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CHAPTER XXI
Railway Casualties
Early on the morning of
July 13th, 1869, a freight train, consisting of an engine
and twelve freight cars, one baggage car, one sleeper,
and one passenger coach, in charge of Conductor H. S.
Miller, of Burlington, rumbled slowly down the grade
west of Albia, on the C., B. & Q. Railway. There
had been a heavy rain that night, and Coal Creek was
running out of its banks.
Engineer Peter Ericsson
and David Deffnbaugh, fireman, sat in their places on
the lookout for accidents. They had been warned that
the track was unsafe, and that large quantities of sand
had been washed out from under the piling of the bridge
which spanned Coal Creek. The bridge was made on pilings,
and was about twenty feet high. When about the center
of the bridge, the engine went down with a crash, into
the water, followed by seven of the cars, after rising
to the surface, floated slowly down the stream, turning
over and over in their passage, until they finally landed
against trees.
The engineer and fireman
were submerged with their engine, and as the engine
settled to the bottom of the steam, the men climbed
out through the window, and, coming to the surface,
floated down with the current and saved themselves.
When the train left Burlington,
a man named Wm. Herriott, with his four children, took
passage in one of the ill-fated cars. They were en
route to Taylor County, with a team an wagon, but
at Burlington concluded to ship on board the cars. Their
wagon and team were taken on board the train, and Mr.
Herriott and children remained in the car with the wagon.
Their car was one that went down into the watery chasm.
The father and one little girl escaped from the car.
The child, having crawled through the partially opened
side-door, pried the door a little wider open and her
father was liberated, and in about an hour both were
taken off the car and towed to dry land by means of
ropes.
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The other three children
were drowned, and their bodies were not recovered until
some hours later. The children's ages were 12, 11, 10,
and 8, respectively. Emma, the oldest daughter, was
the one who made her escape, William, 12 years of age,
together with his sisters aged 10 and 8, respectively,
were those who drowned.
A coroner's inquest fixed
the blame for the accident on the railroad company,
and the company at once asked Mr. Herriott to name the
amount of damages. He named
Wreck on the Iowa Central Railway, August 13, 1896.
(click on image for larger size)
$1,000 as the amount, which the company
paid forthwith, and also tendered him $700 more, which
was accepted. The company also paid all the expenses,
making the total bill of $2,000. Mr. Herriott was well
satisfied with this settlement, and the railway company
was equally glad to escape with so small a sum. The
corpses were taken back by friends to Bureau County,
Illinois, for burial and the father and mother continued
their journey to Taylor County, the latter having in
the meantime joined her husband.
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At this time Tom Potter,
who afterwards became General Superintendent of the
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway system, was
the station agent at Albia.
On the night of the 15th
of August, 1896, another casualty, quite similar to
the foregoing, except that it was not attended by loss
of life, occurred on the Iowa Central Railroad, a short
distance west of the village of Hickory, Monroe County.
A south-bound passenger train, due at Albia at 9:15
p. m., with McCarthy as conductor, Eads engineer, and
Shope fireman, in passing over the first bridge west
of Hickory narrowly escaped being precipitated into
the stream. There had been a tremendous rain, and the
accumulation of drift washed against one of the piers
had swept away one of the bents of the bridge. The engine
passed over this in some unaccountable manner, but the
baggage car began to settle. The engine was instantly
detached, and passed on over with her crew, en route
to Albia. The next bridge was 100 feet in length, and
about 25 feet in height. It was a wooden structure built
on piling, and spanned Miller Creek, which at the time
of the accident was much swollen by the recent rain.
The engine had no sooner gotten fairly on the bridge
than, without a moment's warning, it went down into
the chasm with a tremendous crash, alighting in five
or six feet of water.
None of the crew were injured
in the least degree. The men climbed out of the cab,
and passed along the side of the engine until they caught
hold of some projecting timbers, and drew themselves
out of the wreck. The engine sustained but slight injury,
and within the next forty-eight hours an inclined track
was built to it, when a huge Mogul engine was harnessed
to it by means of a long cable, and the engine was drawn
out. If the train had passed safely over the first bridge,
its fate at the second one might have been terrible
to contemplate.
Chapter XXII
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