Nostalgia & History > They don't write 'em like this anymore

newspaper story about a wreck at Hanson, OK (Indian Territory) 1897

The Iron Mountain mentioned is the St. Louis & Iron Mountain, a Jay Gould road, later to becomer the MOP




HARVEST OF DEATH.
GRIM TERROR GATHERS IN HIS SHEAVES DAILY ON THE RAILWAYS OF THE COUNTRY.
LATEST DAY'S WORK CLAIMS SEVEN.
ALL KILLED AND SIX OTHERS BADLY WOUNDED ON ONE CAR OF A FREIGHT TRAIN ON THE IRON MOUNTAIN IN INDIAN TERRITORY.

Memphis, Sept. 13. -- A special to The Commercial Appeal from Van Buren, Ark., says:
A most disastrous freight wreck occurred on the Iron Mountain road at Hanson, Indian Territory, a small station twenty miles west of Van Buren, at 2 p.m. yesterday, resulting in the death of seven men and the serious injury of six others, two of whom will die.
The dead are:
WILLIAM FAME.
CHARLES FAME.
DOUGLASS ANDERSON.
JOHN JOHNSON.
BORE HENDERSON.
FRANK HAMILTON.
H. A. WALTON.
The injured:
GEORGE COFFMAN.
JACK JONES.
JAMES PHILLIPS.
ROBERT EUBANKS.
CHARLES PENDER.
GEORGE PARKER.
Of the wounded it is thought that two will die, as they suffered internal injuries. All of the dead and wounded were sent to Vian, with the exception of WALTON'S body, it being brought to this place, where he has relatives living. None of the trainmen were hurt. The wrecked train was a local freight, No. 45, from Coffeeville, Kas., to Van Buren. While the train was running at twenty miles an hour the forward trucks of one of the cars near the engine broke, wrecking fifteen cars loaded with walnut logs and baled hay.
With the exception of two cars in front and three cars in the rear, including the caboose, every car of the twenty composing the train was ditched. In the middle of the train was a car loaded with heavy machinery, and it was in this car that several men were stealing a ride and from which seven dead and six seriously wounded were taken by the trainmen shortly afterwards. It appears that the occupants of the wrecked car were a party of men and boys living at Vian, I.T., who were coming to Van Buren to find employment in the cotton fields. When the machinery car left the rails, it fell on its side, nearly all of the men being caught by the heavy beams. A car of logs was piled on top of the one in which the men were riding, and that any escaped instant death is but little short of a miracle. A message was sent to Trainmaster Walsh at this place by the train crew, and he immediately ordered out a wrecking crew and with Division Roadmaster McLeod went to the scene of the wreck, taking with them Dr. Dibell, the company's local surgeon at this place. The first thing done was to extricate the dead and wounded and on account of the heavy logs and machinery under which they were buried, the task was a laborious one and it was several hours before the last of the bodies was removed from the wreck.

Kansas City, Sept. 13. -- A special to the Times from Van Buren, Ark., says many sad scenes were enacted at Hanson. One of the dead, whose name is unknonw, was found with his head mashed to a pulp, between the heavy logs, his brains oozing out. Others were crushed and mangled in a horrible manner. Two of the dead were brought here, WILLIAM and CHARLES FAME. WILLIAM was found on one side of the track and CHARLES on the other, both crushed almost out of semblance to human beings. The scene at Vian, when the dead bodies of those who has resided there arrived, were affecting in the extreme. The parents and other relatives of the deceased were at the station when the train came in. It will probably be several days before the wreck will have been cleared away and the full extent of the disaster is revealed. Three men are still missing according to the statements of some of those who escaped.

That is a little bloody.

My grandparents saved newspaper clipping of automobile wrecks and other accidents from the early 20th century. They were much like this. The one that sticks out is about a young lady who was killed in some kind of accident, and the reporter said she must have been a woman of wealth judging by the quality of her bloomers.

Just the budding journalism mind set known today as 'if it bleeds, it leads'.
...Lorenzo