Nashville, Tennessee
Train Wreck
July
9, 1918
COLLISION TOLL IS 75
TWO PASSENGER TRAINS CRASH NEAR NASHVILLE.
INJURED LIST MAY TOTAL 75
FIRE BROKE OUT IN THE DEBRIS OF THE WRECK>
Details Lacking and the Cause of the Accident
Not Made Plain – Most of the Victims are
Negroes.
NASHVILLE, Tenn., July 9. – May persons
were killed and seventy-five injured when two
Nashville Chattanooga and St. Louis passenger
trains crashed together near Bosley Springs, at
7 a. m. today. Early this afternoon railroad
officials estimated the dead at between
seventy-five and one hundred. A misunderstanding
of orders is believed to be responsible for the
wreck.
Fire immediately broke out and many of the
passengers who were not killed outright in the
collision were burned to death or suffered
injury from the flames.
A relief train was immediately rushed to the
scene from Nashville, manned with doctors,
nurses, firemen and first aid equipment.
The mangled and charred bodies brought here
were distributed among local morgues.
No effort has been made to estimate the dead as
it has been impossible to enter some of the
splintered and burning coaches.
Both trains were running at a high speed when
the crash occurred, the engines being telescoped
and the coaches reduced to kindling wood.
The greatest loss of life occurred in the
coaches occupied by negroes which were crowded.
Every ambulance in the city was pressed into
service. Later, as the rescue work progressed,
St. Thomas infirmary became overtaxed and a
great number was removed to the city hospital.
Attendants at the hospitals were so
overburdened with operations that they were
unable to supply an accuarte [sic] list of the
injured.
The Evening State Journal and Lincoln
Daily News, Lincoln, NE 9 Jul 1918
100 DIE IN TRAIN CRASH
100 Others Injured in Head-On Collision Near
Nashville.
CROWDED COACHES SMASHED
Impact of Engines on Sharp Curve Telescopes
Smoking Car – Bodies Buried in Ruins – Five
Members of Train Crew Dead – Many Negroes Among
Wreck Victims.
Nashville, Tenn., July 9. – At least a
hundred persons were killed and as many more
injured shortly after seven o’clock this morning
when Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis
Railway fast passenger trains No. 1, from
Memphis, and No. 4, from Nashville, crashed
head-on together just around the sharp curve at
Dutchman’s Bend, about five miles from here.
Both engines reared and fell on either side
of the track, while the impact drove the express
car of the north bound train through the flimsy
wooden coaches loaded with human freight,
telescoping the smoking car in front and piling
high in air the two cars behind it, both packed
to the aisles with negroes en route to the
powder plant, and some 150 others regular
passengers.
Partial List of Dead.
The identified dead include:
ROBERT LOHG,
United Stated aviation corps, Nashville:
WILLIAM FARRIS, Nashville;
DAVE GARDNER, Nashville;
JOHN T. WHITEFIELD,
Nashville;
NEWTON M. VANDERBROOK, Jackson,
Tenn.; S. J. VAUGHAN,
Greenville, S. C.;
Private JOHN P. HUSSEY,
Uhlian, NH.;
WILSON B. HARRIS, naval reserves;
______ ALEXANDER, United States
marine corps; JOSEPH
SHAFFER, J. W. Kelly, fireman,
LUTHER MEADORS, fireman,
DAVID GARDNER, J. J. NOLAN, _____ Mayes, W. M.
Ferris, ar.,[sic]
FRANK HAMMOND, JOE
HAMMOND, W. H. ROGERS, WILLIAM KNOCH,
Nashville; J. T.
ARMOR, Trenton, Tenn;
LOUIS WOODS, Marvel, Ark.;
OTTO WOLFE,
Nashville; OLIVER PACK,
colored, Craggie Hope, Tenn.
B. C. TIMMONS, rodman,
Brentwood, Tenn.;
MILTON LOWENSTEIN, Nashville,
THOMAS DICKINSON, baggage master,
Nashville; JOHN H.
PEEBLES, engineer, Nashville,
Private DANIEL W.
JOHHNSON, Silver Lake, Tenn,;
MAT WILSON, FRANK HUNTER, addresses
unknown; MARSHALL
WHITE, Pegram, Tenn.;
BESSIE DUNN, Kingston Springs, Tenn,;
SUSAN MILLER,
Nashville;
GEORGE HALL, train porter, Nashville;
GEORGE TURNER, Burns, Tenn.;
J. B. MURPHY, Kingston Springs,
Tenn.; JOHN REID,
Jackson, Tenn.;
LEM HUDSON, Memphis, Tenn.;
JOSEPH MORSE,
address unknown,
HUBERT FREELING, Newsom Station,
Tenn.; ARBEL BECK,
Kingston Springs, Tenn.;
ROGER STONE, Whitlock, Tenn.;
W. ERNEST BECK, Kingston Springs,
Tenn.; ANDY ROBINSON,
Nashville;
J. J. HALL, Nashville.
Many Unidentified.
Nine unidentified white women and
twenty-two unidentified white men, three
unidentified soldiers, thirty unidentified
colored men and two colored women.
F. E. Pell, Y. M. C. A. secretary,
Nashville; Melville
Chadwell, Nashville,
George Turner,
Burns, Tenn;
_____ White, address unknown;
Ligh McClanahan, Caruthersville,
Miss.; Floyd Richards,
New Bern, Tenn. (United States
marine): Douglas T.
Bated, Centerville, Tenn.;
W. W. Lwarence, address unknown;
W. A. Scamerhorn, Jackson, Tenn.;
Alexander H. Ash,
address unknown;
Ed. Williams, Memphis, Tenn.;
F. T. Payne, Nashville.
White Passengers Injured.
Among the white passengers injured are:
A. C. Musser,
Octavia, Pa.; R.
A. Davis, Hickman, Ky.;
Lieut Don Long, Nashville,
Cecil Grimes, Hohenwald, Tenn.;
D. M. Heath, Nashville,
Radley Gaskin,
Hickman, Ky.;
______ Carter, Nashville,
B. Corbett; ______ Martin, engineer
_____ Kennedy, mail clerk,
_____ Moore, J. T. Simmons, Jackson,
Tenn.; Russell Pollack,
Carruthersville, Mo.;
Elton Cook,
Centerville, Ark.; Bert
Pierce, Ola, Ark.;
J. H. Brown, express messenger,
Benjamin D. Knight, baggagemaster,
Nashville.
38 Injured Negroes.
At the city hospital are 38 injured, another
hospital are four negroes seri-negroes, 28 being
from Memphis. At ously injured and 17 with minor
injuries. [At the city hospital are 38 injured
negroes, 28 being from Memphis. At another
hospital are four negroes seriously injured and
17 with minor injuries] (Twenty-two white, and
negro persons are at St. Thomas’ Hospital,
mostly seriously injured.
Of the train crews five are dead – Engineer
WILLIAM F. LLOYD
and Fireman THOMAS
KELLEY, of Train No. 4, and Engineer
DAVID C. KENNEDY,
Fireman LUTHER
L. MEADOWS and Baggagemaster
TOM DICKINSON,
of Train No, 1. The first four reside in
Nashville.
Of the known dead at least 80 percent are
negroes. Only when the work of the wreckers is
completed and the mass of ruins removed, can the
full toll of death be taken. Corpses are
everywhere beneath the high piles of iron and
shattered wood of the fragile cars.
Many of the dead are mangled beyond the
possibility of recognition. The bodies of six
negroes, all fearfully mutilated, were
discovered beneath a pile of debris thought to
be merely a scrap heap from the demolished
engines.
Thirty Bodies Under Express Car.
The train crew worked hard to raise the heavy
express coach, beneath which were pinioned or
crushed most of the white victims. In one of the
seats sat one of the passengers, still conscious
but with three of the dead crushed against him.
The side of the car was chopped away and the man
was released, apparently in a dying condition.
From beneath the express car, some 30 men
were later removed, only the last of their
number being alive.
Just where lies the blame it is impossible
now to say. That the engineer of No. 4 knew the
Memphis train to be a little late leads to the
conjecture that he was attempting to reach the
switch at Harding Station, a short distance
beyond the scene of the wreck, before the
inbound train arrived at that point.
The Washington Post, Washington D. C. 10
Jul 1918
Articles transcribed by
Jenni Lanham. Thank you,
Jenni!
From other reports: "July 9, 1918 101 killed and
171 injured in worst U.S. train wreck,
Nashville, Tennessee"
Nashville Train Wreck from the
Tennessean.com
Great Train Wreck of 1918 from
nashvillewebreview.com
Great train wreck of 1918 from Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
 Search
for more information on the Nashville Train
Wreck and other disasters in the Historic Newspaper Collection on line at ancestry.com
Search
over 1000 different newspapers. Use this Free Trial
 to search for your ancestors.
Search
for your ancestors from Nashville, TN among the billions of
names at ancestry.com
Find birth records, census images, immigration
lists and genealogy other databases for your
surnames. Use
this Free Trial
to search for your ancestors.
Marriages
of Davidson County, Tennessee, 1789-1847
 Searchable
database at
ancestry.com. Use
this Free Trial
to search for your ancestors.
|
