While going through a box of old pictures some twenty-eight years ago, your Jay County Historian came across the above photo. The box was in an old storeroom above the garage at the Williamson & Spencer Funeral Home. My husband’s grandfather, Nelson R. Williamson, had become a partner in the funeral home in 1906. Therefore, the subject of the picture was not unusual to be found where it was. However, there was no writing on the back of the photo to tell me anything about it. Grandpa Williamson had passed on by this time, and no one else in the firm could tell me anything about the origin of the photo.
Orville Freeman was then president of the Jay County Historical Society, and so I took the picture to him. He thought it had something to do with a train wreck, but didn’t know anything further about the story. The picture was filed away and remained in storage until this past summer when I finally stumbled across the story to go with the picture.
I am in the process of making a data base of the historical records of the individuals whose funerals were handled through our funeral home since 1892. The records are listed by the date of death for the individuals. The entries for October 14, 1910 totaled five services and the accounts were paid by the railroad company. The light came on, and I remembered the picture with the five caskets, the horse drawn hearse and the crowd of all men and one woman that I had found twenty-eight years before.
The next day found me in the Jay County Recorder’s office. The Portland Weekly Sun for October 21, 1910 gave us the following story...
FIVE DEAD
AND 17 INJURED
IN TRAIN COLLISION
The Weekly Sun
October 21, 1910
G.R.I. Freight Train and Work Train Bearing About Ninety Foreign Laborers, Met in Head-on-Collision at Summit, Six Miles South of This City, at 7 O’Clock Friday Morning.
Relief Train Bearing Physicians and Coroner Hastened to Scene Where Temporary Relief was Administered and Injured were Brought to the County Hospital in This City.
THE DEAD
John Purcar, Romanian
Larzo Mandis, Slavish
Milutin Tomic, Slavish
Damjan Kovacervi, Slavish
Andar Morza, Romanian, died at hospital at 3 p.m.
THE INJURED
William Schell, Rome City, left shoulder dislocated, cut on right temple
John Sacket, Portland, chin cut, left leg and hip severely injured
John Younk, Romanian, injured about back and breast
Pete Faru, Romanian, gash in head and right arm injured
Mike Sodrs, Romanian, gash on forehead
John Agl, Romanian, left should broke and back severely injured
Nick Tom, Romanian, right side and right arm broken
Tom Bacur, Romanian, right side and right arm hurt and sprained; severely
John Paclb, Hungarian, left leg cut and sprained and right side hurt
Joseph Dot, Romanian, right knee injured
Nick Vasilin, Romanian, left shoulder broken and collar bone fractured
Greto Adamov, Slavish, injured through breast and neck sprained.
Mike Mtoniu, Slavish, right leg injured.
George Balic, Slavish, left shoulder sprained
Frank Tovanic, Slavish, hurt in breast
George Stankic, Slavish, hurt in breast
Henry Stankic, Slavish, right leg cut and bruised about breast
Four persons instantly killed, one injured so seriously that death is only a question of a few hours, and seventeen other laborers other laborers more or less injured, tells the story of a head-on collision shortly before seven o’clock Friday morning at Summit, six miles south of this city, when G.R. & I. freight train, No. 81, and a work train from this city crashed together in a heavy fog. [As one drives along Hwy. #67 approaching Redkey you will notice that the road is climbing and you reach the summit and level out about one mile before entering Redkey. I believe this was the location of the wreck and was called Summit at the time.]
The extra freight train, was a heavily loaded one while the work train consisted of the engine, tender, flat car, box car and a caboose and had on board about 90 Romanians and Slavish laborers who have been employed for several months past in cutting down the grade at Summit Hill, one of the highest points along the line.
The collision was due to the heavy fog through which the extra train was plowing its way and which had not lifted from over the low grade towards which both trains were approaching from opposite directions. Both trains had been issued working orders and for this reason neither was traveling at a high rate of speed at the time the trains came together.
News of the wreck was immediately wired to this city by D. R. Wright, road mast of this division, who was on board the work train engine and escaped injuries, as did the other train-men by jumping. As soon as it could be arranged and extra engine and caboose, both of which have been kept in this city during the day and used on the switch train at night, were sent out to the scene of the wreck, bearing Dr. C. W. Mackey, local road physician, Drs. J. T. Dickes, Grant Chaney and Coroner G. L. Perry, together with representatives of the local newspapers.
The first reports of the wreck had it that six lives had been snuffed out as a result of the collision and that the majority of all on board the two trains were cut and mangled and badly in need of medical assistance, and the physicians on board the relief train went to the scene prepared to jump into the work of relieving the sufferings of the victims upon their arrival.
As soon as temporary bandages could be applied to the injuries of the victims and sedatives administered to alleviate the pain, they were placed on board the relief train and hurried back to this city where they were conveyed to the County Hospital that their injuries might be dressed. [This accident took place just four years after the first Jay County Hospital had be established.]
Andy Murzo, a Romanian, who had been pulled from beneath the wreckage of the work train engine with his left leg severed below the knee, his right leg broken near the ankle with the bones, badly mangled and a ugly gash across the rear of the head, had been carried to a spot along the right of way where he was placed on comforts. His wounds, which are considered as necessarily fatal, had bled profusely and although he had remained conscious, his sufferings were intense until he was placed under the influence of anesthetics by Dr. Chaney who waited upon him while the other physicians administered to the other injured.
The four dead men had had their life crushed out beneath one of the monstrous engines as it toppled over the rails after the impact with the other iron king. Only one of the killed had been removed from this position when the relief train arrived on the scene of the wreck and Coroner Perry who viewing the appalling situation turned the task of their removal from the wreck over to Frank Straley, of the undertaking firm of Williamson & Straley. The relief train, after bringing the injured to this city, was sent back again and brought the bodies of the four dead foreigners to this city and they were removed to the Williamson & Straley morgue on North Meridian Street, where Coroner Perry later on conducted the autopsy.
That both trains were running slow at the time of the collision is no doubt due the fact that none of the trainmen were killed or injured. The work train consisting of the engine and tender, a flat-car, on which the most of the Slavish and Romanians were seated or standing, a box-car containing supplies for use in the alterations in the track and grade, and the caboose. As soon as the engineer and firemen on both the ill-fated engines saw that a collision was inevitable, they reversed the engines and jumped to safety.
The work train was in charge of conductor Leonard Doty, of this city, with A. A. Mills and E. A. Gardner, both of Ft. Wayne, serving in the capacity of engineer and fireman, of conductor Albright with engineer John Buckley and fireman George Senia, all of Ft. Wayne. The laborers were on board the flat-car directly behind the tender of the work train and when the collision occurred, those that were killed were jarred over the end of the car beneath the wheels of the train and their lives were instantly crushed out.
The bodies of the dead were mangled and cut in a horrible manner, their arms and lower limbs being cut off and their abdomens mangled and ground into an unrecognizable mass of flesh and bone. One of the dead men’s head was severed from the body at the neck and crushed into a pulp. In bringing the remains to this city the head of this man was conveyed to the morgue in a bucket.
John Purcar, the Romanian who was killed, was about thirty-five years old and is survived by a wife and three small children residing in the old country. He has a brother Common Purcar, living at Terre Haute, who was informed Friday forenoon of the death of his brother and the latter is expected here at once.
Largo Mandis, Milutin Tomic and Damjan Kovacervi, the three Slavish who met death, are also married men and are each survived by a wife and children in their native country. Mandis and Kovacervi are each the father of sons, while Tomic leaves a widow and daughter, the children all being mere babes according to fellow workmen of the dead men.
Adar Morza, the Romanian, who it is thought can not survive his injuries, formerly lived at Clinton, Indiana, before coming to this city to work on the railroad. He has a brother residing at Clinton who has been notified of his injuries.
Of the total number on board the work train there were sixty-three foreigners and only five or six of the number can speak English, and they but poorly with the exception of one young Romanian. Silas DeHoff, of the city, had charge of thirty-three of the Romanians and Slavs, while Leonard Doty, conductor of the work train, had thirty of them employed under his instructions. William Schell, who resides at Rome City had charge of a crew of sixteen of them, but the latter number make their headquarters at Ridgeville. Schell had been taking advantage of the opportunity afforded him and has been coming to this city at night and visiting with his brother George W. Schell, janitor of the court house and returning to his work on the train Friday morning.
At the time of the collision, Schell and Conductor Doty were standing in the rear end of the caboose when they felt the sudden jar of the train as the air brakes were applied by the engineer, just before the latter jumped to safety.
The next instant the crash came and Schell was knocked to the floor of the caboose receiving a gash in his temple and a dislocated shoulder. He said that he was standing with his hands in his pockets at the time or could have save himself considerable nerve while being attended by Dr. Dickes and without allowing the application of sedatives permitted the physician to reduce the fracture of his shoulder and after coming to this city refused to go to the hospital but instead visited a barber shop where he had his hair cut and was shaved, later on returning to the scene of the wreck.
The two engines were reduced to junk as a result of the collision, they being driven together in telescopic fashion by the impact. The cabs of both engines were reduced to splinters and were telescoped over the front ends of the tenders. The cars of both trains remained on the track with the exception of the second car from the engine in the freight train, the rear end of which was sent skyward and driven back over the front end of a car loaded with coal.
The engines, after the collision stopped at a point probably seventy-five feet north of where the collision occurred, due to the heavy freight train bearing down on the work train and pushing the latter back northward that distance and the three victims who met death in the wreck and whose bodies were not removed until after the coroner arrived, had been dragged and scraped along the track as was evidenced from the condition of the bodies underneath the wheels of the tender was a gruesome one to behold.
Only six of the injured would submit to being cared for at the hospital after their injuries were dressed and the remained repaired to the box-car stationed on the siding in the south yards of this city which they occupy a living rooms.
Coroner Perry, who made a critical examination of the wrecked trains, with a view of determining the cause of the collision, stated Friday morning that in his opinion the wreck was purely accidental and was due to the heavy fog.
Traffic on this section of the road was tied up as a result of the wreck and both morning passenger trains were compelled to make a detour by way of Redkey over the L. E. & W. and P. C. C. & St. Lo. Railroads from this city and Ridgeville. The wreck train from Ft. Wayne was ordered out at once to clear the track and arrived at the scene at about nine o’clock
Funeral for Train Victims Held
Saturday P.M.
The Commercial Review
October 17, 1910
A short prayer service was held as the five men killed Friday in the train wreck which happened six miles south of this city were laid to rest in separate graves in Green Park Cemetery. The men were all Catholic, as are all the workmen employed by the railroad on the work crew. Father J. Travers, of the St. Mary’s Catholic Church on East
Walnut Street conducted the services. Just before the caskets were lowered into the graves, caskets of two of the victims who were not mutilated beyond recognition, were opened, and a photo was taken by J. C. Brubaker with the rest of the workmen grouped behind the caskets.
Arrangements for the funerals were all made by the railroad compnay. The place where each man is burried will be well marked, so that the graves my be identified if desires any time in the future. The graves are in teh northwest corner fo the cemetery.
MY MYSTERY