From the Galveston Daily News, Galveston, TX - Published July 4, 1904
WRECK ON WABASH
Train Ran Into Open Switch at Litchfield, Ill.
Overturned and Seven of Nine Cars Were Burned
TWENTY DEAD; FORTY INJURED
Accident Occurred Inside the City Limits — Telegraph Was
Disabled for a Time — Several of the Dead Were Burned.
Collision With Freight Cars — Several Delegates Were on the Train.
Litchfleid, Ill., July 3. - The Chicago limited of the Wabash Railroad, due in St. Louis at 7 p. m., and half an hour late, was wrecked tonight inside the city limits.
The train struck an open switch and was overturned and seven of the nine coaches were burned.
It is believed that twenty persons perished in the second and third coaches and that forty were injured.
The injured are being cared for in the St. Francis Hospital in this city.
A partial list of the dead follows:
ST. PIERRE V. BALD, Montreal, Canada.
L. O. ECHSTADT, 105 South Albany avenue, Chicago.
MRS. C. F. LUTHER, Milwaukee.
DAN H. DAVIS, Decatur, Ill.
JOSEPH BARDELL, delegate from North Dakota.
JOSEPH DANFORD, engineer, Decatur, Ill.
DAN SMITH, fireman, Decatur, Ill.
MRS. PERKINS, 6700 Union avenue, Chicago.
HON I. R. MILLS, Decatur, Ill.
The injured include the following:
S. A. Asquivitch, Waterloo, Iowa, internally;
William Archibald, Honey Falls, Ky.;
George Archibald;
W. M. Balls, Chicago, fatally;
Mrs. Candyou, Milwaukee, internally;
Gleason Ellis, Marshfleld, Wis.;
James Fizzel, Taylorville, Ill.;
Harry M. Glaso, St. Louis;
Joseph Groin, Alois Gehreg, Mrs. Theresa Gehreg, internally;
Miss Annie Kenyon, Kingston, Ky.;
Mrs. Gertrude Kitt, Chicago;
Mary Kitt, 10 years, burned;
Joseph Kitt, 12 years, burned;
Wilcox Kunocht, Chicago;
S. Livingston, collector on train;
G. S. Macomber, Perry, Kan.;
Miss Huldah Nock, Arlington Heights, Ill.;
Harry Rink, Cincinnati;
James B. Roberts, Caslin, Ind.;
E. H. Rose, Riverside, Cal., internally;
Harry S. Rubensach, Chicago;
W. J. Schrader. Chicago;
Frank Smith, Chicago;
Mrs. Frank Smith, Chicago;
Miss Florence Smith, Chicago;
Mrs. Elizabeth Weber, Chicago, seriously, but not fatally;
Charles Ward, Chicago, left leg torn off at ankle, serious;
W. H. Thorp, Chester, Pa, slightly injured;
Miss Fannie Tipson, badly bruised and internally injured;
Mrs. B. F. Tenney, Ada, Minn, internally;
B. F. Tenney, Ada, Minn, injured, bones sprained.
The engine, after running into the switch, struck a string of freight cars and the first three cars were piled into a heap across the track and caught fire immediately.
The last car on the train was a special from Wisconsin. It was uncoupled, pushed back and saved.
Hon. I. R. Mills, one of the deal, was internal revenue collector at Decatur and one of the most prominent Republicans In Central Illinois.
The track was reported clear at the last station and the train was running about fifty miles an hour. The open switch was not noticed.
No information can be obtained as to who was responsible for the accident. Nearly all of the passengers were bound for St. Louis, and those not injured left on the Illinois Central train an hour later. Three of the injured have since died. Coroner Grey is here and will hold an inquest.
A. E. Darling of No. 4956 Forest Park boulevard, St. Louis, was one of the passengers on board the observation car. He said:
"I saw two persons burned to death. One was a man and the other a young girl. I do not know their names. Wreckage held them down until the heat became unbearable and the men who were trying to save them could not remain. There was another passenger, a woman, whose feet were pinned down by a beam. It could not be moved and she begged that her feet be cut off. Flames drove everybody away before she could be saved.
F. Ward of Chicago showed particular courage. One of his legs had been torn off. When he was carried out of the wreck he said:
"'Lay me down somewhere and go back and save the women and children.'
"The wounded were mostly taken to private houses in the vicinity of the wreck and later on those who were able were removed to hospitals. The survivors of the disaster went on to St. Louis late tonight."
