WRECK ON M. N. & S.

NADLER, WEAVER, KLEIN, JOHNSON, PEASE, LAMANSKY, DICKERSON, HEVERLY, FARREL, COFFIELD, SPITZNOGLE

Posted By: Judy Kelley, volunteer (email)
Date: 6/6/2010 at 20:40:34

Source: LCHS scrapbook

Terrible Accident Last Saturday Afternoon - Worst that Ever Occurred on Road - One Killed and Eight Injured.

The worst wreck that ever occurred on the Muscatine North & South railroad since it was opened for traffic resulted last Saturday afternoon when the passenger coach left the track and, after running along on the ties for some distance, plunged down the embankment, a distance of about sixteen feet. The accident happened in the vicinity of Hogback. There were quite a number of passengers in the coach and the marvel is that more of them were not more seriously or fatally injured. Frank Nadler, a traveling salesman for the Olney-Jerman Drug Co. of Clinton, Iowa, was the only person killed. He was married and leaves a wife and three children. It was with difficulty that his body was removed from the debris, and the manner in which he was pinioned beneath the wreckage indicated that death must have been instantaneous. The body was taken to Muscatine at 11 o'clock Saturday night and from there to Davenport, Coroner Wagner of Grandview, relinquishing charge of the remains.

Drs. A. J. Weaver and J. L. Klein, with two nurses from Bellevue hospital, Muscatine, went to the scene of the wreck Saturday afternoon on the special train, and admisistered to the wants of the injured. Mrs. Johnson, who has been employed for some time in the Commercial hotel in Wapello was in the car and was the most severely hurt, and was taken to Muscatine about 8 o'clock, when the relief train returned, and to Bellevue hospital. Her injuries while not necessarily dangerous, are most painful.

Harry Pease, of this place, was also among the injured. He was brought back to town and taken to his home where physicians examined him and found no bones were broken, but he had sustained serious bruises about the head and shoulders and his back was also strained. Mrs. Johnson narrowly escaped drowning, the hind end of the coach where she and Mr. Nadler were seated, being partly submerged.

Following is the list of the injured:

Harry Pease, Wapello, badly bruised about the head and shoulders.

Mrs. Bertha Johnson, of Elrick Junction, bad gash over the eye, bruised about the body and badly shaken up. Now at Bellevue hospital.

Harry Lamansky, of Brighton, bruised about the head and shoulders, cut over eye.

William Dickerson, of Grandview, bruises on each leg and slightly cut.

Rev. E.H. Heverly, of Cedar Rapids, escaped with cuts on face and body bruises.

James Farrel, roadmaster M.N. & S., right arm sprained and twisted and bruised about body.

Thomas Coffield, of Oakville, cut about shoulders and hips.

Mrs. Mary Spitznogle, Oakville, badly bruised.

The cause of the wreck is not known furnter than the fact the coach jumped the track and the breaking of the coupling let it fall over the embankment.