Sandford, Indiana Train Wreck

January 19, 1907

Powder Wrecks A Train

Heavy Loss of Life Reported as Result of Explosion.

Theory Advanced Is that Gas Filled Car and Ignited from Sparks – Details Lacking.

Terre Haute, Ind, Jan 19 – Big Four officers to-night received a report from Sanford that a car of powder exploded on a siding, wrecking a west-bound passenger train. The wreckage was burned. The freight train carrying the powder also was destroyed. It is believed that several people were killed and a score more were injured. Relief trains have been sent to the scene.

Indianapolis, Ind, Jan 19 – Unofficial reports from Sanford say that the powder explosion blew up several cars of an accommodation running out of Indianapolis to Mattoon, Ill. The train left Indianapolis at 4:40 p.m.

Further unofficial advices say that eight or ten persons were killed and twenty-five to thirty persons injured at Sanford.

A boy who walked to the wreck from St. Marys, Ind, reported that nearly every one of the passengers was killed. The boy also reported that the car of powder was standing over a new pipe line from the Casey Illinois field; that gas had been escaping from the pipe and had probably filled the car of powder. Sparks from the passenger locomotive are supposed to have ignited the gas and casued [sic] the explosion of the powder.

The Washington Post, Washington, DC 20 Jan 1907

22 Bodies In Ruins

Day Revealed Full Horror of Train Explosion.

Thirty-Four May Be Dead

Every House in Sanford, Ind., Suffered Damage.

Five Hundred Kegs of Powder in Car Blew Up – Passenger Train on Next Track Hurled Into Air and Dropped to Earth a Tangled Mass of Wood and Steel, Beneath Which Lay 60 Human Beings – Disaster’s Cause Not Known.

Terrie Haute, Ind., Jan. 20. – Twenty-two charred, broken, mutilated bodies were taken from the smouldering [sic] ruins of the accommodation passenger train on the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis (Big Four) Railroad, following its destruction last night by the explosion of a carload of powder as it passed a freight train at Sandford, Ind., five miles west of Terre Haute. Nearly forty were injured.

Death List May Grow.

Big Four officials, who today directed the care of the injured, said that the death list might reach between thirty and forty.

According to E.W. THIERS, local freight agent, enough remants [sic] of bodies have been found to indicate a dozen more victims, or a possible total of thirty-four dead.

The cause of the disaster has not been fully explained, but several theories are advanced. The result was terrible. The shock was felt for thirty miles, many believing it to be an earthquake.

The Dead.
WILLIAM THOMPSON, Sandford, Ind.
WILLIAM DAVIS, Vermillion, Ill.
J.W. SUTHERLAND, Paris, Ill.
JOHN FRANKLIN, Achmore, Ill.
A.D. HECTOR, Elbridge, Ill.
CHARLES GOSNELL, Paris, Ill.
CLAUDE STEELE, Sandford, Ind.
A.A. HICKS, Sandford, Ind.
DR. HASLETT, Grand View, Ill.
FRANK FIELDER, Findlay, Ohio.
MARY EARHART, Terre Haute, Ind.
H. BLAKELY, Findlay, Ohio.
JOHN A. BOWEN, Mattoon, Ill.
Nine unidentified bodies, one a woman.

Missing and believed to be dead:
MRS. BUD WOLFE, Sandford, Ind.
Two young daughters of MRS. WOLFE.
A. KUYKENDALE, a fireman.

The Injured.

The injured include:

At St. Anthony’s Hospital, at Terre Haute:
H. Keith BRYAN, Salem, Ohio
Miss Cora BUCKLEY, Terre Haute, Ind.
L.F. ROSE, engineer maintenance of way, Big Four.
Miss Bessie SOUTHCOTT, Shelbyville, Ill.
Miss Anna CUMMINGS, Terre Haute
Miss Frances JONES, Terre Haute

In hospitals at Paris, Ill.:
Alvin DALE, Terre Haute
W.S. WISHERED, Franklin, Ind.
Harry JARRED, fireman; may die.
Louis PRICE, Vermillion, Ill.; slight.
Ed WELCH, engineer; slight.
George RICHARDS, Memphis, Tenn; slight.
A.B. CARPENTER, Vermillion, Ill., one eye gone.
Joseph HENDRICKS, Mattoon, Ill.
Bud WOLFE, Sandford; slight.
Charles BOGGLES, Westville, Ill; may die.
Harry DUCK, Sandford, Ind.
Will DAVIS, Vermillion, Ill.; may die.
H.A. EPPERSON, Westfield, Ill.
J.O. LAWTER, Terre Haute, Ind.; may die.
Lindsey EDDINGTON, Vermillion, Ill.; may die.
Charles A. WILLEY, Kansas, Ill.; may die.
T.C. AINSWORTH, Paris, Ill.
Oscar GILBERT, Dudley, Ill.
P.C. SISK, Paris, Ill.
Fred VERMILLION, Sandford, Ind.
Harry HODGEN, Vermillion, Ill.
Charles ROOT, Mattoon, Ill.

At Sandford, Ind.:
P.O. RHODES, Sandford, Ind.
Harry SHICKEL, Terre Haute

The entire train, including the locomotive was blown from the track, the coaches were demolished, the engine was hurled fifty feet, and the passengers were either blown to pieces, consumed by fire, or rescued in an injured condition.

Some of Injured Will Die.

Some of the thirty-five injured will die. The most severely hurt are in hospitals at Terre Haute and at Paris, Ill. Several others are being cared for at Sandford.

The full extent of the disaster was revealed at daylight, but the death list will not be complete until workmen have cleared the debris and the injured are out of danger.

According to trainmen of the freight, the explosion of the powder was caused by the concussion of the passenger train, which was slowing down for Sandford.

Another theory was that gas escaping from an oil pipe line entered the powder car standing by the pipe and that a spark from the passenger locomotive ignited the gas. The belief was expressed by one or two persons that the disaster was due to the act of a tramp or some one who may have fired a shot into the car.

Besides the passenger train, a wrecker train and eight freight cars were blown to pieces by the explosion. Huge masses of iron were found hundreds of feet from the track. The tank of the passenger locomotive was hurled a hundred feet.

The wreckage of the wrecker train and eight freight cars were consumed by fire which broke out. The other cars were pulled out of danger. Not a building in Sandford escaped damage. Windows were shattered, dishes and furniture broken, and several doors were torn from hinges.

Night Dark and Stormy.

The accommodation passenger train was running from Indianapolis to Mattoon, Ill. It was a dark night, and heavy rains had converted the streets and tracks at Sandford into a pond. The residents were going to bed, and lights in many of the houses had been extinguished, when the freight train drew in on a side track to let the passenger go by. Shortly afterward, the passenger train approached the station, setting brakes as it approached the freight train. As the passenger train was just abreast of the powder car, the contents of the powder car exploded.

The entire passenger train was blown from the tracks into the air, and crashed to the earth a tangled mass of wood and steel, beneath which lay forty human beings. Fire broke out in the wreckage, and before the eyes of citizens and rescuers, who rushed from their homes, many burned to death. Aid could not be rendered on account of fire.

By the glaring light of the burning coaches the people of Sandford did their best for the wounded. The residents of the village threw open their homes to the injured and worked heroically all night.

Cries of the injured and the crackling of the fierce flames greeted the ears of the rescuers, who worked frantically, but were soon forced back by the terrible heat.

Husband and Wife Saved.

One of the first men taken out was L.F. ROSE, of Mattoon, engineer of maintenance of way of the Big Four road. His leg was broken and he was severely bruised. He was carried to C. E. MARR’s house, which, although partly destroyed by the explosion, was converted into an emergency hospital. Soon Mrs. ROSE was brought in, severely bruised, but she rallied to assist in the care of her husband, until she collapsed from nervous shock.

Others were taken from the ruins as the flames advanced, and the men worked frantically to disentangle the human forms from the wreck, and hunted for the injured blown far from the train. The women of Sandford cared for the injured. After the fire drove the rescuers away, they searched for scattered persons until the heat died down, and then began dragging out charred bodies. As the fire burned down to a smoldering pile, lanterns were brought. Men continued to search near-by fields, where pieces of bodies and wearing apparel were picked up.

There was no efficient fire department to fight the flames, and the bitter cold added to the suffering.

Torso Under Baggage Car.

Under the wreckage of the baggage car was found a charred torso, bearing a linesman’s belt and tools about the waist. Four mutilated bodies were found in a woods several hundred feet from the tracks.

A thousand feet of track was torn up, and a great hole shows where the powder car stood. This car was bound from Concord Junction, Mass., to East Alton, Ill., and contained 500 kegs of powder.

Engineer WELSH and Fireman JARRED, of Mattoon, Ill., were hurled a hundred feet and fell in a muddy field.

The explosion and resultant fire destroyed telephonic [?] communication, and Sandford [illegible] its catastrophe was alone for hours. The first news to reach Terre Haute [illegible], by those who walked the [illegible] to procure help. Relief trains with physicians and supplies were started at once and they took twenty-two of the injured to Paris, Ill., and then brought them to Terre Haute.

Frank FIELDER, of Findlay, Ohio, an employe [sic] of the Ohio Coal Company, was among the killed. His body was identified at Sandford to-day. Harry SHOCKELL, who was at first reported dead, is among the injured at Sandford. He will recover.

The wreckage was cleared from the main track this afternoon and traffic was resumed.

Saw Balls of Fire.

C.F. MARR, whose house, 200 feet from the track, was turned into a hospital, said:

“I was standing in my yard when the explosion occurred. What looked like balls of fire went whistling into the air, high above the trees.

“I ran over to witness a terrible scene. People were running around the place, wringing their hands like crazy persons. The wreck was already in a blaze. I could hear screams coming from the wreckage. We could do little to aid the pinioned persons.”

Charles PICKER, a section hand, who assisted in the rescue said:

“It seems that God chose the worst night possible for the accident. It was so cold and windy and dark. It is tragic to think of the suffering.”

The Washington Post, Washington, DC 21 Jan 1907

Articles transcribed by Rosemarie  Thank you, Rosemarie!

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