Lyndhurst, Wisconsin Train Wreck
September 1, 1912
FLOODS CAUSE MANY WRECKS.
Several Lives Lost in State by Derailment of
Trains on Account of High Water.
The heavy storms and unusual amount of rainfall
in Wisconsin during the past week have caused
several disastrous railroad wrecks, in which
several lives were lost and a large number of
people injured.
One of the most disastrous occurred at
Lyndhurst early Sunday morning when the train
was derailed and several cars smashed up by the
general crash. Six lives were lost in this wreck
and a score or more injured, some of them quite
seriously. The wreck occurred at two o’clock in
the morning and it was dark as pitch at the
time.
The train was traveling about 45 miles an
hour, and the train crew had no warning that the
track was in bad shape. The trouble was caused
by a washout, due to a cloudburst, and was where
the track was lined on both sides by heavy
woods.
Several of the forward coaches of the train were
derailed and turned over, the baggage and mail
car being reduced to kindling wood by the smash,
the three sleepers that were attached to the
rear of the train remained on the track and none
of the occupants was injured altho [sic] they
were shaken up considerably by the crash.
The overturned coaches caught fire after
being smashed up, but a heavy rain was falling,
which soon extinguished the flames and probably
saved the lives of a good many.
The Wausau baseball team was on the train on
their way to Green Bay and several of the boys
were quite badly bruised up and some of them had
bones broken. Those on the train who were not
hurt did everything in their power to aid the
injured ones, and farmers in the neighborhood of
the wreck opened their houses to be used as
hospitals, and everybody was given the best care
possible under the circumstances.
The Grand Rapids Tribune, Grand Rapids, WI
4 Sept 1912
TRACKS WERE WASHED OUT
Green Bay, Sept. 3. – Five members of the
train crew and one passenger were killed at 2:30
o’clock Sunday morning when Chicago and Ashland
limited train No. 112, southbound, of the
Chicago & Northwestern road was wrecked at a
washout two miles north of Lyndhurst, which is
fifty miles northwest of this city.
Twenty-six members of the crew and passengers
were injured, seven of them seriously, and more
than 100 passengers were severely shaken up.
The dead are:
BUSHEY, CHARLES,
conductor, Milwaukee.
MARX, GEORGE M., brakeman, Milwaukee.
BENNETT, CARROLL, baggageman, Antigo.
SHELDON, STUART G., express
messenger, Milwaukee.
JONES, JOHN, engineer, Green Bay.
CALKINS, W. F., passenger, Shawano.
Heroic work by passengers and surviving
members of the train crew under great
difficulties saved many lives, and a heavy
downpour of rain prevented the wreckage from
being consumed by fire. Relief and wrecking
trains were sent from Green Bay and Antigo and
the dead and injured were removed to hispitals
[sic] in Green Bay.
The train consisted of a smoker, mail car,
baggage car, three Pullman sleepers and day
coaches and was bowling along at a rate of
thirty miles an hour when it struck a washout
caused by a cloudburst, which had carried away a
considerable section of the track.
The engine was thrown on its side as it
plowed with terrific force through the roadbed.
The baggage car next telescoped, pinioning four
of those killed until the debris. The mail and
smoking car tipped over. Although the other cars
were derailed, they remaining upright.
Among the injured are members of the Wausau
baseball club of the Wisconsin-Illinois league,
who were enroute to Green Bay. A number of them
were severely injured.
Those who escaped uninjured quickly recovered
from the shock and turmoil and worked heroically
to rescue trainmen who were pinioned under the
wreckage. The bodies of the conductor,
expressman, baggageman and brakeman were found
under the debris of the baggage car. They had
been killed instantly.
Alex Schoels,
a mail clerk, was alive when aid reached him and
for five hours he was held under the wreckage
while the rescuers struggled to release him. He
was badly crushed, but may survive his injuries.
The scene of the wreck is in an isolated spot
in a thickly wooded section. Before news of the
wreck could be communicated to Green Bay, it was
necessary for Herbert
Huelsbeck, news agent, to run to the
nearest depot, a mile and a half distant, and
wire for relief trains upon order of
W. D. Cantillion,
general manager of the Northwestern road, whose
special car was attached to the wrecked train.
The Grand Rapids Tribune, Grand Rapids, WI
11 Sept 1912
KIRWAN TELLS OF LYNDHURST WRECK
Star Southpaw Carries Scar on Forehead.
RIGHT ARM IS IN BAD SHAPE
W. B. Kirwan Fears That Bone In Right Wrist
Has Been Broken – X-ray Photos Taken.
W. B. Kirwan,
of this city, who has been pitching for
the Wausau club of the W. I. League the past
season, has returned home and will remain in
Fond du Lac during the coming winter.
Kirwan bears some ugly marks of his
experience in the North Western railway wreck
near Lyndhurst several weeks ago. A scar over
his left eye will never disappear, declare the
physicians who attended him. His right wrist is
still in bandages, a fact which is causing the
clever portside hurler considerable worry.
X-ray photographs of the injured wrist were
taken Monday at Oshkosh it is believed that a
small bone is broken. Kirwan, in relating his
experiences in the wreck, declares that he, as
well as other members of the ball team who were
enroute from Wausau to Green Bay, were mighty
lucky to get out of the affair alive.
“There were four of us fellows, all members
of the Wausau atom playing cards in the smoker
when the wreck took place” said Kriwan [sic].
“The train was going down grade and was running
at a rate of seventy miles and hour when it ran
into the washout. The engine, as I afterwards
learned, fell over on its side and plowed into
the sandy soil at the left of the track for a
distance of twenty-five feet.
“The car, in which we were seated was thrown
to the left of the track and reclined on a
fifteen foot embankment. The car following was
thrown to the right side of the track. The two
cars following plowed between us along the track
and were demolished by the five heavy Pullman
cars which brought up the rear of the train. Had
our car remaining upon the track bank it would
have fared the same as the two cars which were
demolished.”
Kirwan was in Green Bay hospital for several
days and was then removed to Wausau. He was
confined to his bed for three weeks.
Daily Commonwealth, Fond Du Lac, WI 24 Sept
1912
Articles transcribed by
Jenni Lanham. Thank you,
Jenni!
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