The fatal train wreck of 1905

There are no pictures of this train wreck splashed across the front page, only a vivid description of what happened. From the June 7, 1905 McCook Tribune:

“A Community Mourns The Tragedy: On last Sunday evening at 8:44 o’clock, just a few hundred feet beyond the Turkey Creek Bridge, and almost midway between Oxford and Edison stations, took place the most appalling, heart-rending and fatal accident in the history of railroading on the Western Division of the great Burlington Route, and in a twinkling of an eye, without a moments warning, four lives were hurled into eternity, and one was saved as by a miracle, though severely injured.

The rains of Saturday night and the bursting of the dam at Curtis lake early on Sunday morning caused grave uneasiness at headquarters and shortly before noon a train and crew were dispatched to Cambridge to watch the company bridge at that point which, it was feared, might be taken out or destroyed by the flood of water known to be coming down the Medicine Valley. Later, hearing of trouble existing between Oxford and Edison, the train continued on east. Arriving at the Turkey Creek Bridge between the above mentioned points, that structure was carefully examined and found to be safe. It is supposed that the train then started to inspect a big fill further east. At any event, the train had scarcely gotten under way before the engine plunged into a washout, one car and the front end of the second car following the engine into the hole, which was 20 or 30 feet wide and about 10 feet deep, the flood of water having washed away the earth embankment of the road bed, leaving the cross-ties and rails apparently intact.

Roadmaster B. V. Haley, Chief Clerk Frank Harris, Bridge Boss N. N. VanSickle, besides Engineer Frank W. Jeffries, Fireman C. C. M. Rowell and Brakeman Samuel B. Mundy were on the engine when she made the fatal leap into the darkness. Of these six men, Fireman Rowell and Brakeman Mundy were instantly killed; Engineer Jeffries expired shortly after being released and thought to be all right; Roadmaster Haley died in about two hours after being removed from the wreck, though he never regained consciousness; and Chief Clerk Harris was severely burned on the right leg and a small bone in the back of the right hand was broken, besides being painfully bruised and terribly shocked. VanSickle of the bridge gang, who was on the steps of the engine, jumped and escaped injury entirely.”

As was common during the 1895 era, the Tribune also continued with what the deceased’s family would have to live on: “All the victims were more or less insured. Roadmaster Haley carried in all about $8,000 of life and accident insurance. Besides he leaves other property which will leave his dear ones well provided for in a temporal sense. Fireman Rowell carried $2,500 worth of insurance. Engineer Jeffries family will have nothing but the Burlington Relief money, $ 1,250, which leases the helpless mother and five little ones poorly prepared for the battle of life before them. Brakeman Mundy carried $ 750 in the Burlington Relief.” Haley was survived by a wife and three small children; Rowell was survived by his wife and one young daughter, his parents, Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Rowell, sister, Mrs. U. J. Warren and two brothers, Thomas and Elmer of McCook, John of Hastings. Mundy’s body was returned to his home of state of Illinois accompanied by his brother T. M. Mundy who was a conductor in McCook.

This would not end up being the worst train wreck on the Burlington line in western Nebraska, however, on this day, when McCook was only 13 years old, it was a horrible tragedy for the young town.

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