Tipton, Indiana Train Wreck

September 24, 1910

SIX CRUSHED IN WRECK OF TROLLY CARS

Second interurban Disaster of Week in Indiana Attended by Several Fatalities.

TIPTON, Ind., Sept. 24.-- Six persons were killed and twelve injured in a collision between a southbound freight and the northbound limited train on the Indiana Union Traction company's line at noon toady. The cars crashed together at the Ressler crossing, two miles north of Tipton, under circumstances almost identical with the tragic wreck near Bluffton on Wednesday. The dead:
Motorman BAKER, Tipton, Ind.
B. T. WELSH, traveling man, Fort Wayne.
DR. H. HOSTZHAUSER, Brooklyn, N. Y., who was on his way to marry NELLIE COXON, Tipton.
W. H. HOSTZHAUSER, brother of the physician.
VERDAL RAILSBACH, Hymeria, Ind.
LOUIS BROO, Kokomo, Ind.

A clump of trees hid the approaching cars and they came together at a curve. The freight train plowed through the front of the limited, demolishing the smoker.

The southbound freight car overran the stopping place. The motorman had orders to wait at the first stop north of the crossing but overran that point, thinking he could make another switch and ran into the northbound limited which was in charge of JOSEPH BAKER, motorman, and ED HARRISON, conductor.

A sad feature of the disaster is the fact that DR. HOSTZHAUSER was on his way here to be married tonight to NELLIE COXON, daughter of H. COXON, owner of the COXON pottery works and a prominent citizen of this city.

His brother was accompanying him and was to act as best man at the wedding.

A partial list of the injured includes:
CARL W. GRACE, troop L, Sixth United States cavalry, Fort Harrison, injured about head and face.
MRS. T. A. MOORE, Elwood, knee and nose hurt.
W. W. LUNDY, traveling salesman, Fort Wayne, arm and leg broken.
BELLE JONES, Greentown, face and arm injured.
J. W. MONTGOMERY, Elwood, face and head cut.
MRS. J. W. MONTGOMERY, Elwood, skull fractured.

Lincoln Evening News Nebraska 1910-09-24

Submitted & transcribed by Stu Beitler  Thank you, Stu!

6 KILLED IN CAR CRASH 

Traction Collision Similar to Kingsland Affair Causes New Thrill of Horror. 

FIFTEEN PERSONS INJURED WHEN SMASHUP OCCURS 

In Disaster Near Tipton Reports Agree That Members of Crew Disobeyed Orders. 

BULLETIN. 

TIPTON, Ind., Sept. 24. – Charles Dragoo, train dispatcher for the Indiana Union Traction Company at this point, under whose directions the ill-fated cars were running at the time of the accident, said tonight that the extra freight had orders from him to pull into “Jackson’s,” a switch five miles north of here and about three miles north of the wreck, to wait for the limited. The supposition is that Daniel Lacy, motorman of the freight, “overran his order.” Lacy is not here tonight. It was said that he is at Anderson with General Manager Nichell of the I.U.T., or has proceeded to his home at Indianapolis. 

[BY A STAFF CORRESPONDENT.] 

TIPTON, Ind., Sept. 24. – Under circumstances amazingly similar to those surrounding the recent traction disaster near Bluffton a few days ago an extra south-bound freight train on the Indiana Union Traction line crashed into a north-bound Kokomo Limited near this city at 11 o’clock this morning, killing six and in- fourteen persons. The freight train consisted of two cars, both heavily loaded. 

There was a deadly curve at the site of the collision near a clump of trees. 

Alleged failure on the part of the motorman of the extra, Daniel Lacey of Indianapolis, to abide by orders is given as the cause of today’s wreck. 

THE DEAD. 

LEWIS BROO, Kokomo, traveling salesman. 

JOSHUA BAKER, Logansport, motorman of the limited car. 

D.F WALSH, Fort Wayne or Marshall Mich., traveling salesman. 

DR. W.F. HOLTHAUSEN, Brooklyn, N.Y. 

WALTER H. HOLTHAUSEN, Brooklyn, N.Y. 

VERDEL RAILSBACK, pharmacist, Hymera, Ind. 

THE INJURED. 

J.W. MONTGOMERY, Elwood; leg dislocated, badly bruised. 

MRS. J.W. MONTGOMERY, his wife; minor bruises and shock. 

J.E. BALLENGER, Sharpsville; badly cut on head. 

MRS. T.A. MOORE, Elwood; knee bruised and back sprained. 

CHARLES GRACE, Fort Des Moines, Ia. Troop C, United States Cavalry; dislocated hip, face fearfully cut by glass. 

MRS. MARIETTA HUTCHINS, Alexandria, badly bruised. 

MRS. J.W. ARMSTRONG, Galveston; cut and bruised about the mouth. 

MRS. J.E. HAWKINS, 1707 North New Jersey street, Indianapolis; painfully bruised. 

VINCENT VAN BRIGGLE, near Tipton; chin cut and badly shaken up. 

ARTHUR, little son of George D. Bardowner, Arcadia; right eye hurt. 

B.M. MAINES, conductor of limited, Tipton; back injured and other injuries. 

MRS. BELLE JONES, Greentown; hurt about face and one limb. 

A.E. CURTIS, 2850 Talbott avenue, Indianapolis; injuries to leg and back. 

MRS. A.E. CURTIS, Indianapolis; tongue cut and lower lip fearfully torn; serious loss of blood; probably disfigured for life. 

THURMAN DAWSON, member of freight crew, Broad Ripple; shoulder dislocated; hurt internally. 

Running at terrific speed, the cars met about a mile and a half north of Tipton. For a long distance north of the point where the ill-fated limited met the extra freight the freight had been running down grade, and it is believed here that the motorman of the extra was going full speed in an effort to reach a switch about 3,000 feet south of where the crash occurred. While official information is not given out by the traction people here tonight it is belief that the freight should have stopped, under its order, at the last switch north of the point where the cars met. It has been stated here today by minor traction officials that the motorman of the freight car overlooked the limited in his calculations and it was said that the motorman of the freight had positive instructions to stop at the siding which he passed. 

HAD TRAIN’S TIME TABLE. 

It is further charged here tonight that the motorman of the freight car should and could have known the time of arrival of the limited at the siding, which he was apparently trying to make at the time of the accident. He, like all the other traction motormen, had a time table, showing when the limited was due. 

The limited likewise was running at high speed. Josiah Baker, the motorman on the limited, was one of the most seasoned motormen in the employ of the company. His car got out of Tipton ten minutes late, and passengers on the limited said the car was running at high speed from the time it cleared the limits of the city of Tipton. Because of the two-degree curve where the cars met the heavily freighted south-bound car struck the limited a diagonal blow. The first point of contact was the left front corner of the limited, and the freight plowed on through the car as deep as the partition between the smoking compartment and the regular day coach compartment. 

All the men killed, save Baker, the motorman of the limited, were in the smoking compartment. Baker stuck to his post in the vestibule. All were killed instantly except young Railsback, who died on his was to this city on the first relief car. 

Lacey, the motorman of the freight car, and Ira C. Bell of Indianapolis also, the conductor, saw the approaching danger in time to leap from the car and neither was seriously hurt. 

CONDUCTOR NARROWLY ESCAPES. 

B. M. Maines of Tipton, who was the conductor of the limited, had a narrow escape. The limited was not heavily loaded, considering the fact that it was Saturday, and he had finished the collection of fares and for a moment he sat in the smoker. He said afterward that he did not know what impelled him, but he arose a few seconds before the smash came and walked back into the main portion of the coach. He happened to turn and look down the track in front of the car an instant before the smash. He saw what was coming, but there was no time to give a warning before the freight car was upon them, he said. It was Maines’s understanding that the limited had a clear track from Tipton to Sharpsville, this, it is said, being a standing order of the line. This limited and the south-bound limited car from Kokomo are due to meet at Sharpsville. 

Not a passenger in the smoking compartment escaped with his life and not a passenger in the regular compartment was killed. 

The impact of the cars was so terrific that the crash was heard by farmers nearly a mile away, and some of those who were killed where hurled from the limited. A sharp, heavy piece of lumber from one corner of the limited was hurled a distance of sixty feet across a fence and the freight of the south-bound car, the baggage of the limited and the maimed and dying were entangled in a mass of splintered timbers of the two cars. All those killed were fearfully mangled. 

Most seriously injured apparently, is the soldier, Charles Grace, who was temporarily at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, and who belonged to Troop C, Sixth United States Cavalry. 

INJURED SOLDIER WRITES. 

The soldier was sitting in the front of the regular passenger compartment and the glass and wood of the partition between this and the smoker were shattered in upon him. He was hurled from his seat and his leg was dislocated at the hip. His face was terribly cut by glass. In this condition, however, he was conscious, and those who went from here on the relief train declared he was the gamest man they had ever seen. They found him with the blood streaming down his face trying to write a message to be sent to his superior officer at the fort, explaining where he was and that he would be delayed in his arrival at Indianapolis. Both his eyes were swollen shut and Zela Newcomb, who runs a poolroom in Tipton, offered to write the message, which he was vainly trying to pencil. The soldier accepted the service, but insisted upon dictating the message immediately. 

Probably the saddest death was that of Dr. W.F. Holthausen of Brooklyn, N.Y. With him was his brother, Walter H. Holthausen, also of Brooklyn. Both were killed. 

VICTIM ON WAY TO WED. 

The doctor was on his way to Kokomo, where on Monday he was to have been married to Miss. Nellie Coxon. His brother was to have been best man at the wedding. 

The Holthausen-Coxon wedding was to have been one of the most elaborate weddings of the season at Kokomo, and it is reported here this evening that several thousand dollars were to be expended in the preparations, which were already under way. 

Notified of the death of her affianced husband the grief-stricken bride and her mother hurried out of Kokomo on a traction car due at the scene of the wreck at 2:30 o’clock. Arriving at the scene of the death of the doctor and his brother they were informed that the bodies had been brought here and properly cared for, and, heartsick, they returned to Kokomo without coming on into Tipton, though several friends of the family who came on the same car proceeded to Tipton to see that the bodies were properly cared for here. 

Young Railsback, who died on the relief car on the way to Tipton, apparently was a very recent graduate of the pharmacy department of a normal school at Ada, O. (illegible) carried a diploma in his pocket showing his graduation in this school. Where he was bound at the time is not known here. 

D.F. Walsh, the sixth victim of the accident, was a traveling salesman, employed by the Marshall Furnace Company, Marshall, Mich. 

For some time there was doubt as to the residence of Lewis Broo. Letters in his pocket seemed to indicate that he lived at Kokomo, but other letters were addressed to him at Indianapolis, Anderson and Greensburg. His residence was definitely determined, however, when his father came here from Kokomo and claimed the body. Young Railsback’s father was here tonight from Hymera, also to claim the body of his dead son. 

The Holthausen bodies will likely remain here until tomorrow, when it is expected the parents of the young men will be here. Their parents expected to be in Kokomo tomorrow or Monday for the wedding of their son. In the mean time friends of his fiancee’s family have seen that the bodies were properly cared for. 

POLICE GUARD MORGUE. 

All afternoon and this evening the Young Morgue, where the six bodies are being held, was guarded by police to keep the curious crowd from the room at which the bodies lie. Late tonight the crowd about the morgue continued large, but the police only admitted those who showed they had business there. All those injured in the wreck left Tipton tonight and, in the opinion of Drs. Newcomer and Gifford, surgeons for the company here, none are fatally injured. Ben Grace, the injured soldier, was able to leave this evening, proceeding to Logansport, where he was bound at the time of the accident. It developed tonight that the message he sent to Indianapolis was to Cook Broomershine, at the fort, and that he asked Broomershine to look after his personal effects until he heard from him further. 

FARMERS BRING FIRST NEWS. 

The first information of the wreck here was from farmers who lived near the track. The country hereabouts is cobwebbed with rural telephones and the news of the wreck spread rapidly. Immediately a relief train was made up at the company’s branch shops here. The train was in charge of M.W. Surratt, division superintendent of the company here. It also carried Drs. M. Van B. Newcomer and A.W. Gifford, the company’s surgeons here, and Drs. H.G. Reed, Harry Grishaw and A.E. Burkhart. When the train was ready to move there were more passengers than could be easily accommodated. It went out of Tipton loaded to the steps. 

The members of the first relief party found that they had been preceded by many Tipton people, who had gone to the scene in automobiles. The farmers for miles around had also hurried to the place. The latter were busily assisting in taking the dead and injured from the cars. Some of the injured were taken to near-by farmhouses, temporarily. There were no sheets with which the bodies of the dead could be covered until the arrival of the relief train. 

As soon as the Tipton people reached the scene of the wreck they realized the similarity between this and the Bluffton wreck, for they saw on the curve a short distance away from the scene of the wreck the fateful clump of wild plum trees, which obstructed the view of the motorman of the freight train. Only a few minutes after the arrival of the car load of people from Tipton the south-bound limited from Kokomo, which the wrecked car was to have met at Sharpsville, arrived, and the crowd was augmented by its passengers. 

While some of the injured had been taken to farmhouses, most of them remained in the car and were taken from it by the surgeons and others from Tipton. While the list of the injured is given at fourteen, it is a fact that scarcely any one on the car escaped entirely, slight bruises being the lot of all. A small number of the passengers, however, were able to assist those who were more seriously injured. 

During the relief work the dead were placed on stretchers and were loaded into the smoker of the relief car. The injured who were still about the scene of the wreck at the time of the arrival of the relief train were taken into the regular passenger compartment and were hurried back to the offices of Drs. Newcomer and Gifford of this city, where they were given surgical attention before being sent to their homes. 

SECOND RELIEF CAR ARRIVES. 

About noon a second relief car was sent out of Tipton for the remainder of the injured. 

Dr. M.L. Reagan, the county coroner, surveyed the scene of the accident and announced that he would make a searching investigation of the cause of the wreck, with the view of fixing the responsibility, if this is possible. Within a short time after the wreck a number of officials of the traction company were on the scene, including General Manager A.C. Nicoll of Anderson. Later W.H. Evans of Anderson, master mechanic, was left in charge of clearing the track, which work he expected would be done tonight. In the meantime traffic was resumed by transferring passengers around the wreck from car to car through a cornfield. 

Among the happiest people that Tipton saw today were R.H. Carpenter and wife of Elwood. Mr. Carpenter is one of the editors of the Call Leader. He and his wife arrived in Tipton from Elwood on a car that was too late to enable them to take the ill-fated limited for Kokomo. They missed it but a few minutes. 

SALESMAN HAS PREMONITION. 

One narrow escape from death in the wreck was that of Samuel Jarvis, a traveling salesman of this city. He usually covers his territory in an automobile. The roads about here are very muddy and he left home for the limited this morning. A square or two from home, however, something told him, he says, that it would be better for him to go in the machine and he did. 

The wreck attracted people from Noblesville and Kokomo, as well as from other smaller and nearer places, and all afternoon there was an immense crowd at the scene of the wreck. 

Late this afternoon there arrived at the scene three mud-besplattered automobiles, which had made the trip from Indianapolis, over roads which usually would be regarded as impassable, in remarkable time. One of the drivers said he mad the trip in fifty-five minutes, another after spending twenty-five minutes repairing damage which seas of mud inflicted on his car, arrived an hour and thirty-five minutes after he left Indianapolis. 

The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, IN 25 Sept 1910

Transcribed by Loraine Jordan.  Thank you, Loraine!

FINDS LOVER AMONG DEAD. 

Miss Coxon, Affianced of Wreck Victim, Stricken by Sad News. 

KOKOMO, Ind. Sept. 24. – The W. G. Coxon home, which was to have been the scene of the wedding of Dr. William F. Holthausen, victim of the interurban wreck at Jackson Station today, and Miss Nellie Coxon, daughter of wealthy parents, Monday evening has been turned into a scene of mourning. Orders for decorations in special preparation for the event, purchases of orchids and carnations and boxes of cigars by the intended groom have been canceled. Instead of the marriage feast a funeral ceremony is being prepared. The sermon of the minister will be heard at a double funeral that of the doctor and his brother, both victims of today’s wreck. Undertaker Losey has been ordered to take charge of the bodies. Directly upon hearing of the wreck W. G. Coxon, father of the bride-elect, was driven with her to the scene of the wreck. Her worst fears were confirmed. She instantly recognized the familiar figure of her lover, cold in death, and gave way to grief not comforted. Serious alarm is felt for Miss Coxon. She can not be induced to remain quiet, but walks the floor moaning. The distress of the situation attained its climax an hour later, when the parents of the dead young men, Fred B. and Mrs. Holthausen, arrived in Kokomo direct from New York city, accompanied by Miss Beatrice Craft of Brooklyn, a school friend and roommate of Miss Coxon. They came here for the wedding. 

The parents and their young traveling companion had been in a merry mood and talked and jested as would those who were coming for the marriage of a son to the young woman of his choice. It had been decided in advance that it would be better not to break the news to them until they arrived at the home of the Coxons, and a party of relatives of Miss Coxon, the bride-to-be, including the Rev. C.W. Choate, was sent to the Pennsylvania Railroad Station to meet them with an automobile. There was apparently something in the expression upon the face of the Rev. Mr. Choate which startled Mrs. Holthausen in the midst of the greetings and the introduction of the Rev. Mr. Choate and she demanded in grief-stricken tones, “What has happened? I know something terrible has happened. Tell me about it.” Mrs. Coxon clasping Mrs. Holthausen in her arms whispered the terrible news. The parents, overwhelmed with the unexpected sorrow, were grief stricken. Later they were driven to the Coxon home. Neighbors and friends comforted and sympathized with the grief-stricken ones and they finally withdrew in respect to a grief they could not assuage. The parents of the young men, W.G. and Mrs. Coxon and Miss Nellie Coxon leave tonight for Brooklyn, where the funeral services will be held. The bodies will be shipped from Tipton. 

The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, IN 25 Sept 1910

Transcribed by Loraine Jordan.  Thank you, Loraine!

BAKER HAD PLANNED TO QUIT. 

I.U.T. Motorman Told Superintendent He Was Ready to Stop Work. 

LOGANSPORT, Ind., Sept. 24. – “Battenberg,” said I.U.T. Motorman Joshua Baker, to city Superintendent Battenberg of the Wabash Valley line this morning, “I believe I’ll quit the game. That wreck over on the Bluffton line gives me the worries, and for 2 cents I’d turn in.” 

Baker spoke thus as he boarded his car for Indianapolis at 5 o’clock this morning, and a few hours later he himself was a victim of a duplicate of the wreck which “gave him the worries.” 

Baker had been a resident here for seven years, coming from Anderson when he was transferred to this division of the I.U.T. system. He has a record for careful running, and fatalities on the line always depressed him. At the time of the Hill Top wreck here some time ago Baker laid off and vowed he was going to quit. Baker is survived by the widow and two grown daughters. He was divorced three years ago and his former wife is now Mrs. Jacob Hughie of Gallon, O. 

N.H. Lundy, Waukegan, Ill., with business houses in South Chicago, was in the car which Baker was driving. Lundy’s left wrist and right leg were injured and his injuries were dressed by a physician here. Lundy was sitting in the rear seat and says when the crash came he was thrown to the front of the car alighting on the floor of the freight car, which had plowed into the limited. Lundy’s wife was to meet him at Galveston, and when he arrived there later he was taken to a physician’s office where his wife lay prostrated. She had heard of the wreck and supposed him to be one of those killed. 

SURVIVOR DESCRIBES RESCUE. 

Traveling Man Tells of Scenes at Wreck Before Physicians Arrive. 

KOKOMO, Ind., Sept. 24. – N.W. Lundy, a traveling salesman living in North Chicago, rendered assistance in rescuing the injured and removing the dead at the wreck north of Tipton. Speaking of the disaster he said: 

“The first intimation I had of the trouble was a great noise and a cloud of dust filling the car. Splinters flew by me and all about was confusion.” 

He showed his suit case, which was in the car seat beside him, pierced through from end to end by a sharp piece of board, which was still sticking in the case. He said: “I mean to leave that in position until I got to Galveston, where my wife is awaiting this car to join me on the journey home. 

“For a few seconds all on the car who were not seriously hurt seemed paralyzed, but soon the work of rescue began. The dead were all in the smoking compartment. The more seriously hurt were in the front seats of the general compartment. No women were seriously hurt, though some were pinned in the wreckage and had to be taken out, but all were able to walk with some assistance. It seemed an age until physicians arrived. They were just coming upon the scene as, the special car to convey the passengers from the wreck on the northward left the place of disaster. The farmers living near the wreck came to the assistance of the dead and injured first, and their help was invaluable. I have nothing but praise for them.” 

WOMAN’S INJURIES SLIGHT.

Mrs. W.R. Hutchins of Alexandria Not Seriously Hurt in Wreck.

ALEXANDRIA, Ind., Sept. 24. – Among those injured in the interurban wreck north of Tipton today was Mrs. W.R. Hutchins of this city. The first report to reach Alexandria was to the effect that Mrs. Hutchins was probably fatally injured but as soon as possible she telephoned her husband here that her injuries were slight, consisting of an injured eye and a bruised head. Mrs. Hutchins was a passenger on the limited en route to the home of a dying sister at South Bend. After having her injuries dressed she proceeded. Joshua Baker, dead motorman of the limited, was formerly a resident of this city, moving to Tipton three years ago. He was a member of the local K. of P. Lodge. 

The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, IN 25 Sept 1910 

Transcribed by Loraine Jordan.  Thank you, Loraine!

MINISTER AIDS PASSENGER. 

Enlists Others, Who Provide Fare for Woman In Wrecked Car.

LOGANSPORT, Ind., Sept. 25. – Through the action of the Rev. C. U. Wade, minister of the Broadway Methodist Episcopal Church of this city, aided by the generous passengers on the I.U.T. car which followed the special wrecked near Tipton yesterday, Mrs. W.R. Hutchins, the Alexandria woman injured in the wreck, was enabled to continue her journey to South Bend, where she was hastening to her sister, who is said to be dying of cancer. Mrs. Hutchins was placed aboard the car, which followed, coming to this city. On leaving home she had taken only money enough to pay her fare from Logansport to South Bend, and the purse containing this money was lost in the wreck. The telegram summoning her to South Bend said she must hasten if she desired to see her sister alive, and the loss of the purse temporarily prevented her from continuing the journey. The Rev. C.U. Wade engaged her in conversation concerning the wreck and she told her predicament. The minister stood up in the car and made a talk, suggesting that the passengers raise a purse. Mrs. Hutchins protested, but she was given $19.60. Mrs. Hutchins then canvassed the car, returning contributions, retaining only enough to pay her way to South Bend.

The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, IN 26 Sept 1910

Transcribed by Loraine Jordan.  Thank you, Loraine!

HOLTHAUSENS’ PARENTS LEAVE.

Relatives of Dead Brooklyn Brothers Depart From Kokomo.

KOKOMO, Ind., Sept 25. – The body of Lewis Broo, one of the victims in the interurban wreck yesterday at Jackson station, near Tipton, was brought to this city this morning and taken to the home of the parents, John and Mrs. Broo. The young man, a steel worker, had been employed at Anderson and was on his way home to spend Sunday with his parents when killed. W.G. and Mrs. Coxon, Miss Nellie Coxon, the affianced bride robbed by death, Fred and Mrs. Holthausen, parents of Dr. William F. Holthausen, whose marriage to Miss Coxon would have occurred tomorrow, and Walter H. Holthausen, two victims of the wreck, formed a funeral party leaving for Brooklyn, N.Y., the home of the Holthausen family, where it was (illegible) decided to hold the double funeral instead of at the Coxon home, this city. The Coxon home was to have been decorated today for the wedding under the direction of a Chicago florist. Thousands of carnations and other beautiful flowers had been ordered of local florists for the purpose, but the order was canceled by death. The intended bridegroom’s trunk arrived at the Coxon home Friday and had not been opened. Even the cigars which he had purposed as a treat to the guests were available. The milliner’s supplies for the Coxons were to have been delivered tomorrow morning, but have been withheld in the face of the terrible bereavement.

The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, IN 26 Sept 1910

Transcribed by Loraine Jordan.  Thank you, Loraine!

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