without serious injuries. The conductor of the special Raymond train was SCOTT and the engineer was named WOOLEY. The engineer of the Pacific express was named GIL CRANSHAW and the conductor was named BURKE. The conductor was badly hurt by being caught in the cars.

When the collision took place the second and third day coaches of the No. 9 train going west were completely telescoped. A horrible sacrifice took place, the second coach cutting through the third coach like a knife, the roof crashing over the heads of the sleeping, ill-fated passengers in the third coach, completely entombing them in a fiery furnace.

The engine and baggage car of the special were badly wrecked, but the coaches being sleepers and the train moving slowly, they escaped serious injury and no one on this train was injured. The Pacific express was made up of thirteen day coaches and four of them were telescoped and burned up, catching fire from the lamps on the cars. The passengers in the four cars were more or less injured and in one of them, No. 13, called the “unlucky coach,” which has been in several accidents before, there were twenty-five dead bodies taken from the wreck this morning by the firemen. They were pinched under seats and jammed up against the end of the coach by the next coach which had telescoped it and then burned them like rats in a trap.

The accident was a mile from the fire station and before water could be turned on, the cars were destroyed and the bodies burned so as to be unrecognizable. Nearly all had heads, arms or legs burned off and cannot be identified yet. As the second coach crashed through, it swept the people in the north end of the third car to the vicinity of the stove where most of the bodies were afterwards found. The car immediately took fire and in an instant all was ablaze. The night yardmen and neighbors in the vicinity rushed to the rescue as soon as possible.

One passenger escaped from the doorway. Those who saved themselves smashed windows and climbed through. Three only got out of the left side and about six from the right side of the coach; all the others perished. The most horrible sight was that of MRS. CHARLES VAN DUSEN of Ft. Plains, N.Y. She succeeded in getting half way out of the window, but her legs were so fastened that those who ran to her assistance could not rescue her. She was burned to death before the eyes of the spectators. One-half of her body was hanging out of the window. Before she perished she gave her name.

HENRY CANFIELD, one of the night clerks at the Chicago & Grand Trunk office, heard a crash and immediately called the fire company and then telephoned the engine house for help to extinguish the flames.

The firemen responded promptly, but as they were a mile from the scene and because of the distance of the hydrant from the cars and the difficulty of the fire engines in getting between the trains, the flames had gained great headway when the line of hose was finally laid, and it was some time before it could be extinguished. The twenty-five dead bodies are unidentified, as all clothing and heads, arms and legs have been burned off. One body was that of an infant with its head consumed. On another body, the clothing of which was partly consumed, business cards bearing the name of “A. A. Allan & Co.,” of 51 Bay street, Toronto, were found. Among the dead identified are:
MRS. C. W. VAN DUSEN of Sprout Brook, N. Y.
E. I. WORTS, being identified by handkerchief found on the remains.
The names of those who received the worst injuries are:
W. H. VAN DUSEN of Sprout Brook, N. Y., badly injured and will die.
MRS. LIZZIE VANSE of Simcoe, Ont., and SON, 14 years old, badly cut by glass and legs badly injured.
MRS. HENRY BUSHNELL of Brockport, N. Y., cut badly by glass.
MRS. B. WILLIAMS, one leg broken.
JOSEPH H. ARCHBELL of Evanston, Ills., ankle smashed.
MRS. J. O. BADY of Toronto, badly hurt.
CHARLES VAN DUSEN, one of the injured, died at Nichols' Memorial home at 10 o'clock.

The gruesome work continued until about 9 o'clock, when the last body was taken out. For the want of a sufficient number of stretchers, boards were nailed together, upon which the charred bodies were carried out as fast as they could be extricated.

A temporary morgue was arranged in freight cars where the remains were all taken and placed in charge of Banger & Farley, undertakers. The bodies are all burned beyond the possibility of recognition. Their names will never be known.

Up to this hour twenty-six bodies have been taken out. This is supposed to be the total number of those who lost their lives. As fast as the charred satchels, valises, pocketbooks and watches were recovered they were turned over to Policeman HALLADAY. Several gold watches were found and one wallet containing $47.

All the physicians in the city were summoned. The wounded were taken to the Target house, to railroad offices, to Dowling's boarding house and to residences in the vicinity. Fifteen injured are now at the Nichols hospital.

After the crash was over, C. H. WARD jumped from the left side through a window. In front of him sat a lady with a baby. He pulled her through the window, when she cried out to save her babe, but the little one was fastened beneath a seat and perished, while the crazed mother had to be taken away by force. WARD says that in front of the woman sat a young lady and just behind her a young man. Back of him were two young men, none of whom escaped.

B. S. WARD came out of the roof in some manner, he knows not how. He jumped off the roof and helped out HARVEY J. SMITH of Ft. Plains, N. Y., MRS. SMITH and their son FRANK and daughter NELLIE. This family are all injured, but escaped, while those around them perished. By 7 o'clock, as the news reached the city, people began to come in crowds and it was all the police and railway officials could do to keep curious people back. It can be said to the credit of the city that no acts of vandalism were perpetrated and the people were all orderly. The Battle Creek fire department did noble work and all of the labor connected with taking out the bodies.

Aspen Weekly Times Colorado 1893-10-21

ONLY SIX KNOWN

Twenty Victims of the Grand Trunk Wreck Still Unidentified.

BATTLE CREEK, Mich., Oct. 20. --- Twenty of the twenty-six killed in the Chicago & Grand Trunk accident this morning remain entirely unidentified. Those identified by letters or articles on their clothing or by other means are as follows:

C. C. VANDUSEN, of Sprout Brook, N. Y.; died at the hospital.
MRS. C. C. VANDUSEN, burned to death after the wreck before she could be extricated.
W. W. HENRY, Woonsocket, R. I.; burned to a crisp.
MRS. F. R. McKENZIE, Middletown, Conn.; burned to a crisp.
T. A. McGARVEY, Ontario, Can.; mangled and burned to death.
J. W. BURDSLEY, Watkins, N. Y.; burned and mangled.

The coronor [sic], has numbered each of the bodies now in the morgue and noted the articles that have been found on each body that might lead to identification. All are thought to be from the East.

The complete list of injured reported at Assistant Superintendent Glassford's office in Detroit is as follows:
N. W. WILLIAMS, Toronto; W. A. RIORSE, Port Dover, Ont.; WILLIAM HENRY BUSHNELL, Brockport, N. Y.; S. H. SMITH, J. H. SMITH, BERRY SMITH, ISRAEL SMITH, MRS. SMITH, Fort Plain, N. Y.; MISS BELL WILLIAMS, Brockport, N. Y.; FREDERICK WERTZ, MRS. WERTZ and MISS WERTZ, Rochester, N. Y.; FRANK TURNWEIGEL, Blissford, Pa.; J. S. STEWART, JENNIE STEWART, Calton Station, Ills.; W. THOMPSON, FRANK ROGER, Woodstock, Ont.; MRS. ROBERT VANCE, GEORGE VANCE, Simcoe, Ont.; ALBERT BRADLEY, Toronto, Ont.; GEORGE SHACKELTON, Auburn, N. Y.; J. D. ARCHIBALD, Evanston, Ills.; THOMAS J. MONROE, Auburn, N. Y.; E. E. DAVIDSON, Fairport, N. Y.; C. S. ADAMS, 660 Main street, Buffalo, N. Y.; CLINTON H. WARD, Morton, Vt.

Engineer WOOLEY and Conductor SCOTT of the Raymond & Whitcomb train were arrested tonight and are now in jail. Each places the blame for running ahead of orders upon the other.

General Superintendent ATWATER this evening when asked upon whom the blame for the terrible accident should be fixed, replied that it belonged wholly to the engineer and conductor of the Raymond train, or both. The dispatcher's orders were explicit and had been disobeyed.

Aspen Weekly Times Colorado 1893-10-21

Submitted & transcribed by Stu Beitler  Thank you, Stu!

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