Train to Tragedy
A history buff recalls a nearly forgotten
tragedy on the way to the World's Fair
It was a story Lyndon Irwin
heard often growing up in the small southwest Missouri town of Bronaugh,
just a few miles from the Kansas state line. The
Missouri Pacific Railroad passed through the town on the way to Kansas
City and St. Louis and it was on a Missouri Pacific train in 1904 that
more than 30 lives were lost in one of the bloodiest accidents in Missouri
Irwin had heard people talk
about the terrible accident and knew four people from his hometown had
been killed. In fact, his great-grandfather had planned to take that train
to St. Louis with a friend but at the last moment changed his mind. His
friend was one of those killed.
the history of Vernon County often takes Lyndon Irwin, a Southwest
Missouri State University agriculture professor, to local cemeteries.
He also traveled to all the towns in Missouri and Kansas where vicitms
of the 1904 train wreck came from. He visited cemeteries, historical
society museums and visited with local residents while researching
the accident. His five years of collecting stories about the train
wreck resulted in his self-published book, "There will be a wreck!"
Irwin, an agriculture professor
at Southwest Missouri State University for 30 years, says he's addicted
to history. He's done extensive family geneology research and studied
the colorful history of Vernon County. He even created a class at SMSU
on ag history.
So it's natural Irwin began
researching what happened in 1904. He traveled across western Missouri
and southeast Kansas, visiting libraries and cemeteries and reading dozens
of newspaper accounts of the accident. After five years of research, he
wrote a book, "There will be a wreck," which he published himself.
In 1904 the World's Fair propelled
St. Louis into the spotlight of international attention and attracted
more than 20 million people to the city. That year the Missouri Pacific
Railroad offered attractive rates to take passengers from across the Midwest
to St. Louis for the fair.
The railroad often sold more
tickets than there were seats forcing some passengers to stand or sit
in the aisle or on the platforms between cars. There was virtually no
regulation of railroads at the time despite how common fatal accidents
were. It was one of those World's Fair trains, crammed to capacity, that
smashed head-on into a Missouri Pacific freight train near Warrensburg.
The accident happened early
in the morning of Oct. 10 ironically on a stretch of the rail line called
Dead Man's Curve near Montserrat. As was the custom at the time, trains
often pulled onto sidings to wait for a specified number of trains to
pass in the opposite direction. The crew of the west-bound freight did
just that and waited on a siding near Knob Noster.
They were told to wait for
four trains to pass before continuing. But instead the crew apparently
fell asleep. According to court records from the criminal trial of members
of the crew, they had worked 17 straight hours without sleep.
When they awoke crew members
weren't sure how many trains had passed and decided to go on. It was a
The freight passed through
Montserrat and the railroad agent there, realizing something was wrong,
telegraphed the Sedalia station to the east to ask why a freight train
had just passed. The Sedalia agent, also realizing the unfolding tragedy,
quickly wired Warrensburg to stop the eastbound passenger train.
It was too late. The train
had already passed through town and, without direct communications with
the trains, there was no way to stop them. The Montserrat agent wired,
"There will be a wreck!"
Union Pacific wreck site near Warrensburg was a scene of chaos. Thousands
of people gathered to see the devastation as bodies still lay in rows
after being pulled from the wreckage following the collision of two
trains. The 1904 wreck killed 30 people on their way to visit the
St. Louis World's Fair.
At 4:10 a.m. the two trains
collided in the blackness of the countryside miles from any town. The
two crews, realizing they were about to collide, set their emergency brakes
and jumped, which was company policy.
Only one crew member died,
a brakeman on the passenger train caught between cars when the trains
hit. In the collision the passenger locomotive shot beneath the freight
engine forcing it up and over the other train. It landed on the first
passenger car where most of the fatalities and serious injuries occured.
Many accounts of the accident
tell of the horrible carnage. Those not crushed or mangled by pieces of
the shattered rail car were scalded to death by steam escaping from the
freight locomotive resting on top of them.
Irwin's book includes an account
of the accident's aftermath from passenger D.M. Watts of Nevada, Mo. "The
air was filled with groans of agony, prayers, and cries for help; people
were crushed in a manner that was simply horrible."
It would be hours before many
of the injured were taken to hospitals in Sedalia and Warrensburg. Missouri
Pacific backed trains in from the two towns to take out the injured and
remove bodies. As word spread, it was estimated nearly 3,000 people from
surrounding communities gathered at the crash site to help and gawk including
one teacher who took his students on a field trip to view the carnage.
In his research Irwin found
the cold facts behind the tragedy interesting, but to him the most fascinating
and poignant part of his research was collecting the stories of the families
affected by the wreck and of their hometowns which mourned the loss of
The Missouri Pacific line
crossed into Missouri near the town of Mindenmines and turned north to
pass through Bronaugh, Moundville, Nevada, Rich Hill and Pleasant Hill
where the train split and part continued on to Kansas City and part to
St. Louis. Most of those killed were from Kansas and southwest Missouri
because they boarded first and took seats in the forward cars of the doomed
"This is the most tragic week
in the history of Cedar Vale (Kansas)," a story in the town's newspaper,
The Commercial, reported. "Sunday afternoon a merry party of sixteen
left . . . to spend a week at the Exposition. Tuesday night four were
returned shrouded in death . . ."
|One of the most
poignant memorials to train wreck victims is this grave marker for
cousins Dicy Ream and Gertrude Loud who were buried together near
Bronaugh. Visitors to the cemetery still place flowers in the hands
of the grieving stone girls.
L.H. Sullivan of Cedar Vale
and his wife put their six children on the train to St. Louis and intended
to follow later. Two daughters were killed and the remaining children
were injured. Five siblings from Cedar Vale were orphaned when their parents
were killed while the entire Philip Ragel family, from Edna, Kan., was
Often whole towns met trains
returning the bodies and funeral processions went on for miles, newspapers
reported. The tragic
stories include those from Irwin's hometown of Bronaugh where six people
got on the train but only two returned alive. Buried in Worsley Cemetery
near Bronaugh are the four victims including two teenage cousins, Gertrude
Loud and Dicy Ream, who were buried together beneath a granite stone topped
with statues carved in Italy of two young girls in mourning. On the stone
is carved the simple statement, "Our little girls."
A year after the wreck the
freight train engineer and conductor were tried for manslaughter and found
not guilty despite the engineer's testimony that he was "pumped full of
morphine" to keep him awake on the run.
Two brakemen on the freight
train were convicted, but not of negligence in the accident. They were
seen robbing valuables from the dead including their fellow brakeman killed
on the passenger train.
Irwin has rekindled an interest
in the accident in Missouri and Kansas and has spoken to a number of county
historic societies and has even made a presentation at a family reunion.
"The reunion was very interesting.
Everyone in the audience was the descendent of a wreck victim. To talk
about the wreck with these people was fascinating. There were tear-filled
eyes in the room. It's still very emotional."
That experience showed Irwin
how devastating the tragedy was in communities affected and how it remains
a part of lives today.
For information about Irwin's
book, "There will be a wreck!" visit www.lyndonirwin.com/wreck.htm
or contact him at 3902 N. State Highway UU, Bois D'Arc, MO 65612.