Chicago, Illinois Train Wreck

September 28, 1909

SIX MEN KILLED

Shocking Accident Occurs at Chicago Today--Passenger and Stock Trains in Collision

(By Associated Press.) Chicago, Ill., Sept. 28.--Six men were killed and a dozen seriously injured early today by an outbound Panhandle passenger train crashing
into the rear end of a Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul stock train at Twelfth and Rockwell streets.

The victims were stockmen and members of the stock train crew. No persons on the passenger train were injured.

When the accident occured a few minutes after midnight most of the victims were sleeping in the caboose of the stock train. This train was so completely demolished and the victims so mutilated that hours later only two had been identified.

Four cars were telescoped and the wreckage set afire. Many of the injured were extricated with difficulty from the burning debris by firemen and others who hurried to the scene of the wreck.

The dead: H. POTTER, Dion Lake, N.D.; DON SCHLANGER, Fayette, N. D.; JACOB
MOTZ, Kulm, N.D.; W. J. STEVENSON, Livingston, Mont.; FRED KOCH, Dickinson, N. D.; JOHN POSTLE, Winona, N. D.

The passenger train, which was bound for Cincinnati, and had left the Union station at 12:01 a.m., was moving rapidly and had just rounded a sharp curve near the street intersection when the engineer sighted the stock train only a few yards
in front. After applying the emergency brakes, the engineer and firemen of the passenger train leaped from the cab, escaping injury.

No opportunity for escape was given the sleeping stockmen in the way car, as the sound of the warning whistle was drowned in the crash as the heavy locomotive ploughed through the caboose and three other cars.

Fire added to the terror of the wreck and greatly hampered the work of rescue.

At the Monroe street hospital today the following list of injured was obtained:
W. W. MCDONALD, Elgin, Ill., switchman, contusions about face and body; F. C. BUCKLEY, Fallon, Mont., stockman, laceration; E. H. EGGE, Fallon, Mont., drover, lacerations; HENRY R. BOND, Milwaukee, conductor of stock train, ankle broken and internal injuries; MARK MCDONALD, brakeman, general contusions; EDWARD S. ARMOR, Chicago, fingers crushed in rescue work; FRED HACKETT, Chicago, cut and bruised in rescue work; PETER JOHNSON, North Dakota, fracture of arm, scalp cut; H. F. BLACK, Dayton, O., bruised; JOHN A DIXON, Milwaukee, bruised; HARMON WIRTH, Hankinson, N. D., right foot crushed, severe burns; D. M. HAMILTON, Livingston, Mont., stockman, back injured, serious. Conductor BOND was erroneously reported among the dead last night.

The Daily Northwester, Oshkosh, WI 28 Sept 1909

The List of Dead
JOHN POSTAL, Winona, North Dakota
JACOB NOTZ, Pullman, North Dakota
FRANK KOCH, Dickinson, North Dakota
H. H. POTTER, Diamond, Montana
DANIEL SCHLONGER, Fayette, North Dakota
W. J. STEVENS, Livingston, South Dakota

The Seriously Injured
PETER JOHNSON, Enderlein, North Dakota, skull fractured and badly crushed.
W. W. McDONALD, Elgin, Illinois, spine injured, scalp wound.
C. H. HAMILTON, Livingston, South Dakota, cut and bruised.
EDWARD AEMORE, right hand broken while assisting in rescue.
HENRY R. BOND, Milwaukee, conductor on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul train, right leg broken.
HERMAN WORTH, stockman, of Hampinson, North Dakota, right foot broken.

Huddled in Caboose.
The dead and injured were huddled in the caboose of the stock special when the wreck occurred. The wreckage caught fire when the store in the caboose overturned. Two cars of stock were burned to death before the firemen could extinguish the blaze.

Of the score of injured, only one, PETER JOHN, sixty, of Enderlein, North Dakota, is expected to die. He was badly crushed, and also sustained a fractured skull.

The Marion Daily Star, Marion, OH 28 Sept 1901

Articles Transcribed by Connie.  Thank you, Connie!

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