Eden, Colorado Train Wreck
August 7, 1904
OVER 100 KILLED IN RAILROAD ACCIDENT
PUEBLO, Colo., Aug. 8. --- The number of
dead in last night's disaster on the D. & R. G.
will, from appearances at 10 o'clock be about
125, the majority of whom are Denver people,
with some from Utah and the Western slope also
among the list. The wreck is the worst in the
history of Colorado railroading, when train No.
11, the Missouri Pacific flyer, crashed through
a bridge over Dry Creek near Eden, about eight
miles from Pueblo at 8 o'clock last night. It is
estimated that of the 125 passengers on board
the ill-fated train between eighty and a hundred
lost their lives, either under the waters of the
creek or beneath the wreckage. Immediately upon
receipt of the news here a special train bearing
all available physicians and surgeons and all
resident officials on both the Missouri Pacific
and Rio Grande hurried to the scene. About
eleven o'clock another train bearing coffins,
stretchers and a number of police officers was
sent out. The alarm was sent out by
Fireman MAYFIELD,
who escaped from the wreck practically
uninjured. The first train from the wreck
arrived here at two o'clock this morning bearing
seventeen, so far as is known, all who escaped
from the wreck with their lives.
The wrecked train was the Missouri Pacific
No. 11, St. Louis World's Fair Flyer from
Denver, running over the Rio Grande tracks. Dry
Creek is a tributary to Fountain creek.
Dry Creek is fifty feet wide and fifteen feet
deep with water flowing over a trestle. The
engine got nearly across, but slipped back and
with the baggage car, smoker and chair cars
plunged into the water, the engine falling on
its right side. The chair car was carried a half
mile down Fountain creek and the baggage car and
the smoker have not, at this hour been found.
Following is a list of the known dead.
DR. W. H. MOCK,
MISS ELLA WOOD,
W. H. LAMON,
MISS MINNIE SEELEY,
LOWELL DURMAN,
A. E. HOES, Pueblo,
MRS. STEPHENS, Northampton, Mass.,
CAPT. FRANK H. WHITMAN, quartermaster
Second United States infantry, Ft. Logan,
HENRY HINMAN, engineer, Denver,
___ ____ SEWARD.
MRS. IRENE WRIGHT and daughter,
Pueblo, whose bodies were found at the junction
of Fountain and Arkansas rivers in Pueblo
The revised list of the dead up to 3 p. m.
today is as follows:
BUD SEWARD,
Pueblo,
MISS CARRIE DOWNEY, Pueblo,
DON CAMPBELL, Pueblo,
MRS. ELLA STEVENS, Northampton,
Mass.,
GEORGE ENGLAND, Pueblo,
J. W. WRIGHT, painter, Pueblo,
MISS LEONARD, Chicago,
A. S. MAXWELL, Pueblo,
JOSEPH F. BISHOP, architect, Pueblo,
GEORGE BECK, salesman, Pueblo,
JESSIE E. GRAY, Denver,
MISS TINA WALK, Pueblo,
J. G. GRAHAM, Florence,
JOSEPH TURNER, brakeman, Littleton,
Known dead not identified:
JAMES H. SMITH, conductor, Denver,
MISS MINNIE DAVIS, Pueblo,
MISS ELSIE ROLAND, Lindberg, Kan.,
MISS HADENBURG, Salina, Kan.,
DR. W. H. MUNN, Pueblo,
MRS. JOHN MOLITOR, Pueblo,
GENEVIEVE, MOLITOR, Pueblo,
MARY MOLITER (aged 2), Pueblo,
MISS IDA LEONARD, Pueblo,
MRS. MARY PRICE, LaSalle, Ills.,
HUGH M'CRACKITT, Aurora, Ill.,
EDWARD KNIGHT, Pueblo,
MISS FLORENCE WALTER, cashier Childs
Mercantile Company, Pueblo,
EDWARD CURTIS, bricklayer, 822 East
Seventh street, Pueblo,
GEORGE ELLINGTON, Colorado Springs,
____ ____ BETHEL, Cripple Creek,
MISS DOROTHY JOHNSON, Pueblo,
HERBERT GRAVES, plumber, Pueblo,
MISS PEARL HOPPER, East Pueblo,
WILLIAM HUGHES, tinner, Pueblo,
MRS. JAS. KEATING and child, Pueblo,
The following who are still missing are
believed to be dead:
MRS. GEORGE WEST, widow of former
Mayor George West
of Pueblo,
MRS. McKEE, mother of
MRS. McFEELEY,
MARGARET DONNELLY, Pueblo,
MISS STURGEON, Pueblo,
DR. E. C. STIMMEL, Pueblo,
Those known to be on the train and now
missing are:
HUGH McCRACKEN, Aurora, Ill.,
CLYDE PRICE, Aurora, Ill.,
MISS EMMA WOOD, Pueblo,
MRS. JAMES KEAHLEY, 216 E. Fourth
street, Pueblo,
MRS. GEORGE WEST, home unknown,
MRS. TILLIE THOMPSON and little
daughter,
F. C. BOCHMANN,
MRS. STEARNS, sister of BOCKMANN,
MISS EDNA KROTTER, 1716 Boulder
street, Denver,
Sister of
JOHN K. KROTTER of Neff's Brewery,
HARRY HOUGH, Pueblo,
FRANK BODMAN, Northampton, Mass.,
ALEXANDER S. MAXWELL, Pueblo,
MARK McDONALD, Pueblo,
FRED MAHONEY, Pueblo,
THOMAS SULLIVAN, Pueblo,
L. B. DUNHAM, 1243 Bragdon, ave.,
Pueblo,
VINNIE SELBY, stenographer
Congressman Hogg, 1045 Spruce street,
Denver,
EDWARD KNIGHT, Denver,
T. S. REESE, express messenger,
Denver.
B. T. LASHELL, Denver,
MISS PINE, telephone girl, Pueblo,
MRS. J. M. KILLEN and boy, Denver,
W. H. LAMOON and wife, Denver,
JESSE E. GRAY, Denver,
MRS. EDWARD P. GARLAND and four
children (EDWARD, 12; WALTER, 10; LILLIAN, 7;
RALPH, 2), 2450 Thirty-eighth avenue, Denver
The following list was brought into Pueblo
saved:
Fireman MAYFIELD, Pueblo,
____ ____ FISHER, Pueblo,
C. C. MERSON, Ft. Scott, Kan.,
E. C. WILSON, Coffeyville, Kan.,
PETER R. BRAUN, Maiden, Mass.,
H. H. DORN, Cleveland, O.,
MISS JESSIE DERSON, Salt Lake,
H. G. CRABBEE, Salt Lake,
MR. and MRS. DINNANZI and daughter,
Texarkana,
O. S. GALBREATH, Durango,
MR. and MRS. ANDERSON,
MR. and MRS. BELL, Denver,
The bodies of three young women evidently
tourists, two other passengers and the engineer
were recovered this morning. It is feared that
many bodies may be washed away beyond recovery.
A small army of men is at work.
Five cars were in the train, Two of them
miraculously escaped on the brink. The train was
westbound, proceeding at a high rate of speed,
flying timbers of the bridge breaking the
telegraph wires.
The station agent in Pinion, several hours
after the disaster, found the train fireman
wandering around in a dazed condition seeking
the engineer. The agent gave the alarm.
The first relief train with citizens left at
9 p. m., the second going two hours later,
carrying CALHER,
the local undertaker with it.
A downpour of rain for three days had
undermined the bridge supports, which caused the
structure to collapse under the heavy train.
The first searchers found
Engineer HINMAN
seated in the cab under water, with his hand
grasping the throttle.
Fireman MAYFIELD
said when the engine reached the creek, it
reared up and turned to the right before it
fell. He escaped in a manner unknown to himself.
He could not say whether or not the bridge was
gone, before the train reached it.
The accident occurred but half a mile from
Fountain Creek, a stream of some importance.
The baggage car and smoker have not yet been
found. The chair car lies nearly a mile away,
half buried in sand, which doubtless covers many
bodies. The express car and locomotive are near
the site of the bridge. The safe in the former
was found open and empty. So crowded was the
train that passengers stood in the aisles of the
first coach.
The water which filled Dry Creek was caused
by a cloudburst. The creek is nearly waterless
this morning.
The exact number of the dead will never be
known. There is no record of the number aboard
the train, and the swift water carried the
corpses of bodies. Three were recovered in the
Arkansas river this morning. The body of
JAMES SMITH,
conductor, was not found. It is not known if his
papers will show the number of passengers. The
smoker was found four miles down the stream. The
trucks were torn off in the fall, which
lightened it and caused it to float away.
With the break of day fifty policemen from
Pueblo under Chief
SHOUP and nearly a hundred anxious
friends and relatives were on the ground
assisting in dragging the raging torrent for
bodies.
The country around here is in a feverish
state, and all citizens have joined in an effort
to assist in finding the bodies of the dead.
Business is practically suspended in Pueblo.
All sorts of conveyances filled with people are
hurrying along the wagon road from here to the
scene of the wreck, and the entire town seems
anxious to be at the scene.
The work of recovering bodies is progressing
slowly in spite of willing hands. To add to the
general horror, ghouls are at work robbing the
dead bodies. A large force of policemen was
taken from the work of searching the stream and
given orders to shoot any one seen attempting to
rob dead bodies.
The wife and five children of
EDWARD GARTLAND, manager of the West
Side gas house were on the train and undoubtedly
perished. MRS. JOHN
MOLITER of Thirteenth street, with
two children, were on the train and it is
believed that they have perished.
Rio Grande officials at 1 o'clock say the
loss of life may exceed seventy, other
conservative estimates saying it will be
eight-six and perhaps run to 130. Identification
is slow as the recovered bodies are covered with
slime.
The wreck was due entirely to a cloudburst
that had come down Dry Creek. A wall of water
filled the channel, which, at this point, is 50
feet wide and 15 feet deep, and weakened and
undermined the railroad bridge so that when the
train passed, rushing along at the rate of
forty-seven miles an hour it crashed through the
bridge. One of the cars has not yet been found,
while another was carried nearly four miles down
stream. Banks of the river are still lined on
both sides far down the river beyond this city
with people anxious to recover bodies, but the
work has been necessarily slow. Up to 3 o'clock
about 40 bodies have been recovered.
A statement of officials of the D. & R. G.,
based on a statement of a brakeman who passed
through the train at Colorado Springs, says that
there were not more than seventy people on the
train, but this is believed to be less than
within twenty-five of the true number.
The story of the wreck as told by
Fireman MAYFIELD
is disconnected. He says he was coaling when he
felt a jerk, and the next thing he remembered he
was struggling in the stream. He managed to
crawl to the bank because the engine in falling
had listed to the right side. He sat a moment on
the bank dazed by the suddenness of the shock.
He then hurried to Eden, where the news was
wired to Pueblo and relief and wrecking trains
were immediately sent out. Passengers of the
first wrecking train tell a pitiful story of the
sight that met their eyes when first they
reached the spot at which the disaster occurred.
Huddled in a group were half a dozen passengers
more or less badly injured trying to make
themselves comfortable by building fires out of
the wreckage of the cars. No attempt could be
made at any rescue work. There was no way to
reach the doomed passengers. Their dying shrieks
filled the air and made the night hideous. Two
hours after the trestle had given way the water
had gone down but two feet, although today the
creek bed is practically dry. The scenes are
pitiful at the wreck, where stricken parents,
brothers, sweethearts, husbands and wives search
in vain for loved ones.
EDEN, Colo., Aug. 9. --- Gradually the list
of victime [sic] of Sunday night's disaster is
becoming more definite. At noon today a careful
compilation of the figures shows the number to
be just one hundred. Of the identified dead
there are 63, of unidentified 6 and reported
missing 28, making a total of a hundred lives.
Of those who were hurled into the gulf of water
only four saved themselves. The exact number of
dead will probably never be known, as it will be
impossible to tell positively just the number of
passengers on board the ill-fated train.
PUEBLO, Aug. 9. --- This city is traped [sic]
in gloom. Over sixty-five representative
citizens were hurled to death in the Rio Grande
wreck of Sunday. Nearly all the business houses
are close, and slowly the bodies are being taken
from their temporary resting places at the
morgues to their homes. The city is crowded with
mourners as well as by hundreds of the morbidly
curious, and every train which arrives here is
filled with passengers from Denver and Colorado
Springs.
PUEBLO, Colo., Aug. 9. --- A rigid
investigation has already begun on facts and
conditions which made possible the frightful
wreck. Coroner A. L.
FUGARD has already begun an inquest
with the following jury:
C. R. ROBINSON, A. B. ALLEN, J. R. MILHOOVER,
J. N. COLLINS, D. H. SPURGEON and
JOHN McCONNELL.
The jury left for the scene of the wrecq
[sic] at 10 o'clock and proposes making a
thorough investigation into the cause of the
trouble.
PUEBLO, Colo., Aug. 9. --- The body of a
surpassingly beautiful woman was taken from the
Arkansas river at Vivian, twenty-two miles below
the scene of the accident. All the woman's
clothes were torn from her body in the long
journey down the swift running stream, and when
found she had nothing on but a single glove.
There is scarcely anything by which she can be
identified by except her beauty, which is of a
remarkable and delicate type. Although her
clothing was torn from the body, she had
suffered practically no bruises, and her body
was white and glistening from the water as
though she still lived. Mud and sand so covered
and was so clotted in her hair that it was
impossible to tell the color of it.
The body of an unknown man was also brought
in, but it was so mutilated that it is doubtful
whether it will ever be identified.
F. M. JONES,
the station agent at Eden, who was the
first one to go to the aid of the stricken
people on the train, gives the following version
of the accident:
“I was sitting in my office, a distance of a
mile from the scene of the wreck, when suddenly
a loud noise, followed by a series of lesser
reports startled me. I had heard of No. 11
passing Pinion from the operator there, and at
this time she was overdue more than six minutes,
and unusual thing for the train is a 'flyer.'
Becoming thoroughly alarmed I seized my lantern
and ran up the track to the place where the
bridge should have been. The faint rays of my
lantern threw just enough light for me to
distinguish three cars, but between them and
myself there was a chasm fully 50 feet wide,
through which roared the torrent almost level
with the ground on which I stood. Opposite me I
could make out the outlines of the three cars,
but the other four that usually make up No. 11
were nowhere in sight. I started across the mesa
in the direction of the river, which was high
and making much noise. After walking about half
a mile I saw the brink of a dark object. It was
almost stationary in the middle of the stream,
with one end swinging toward the left bank. I
slipped off my clothes and plunged in, swimming
in the direction in which I had come, as I knew
the strong current would carry me down stream.
By proceeding in this course I managed to get to
the object, which proved to be the chair car,
half on its side and held in position by an arm
of land extending into the stream, probably
about fifteen feet. The roof of the car was
gone, and inside there was not a soul to be
found.
Durango Wage Earner Colorado 1904-08-11
Submitted & transcribed by Stu
Beitler Thank you,
Stu!
continued
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