RootsWeb: KY-OLD-NEWS-L [KY~Old-News] New Article for United States

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Archiver > KY-OLD-NEWS > 2007-10 > 1192887373

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Subject: [KY~Old-News] New Article for United States - Kentucky
Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2007 08:36:13 -0500

A new article has been added at Newspaper Abstracts > United States > Kentucky > Jefferson http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/index.php?action=displaycat&catid=2681 Also visit our new sister sites: http://www.AncestorsOnTheWeb.com http://www.Genealogy101.com Direct link to article: http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/link.php?id=48782 Submitted by: slstrick Article Title: Weekly Courier Journal Article Date: December 31 1888 Article Description: Killed and Injured in Train Accident Article Text: Accident on the L & N Splinters and scrap iron, remaining of what Monday morning were two completely equipped passenger coaches on the Knoxville branch of the Louisville and Nashville railway, two corpses and an indefinite number of injured persons, still living, left from the crow of holiday travelers on the train, are the results of a horrible smash-up on that road Monday morning at Bardstown Junction, twenty miles south of this city. The accident occurred about 9 a.m., while the morning mail train was standing at the junction, delayed by an unusally heavy express business and while people from the neighborhood and others traveling thronged the station platform. There was not the slightest indication of danger - the train hands busily engaged at their customary duties, passengers walking beside the train, stretching and resting their cramped and tired limbs, and the usual crowd of loungers gazing idly on, making the scene an exact duplicate of what it is every day of the year, except for its increased liveliness due to the season - when suddenly there appeared from behind the curve, on the Louisville side of the station, another train, moving at frightful speed, straight down on the motionless mail. Those who witnessed the catastrophe had not even time to reckon the full meaning of the situation, or to think of what was to come, when the oncoming engine, too close on the other to be stopped or slowed up, and backed by a heavy train of cars, crashed full speed into the other, the locomotive of which was even then puffing and blowing, ready in the next few seconds to crowd on steam and be off and out of the way. An instant later the destructive work was done. The moving engine, going at the extreme limit of its speed, had struck with irresistible force against the last car of the motionless train, and had plowed its way through solid wood and iron the complete length of the coach and half way through the next, completely wrecking them, and jamming the forward cars together in telescopic fashion, while the mass of machinery which gave force to the blow was buried beneath the fragments it made of the two coaches, the whole scene being obscured by a pall of dust and steam and smoke. The crash was deafening to those close by, and the shrieking and sobbing of the steam and the cracking of timbers which followed added to the horror of the calamity, but still more appalling was the fate of those who were in the wreck. The victims, fortunately, were fewer in numbers than even the most hopeful could have expected, and when the damage done to life and limb was summarized, the list of victims was found to be as follows: THE KILLED Mrs Mary Perkins, Hodgensville, Ky William Houston, Hodgensville, KY SERIOUSLY INJURED Engineer Milton McFerran, Louisville Fireman Charles King, Louisville C. L. Miller, Louisville Miss Mary Kinnaird, Louisville Johnny Mount, Legrange, Ky SEVERELY INJURED Miss Bertha Robner, E. Bernstadt, Ky SLIGHTLY INJURED S. K. Adams, Louisville Miss Ella Adams, Louisville Mrs. Dr. T. F. Jennings, Louisville Mrs. J. R. Mount, Lagrange, Ky E. R. Dickerson, Bardstown, Ky Miss Bertha Flownbacker, Shepherdsville, Ky J. H. Heckelman, Louisville Miss Mary Kinnaird was brought to Louisville and on Wednesday died of her injuries, and Engineer McFerran died Thursday. Opinion among railroad men is divided as to who is responsible for the terrible occurrence, and this will remain unsettled until an official investigation has been held. The engineer and fireman of "the Cannon Ball" claim that they saw nothing of flagmen who should have been sent back to warn them that the mail train was in the way, and there is no evidence that any flagman took the trouble to go back to signal No. 5, even while it is claimed that Conductor Phea took the precaution to order it done. On the other hand, it is charged that Engineer McFerran and Fireman King violated one of the most stringent rules of the L. and N. in running at the speed they did, when near Bardstown Junction, as the orders are for all engineers to have their engines under complete control when making such turns and when within half a mile of certain points, among which is Bardstown Junction. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ KY-Old-News ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ NewspaperAbstracts.com - Finding our ancestors in the news! TM http://www.NewspaperAbstracts.com