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VOLUME 5. NUMBER 40. WRECK DEATH LIST MAY BE INCREASED Four more names may be ad» ded to the list of eleven persons killed in the train wreck at En derlin, N. D-, according to an unverified report to the Soo line's general offices in Minne apolis. Verification of this re port would make the total dead 14. LIST OF WRECK VICTIMS. THE DEAD. Charles Backus, Bergen, X. D.: body sent to Slapie Lake, Minn. H. J. Volkeriug, Anamoose, N. D. John Satterburg, Anamoose, N. D. Tony Glenn, Velva, N. D. body to Glencoe, Minn. D. J. Beresford, Medicine Hat, Cana da. Herman Rosenbaum, Velva, N. D. W. ft. Danielson, Sheldon, N. D. Neils F. C. Hanson, Kenmare. Ole Thompson, Starbuck, Minn. Two unidentified men. INJURED WHO RECEIVED -FIRST MEDICAL ATTENTION William Sutton, Foley, Minn. J. T. Miller, Minot, N. D. Ed Carlson, Parkers Prairie. Minn. Heinrich Swanson, Velva, N. D. G. M. Brockett, 3325 Bryant avenue, S, Minneapolis- Madge Langland, De corah, Iowa. Charles McDiarmid, Kenmare, N. D. Henry Anderson, Bergen, N. D. Jason Ralston, Balfour, N. D. Minoc J. Sweet, Alexandria, Minn. L. M. Larson, Starbuck, Minn. H. Cole, 517 west Central avenue, St. Paul. Engineer Frank S, Barnes, Enderlin, N. D. Sweedish hospital, leg broken. Harry Dizzard, brakeman, Enderlin. L. A. Mandery, 915 ^Minnehaha ave nue, Minneapolis. SLIGHTLY INJURED. Tony Plackteller, 1943 Oliver avenue N, Minneapolis. Joseph Labo, Buffalo, Minn. H. H. Barker, Donnydrook, N. D. Albert Fairbanks, Carrington, N.D. J. J. Bolstad, Enderlin. N.D. Andrew Carlson, Annandale, Minn. R. C. Ryan, Graceville, Minn. Walter Jensen, Velva, N. D. Reuben Nelson, Velva, N. D. Conrad Nelson, Velva, N. D. A. Lind, Minot, N. D. John Reinger, Sleepy Eye, Minn. W. Westward, Velva, N. D, Charles Knickerbacher, Drake, N. D. A. A. Crumweidy, Perley, N. D. John Magnuson, Bergen, N. D, E. L. Strubble, baggageman No. 106 St. Paul. Martin Johnson, Carver, Minn., at St. Mary's hospital, feet bruised by seat. John Kravig, Pennock, Minn. W. L. Sampbell, Kimball Prairie, Minn. William Gradin, Benedict, Minn. John Gorman, Bowbells, N. D. CRASHED INTO STANDING ENGINE Enderlin, N. D. Dec. 24.—Soo line passenger train No. 106 was wrecked at Enderlin yesterday morning about 2:30 o'clock. Eight persons were killed outright and others received fatal injuries. Forty-one received more or less serious injuries. The accident occurred in the yards here, the passenger train clashing into a switch engine which was standing on the main line. Reports indicate that the brakes of the switch engine had not been working properly, and while it was blocking the line a brakeman had been sent back to flag the passenger, which was three hours late. The night was foggy and as the passenger train was on a down grade, it got by the signals. There is also a re port that the brakeman was a new man and became panic stricken when he saw there was danger of a collision and dropped his lantern. CARS WERE TELESCOPED. All the persons who were kill ed and injured were in the smok ing car, which was telescoped by the bsggage car. Most of the dead were taken from the rear end of the car. There is a small private hospi tal at Enderlin and the injured were cared for there and at the hotel. Physicians and nurses were summoned from all the near-by towns. Passengers on the wrecked1 train say there was hardly stand ing room in the aisles, there being an unusually heavy list on account of the holidays. EIGHT BODIES TAKEN OUT. The work of rescuing the struggling victims pinned down by the seats was commenced promptly and within an hour eight bodies had been removed. Of the thirty-five or forty res cued, three have since died in the hospital and others are reported dying. Terrible as the catastro phe was, it probably would have been much worse but for the presence of mind of one of the men imprisoned in the wreckage. He was directly below a lamp, and with rare fortitude and pres ence of mind he reached up and succeeded in snuffing out the light. His action, which left the struggling victims in darkness, called forth several protests at first, but when the realization came that he probably had saved the cars from fire there was a murmer of appreciation from the helpless sufferers. The train crashed into a freight engine standing on the main track in the yards about a half mile west of the station. The freight engine was on the main track headed toward the east, when the passenger engine crash ed into it. SAVED BY JUMPING. The engineers and firemen of both engines saw the danger in time, and jumped, none of them being injured. The mail clerk and baggagemen were not seri ously injured, and none of the train crew was hurt. Both of the engines were wrecked, but none of the coaches except the mail and baggage cars left the tracks. They were not overturn ed but were hurled fr »m the rails by the shock. Trie brunt of the shock was taken up by the en gines and the baggage and smok ing ears, the other cars being The Independent's circulation is larger than all other Minot papers combined. Subscription books open for inspection—4600 Copies Weekly THE WARD COUNTY INDEPENDENT. FOURTEEN KILLED IN A WRECK ON THE SOO LINE AT ENDERLIN Passenger Train No. 06 East Bound Smashed Into a Switch Engine in the Enderlin Yards—The Switch Engine had Backed Into the Main Line on Account of a String of Freight Cars Which was Being Made up for Transportation East THE FREIGHT CREW IS BLAMED FOR FATAL WRECK The Accident is the Worst in the History of North Dakota and the Worst That has Ever Happened on the Soo Line Since its Entrance Into This State Eight of The Fourteen Victims Were Residents of No. Dak., and Two Were From Minot only slightly damaged. WHERE THE SLAUGHTER WAS. When the engines struck the baggage and smoking cars crash ed together, and the upper parts of both cars giving away, the floor of the baggage car swept the seats and passengers in the smoker toward the rear and com pressed them into a space of about six feet. It was here that the lives were lost, and the great est injuries sustained. The pas sengers were piled in a great, writhing mass, pinned under the weight of the seats and those of the passengers who had been forced toward the roof of the car in the backward wave. TWO OF ONE FAMILY DEAD. A family consisting of a father, mother, daughter, and son-in-law all were passengers on the train. The two men were in the smoker and both were dead when taken out. A 7-year-old boy found his father among the dead and said that he was now an orphan. An old deaf mute had both legs and one shoulder broken, but he kept up his courage and smiled as he wrote that he was thank ful that it was no worse. HOTEL MADE A HOSPITAL. The few in the smoker who es caped were the first to go to the rescue of the victims. They were soon reinforced by passen gers from the other cars, and within about ten minutes citizens and wagons began to arrive from the town, and the injured were conveyed to the local hospital and hotel, which was immediate ly converted into an emergency hospital. When the danger of fire was removed by the extin $ a Our rates and terms are right. Give us a trial— Sf we want your business and know we can please you. We make a specialty of country bank accounts. Write for particulars. MINOT, WARD COUNTY, NORTH DAKOTA, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1906 SUBSCRIPTION $1.00 PER ANNUM guishing of the lamp, the res cuers set to work to clear away the wreckage, and within an hour the dead and injured had been removed. TWELVE SURGEONS. A relief train from Valley City arrived a short time later with eight physicians and several nurses, and the work of caring for the injured was carried on by twelve physicians, the nurses and towns-people. The dead were identified and were placed in the fire hall and their families notified. As soon as the bodies were re moved the work of clearing up the wreckage was commenced and at 1 o'clock yesterday after noon the track was cleared and train service resumed. Enderlin is a town of about 1,500 inhabitants and is a divis ion point oil the Soo line. YARD FOREMAN'S STATEMENT. The freight engine was in charge of the yard foreman, who is anew man. He says he re ceived orders between 1 and 1:30 o'clock to look out for the pas senger train at 2:10, and sent a switchman back to flag the pas senger and to place torpedoes on the track. The passenger engi neer had orders to stop at the yard limits, but had not reached there when the accident occurred. The report of the speed at which the train was running at the time of the collission vary from ten to thirty miles an hour. HELPED OTHERS, THO HURT. Martin O. Johnson, of Carver, Minn., who was one of the pas sengers in the smoking car where the loss of life was greatest, tells Financial Backing —Is what counts in the* Banking Business. Times like these, when the farmers are Jong on & wheat, and short on cash, aud the blockade is tying up business everywhere, test a bank's resources. Our connections enable us to say :—We always have money to loan. We do not have to depend on & local deposits to furnish us funds. As a conserv.-tive igs bank, conducted along proper lines, we require satis factory security, but no loan that a pood bank can take, is ever refused by us on account of lack of funds. I UNION NATIONAL BANK 1 OF MINOT CAPITAL $50,000.22 nP a thrilling story of his escape. Johnson was on his way home to spend Christmas with his family at Carver. He is now at St. Mary's hospital, but hopes to be out soon. His hands were cut by glars, and bones in the right an kle are broken, yet he spent near ly all of the day yesterday help ing others who were worse in jured in the wreck. "I do not know how it hap pened," said Mr. Johnson to a reporter, today. "I was in the smoker, about half way back, before the accident. Then the baggage came smashing thru from the front, ripping up the seats and crushing everything in its way. After the instant of confusion I found myself crowd ed against the roof of the car on top of a tangled mass of broken seats and mangled passengers. It was terribly hot and my first thought was of fire from the stove or lamps. With my hand 1 knocked the glass out of one of the ventilators to let in the air and to call for help. EVERYBODY WORKED. "As soon as I was pulled out I went to work to help the badly injured. Everybody worked. There was a man in the seat with me and I tried to find him. We talked together Saturday even ing, but I did not learn his name. 1 knew he was with me in the seat at the time of the accident, but 1 could not find him after ward. I do not think he was killed, but tho I went to all the places where they had injureil or dead, I could not find him, nor did 1 see him on the streets any where. The doctors did everything men could do. There were two doctors on the train and four came from Enderlin. Others were called from Valley City and other places. Men and women who we.e not hurt or who were just slightly hurt, assisted the doctors or worked in the wreck looking for the dead and injured. The townspeople did all they could do for us and we left for Minneapolis yesterday after noon. WRECK NEAR A CURVE. •The place where the accident occurred is a bad one. There is a curve and down grade. It was dark outside, and the fog made it darker. Until we could get lights, it was hard work to do anything in the wreck. Ev erybody was afraid of fire, and those who were not hurt at once began to look for lamps and stoves that might cause trouble. Fortunately the fire in the smo ker stove was out, or went out. The lights were iarred out, with one or two exceptions, and some body extinguished those still burning. "I am thankful 1 got out alive. It was a close shave. I don't want to go thru another wreck. Some of the injured suffered ter ribly, and their cries and shrieks were something awful. In some cases it was necessary to cut away woodwork *to reach pas sengers pinned down in the wreck, but there were plenty of workers, and they all worked hard and tast." IJK1-: NEW PRAGUE WKEcK A. 1. Olson of the right-of-way department of the Soo line, who was on the wrecked train at En derlin, has returned to Minneap olis. Mis description of the sceae makes it appear that the wreck was almost an identical reproduction of the recent New Prague wreck, in which the light and unvestibuled smoking car was telescoped when the crash came, and other cars were not injured to any extent. Mr. Olson was asleep, but was awakened by the force of the impact, llesays that the passenger train was going only about ten miles an hour and that the tank trucks of the switching engine which the passenger engine collided with were not even raised from the rails. Quick work was done in rescu ingthe injured, getting out the dead and in clearing the track. Mr. Olson says that Shaw, the passenger train conductor, put out the kerosene lights in the baggage and smoking car imme diately as a precaution against fire. The Nelson boys from Vel va were thrown from one end of the damaged car to the other but escaped with slight injuries. DLAMES FREIGHT CREW. O. M. Young of Kensal, X. I.f one of the survivors of the En derlin wreck, believes that the awful accident was the result of criminal negligence on the part of the freight crew, combined with a dense fo* which made it impossible for either of the engi neers to see fifty yards ahead on the track. ''The accident occurred at 2:30 in themorning.'' said Mr. Young. •'I was sleeping in a day coach when there was an awfui jolt and when I awoke the lights in the car were burning without shades or chimneys, and broken glass was scattered all over the car, but on going to the door I meta brakeman who said that people were hurt ahead, and help was needed. Going up in front 1 found the baggage car telescoped with the sjioker, and the dead and injured were in the midst of the debris. Both engineers es caped with a few scratches. "On account of the fog it is easy to understand why the pas senger engineer did not see the approaching danger, but the crew of the fre**ght must have known that the passenger train was due, altho the traiu was an hour late." BROCKETT IS INJURED. Among those injured in the Enderlin wreck was 0. M. Brock ett of Minneapolis, Minn. He ((Continued on Page 12.)