Erma Ferguson (1898-1912)

FERGUSON, HEMSTOCK

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 5/17/2021 at 16:53:11

From Nevada Representative July 19, 1912 (front page)

THREE GIRLS KILLED

MILWAUKEE TRAIN HITS AUTOMOBILE

Wreck at Cambridge.--Two Escape.

As the result of a Milwaukee fast train hitting an automobile Thursday afternoon at Cambridge two girls were instantly killed and a third was so badly injured that she died about eight o'clock the same evening. The three were in the tonneau of the automobile. The driver and a fourth girl, who was with him on the front seat, escaped without serious injury. The victims were:
IMO MAYWALD, 14 years, killed.
IRMA FERGUSON, 17 years, killed.
HELEN JOHNSON, 11 years, mortally injured, has since died.

The persons who escaped with slight injuries were Herman Maywald, driver of the car,

Miss Maywald of Boone, a cousin of the other Maywalds.

The car was one belonging to Harman Mayward Sr. father of the driver and the Maywald girl who was killed and himself a prosperous farmer living just northwest of Cambridge, where he bought a farm about two years ago. The Ferguson girl was a daughter of Chas. Ferguson of Cambridge, and the Johnson girl was a daughter of Ben Johnson, ex-supervisor of the county. The Maywald girl who escaped was a visitor from Boone. The whole company in the car were a crowd of jolly young folks of school age out for pleasant airing and of just the sort to arouse the widest and deepest public sympathy when they suddenly become victims of a shocking tragedy.

The accident was a result of a very dangerous condition of affairs that has come about as an incident to the operations of the Milwaukee railroad in double-tracking and generally reconstructing its line at Cambridge in these operations the grade of the track is being raised many feet, and to this and new embankment has been built just north of the old track. This embankment effectually shuts off all view up and down the track for anyone approaching the crossing from the north, and through this embankment on the main road south from Cambridge there is a hole. Any rig or automobile passing through this hole comes immediately upon the track, and such was the case with the young people in this automobile. They came through the hole and onto the track just in time to get in front of the east-bound fast passenger train which was two hours late, the time being about 2:15 p. m. To add to the difficulties of the situation, a cement mixer, which was used or to be used in the railroad construction work, was standing on the north side of the track near the crossing, and the car was not merely struck by the engine; but it was also crushed between the engine and the mixer. The car was simply smashed, and as a final feature of the catastrophe the gasoline from the tank exploded and set thing all afire. The first fortunate feature of the situation was the presence near by of some truck hands who had some water handy; and they put out the fire, but not before the bodies of the two girls that had been killed and the girl who had been injured were much burned. Of the five young people it appears that only one offered in sympathizers much opportunity for assistance, two of the others being already dead and the other two not greatly hurt, but for Helen Johnson everything possible was done. Local physicians were called and Dr. Smith was summoned from Nevada and went down in twenty-five minutes; but she had both legs broken and was considerably scalded by the gasoline. Her condition was never very hopeful and in fact she survived the accident only about six hours.

An incident of the accident and the first suggestion to most people here that something was wrong was the coming here of Fred Larson of Cambridge after the aunt and sister of Irma Ferguson. The aunt was Mrs. Arthur Hemstock living this side of Cambridge and the sister was Hazel Ferguson who had been visiting at her aunt's Mrs. Hemstock had driven on to Nevada Thursday with her niece and two of her own children, and the party had dinner at the Frank Stone home. After the smash-up they were notified by telephone and Fred Larson drove up with his automobile. When he started back he drove through the town fast, while in the back seat a woman was sustaining a girl who was apparently in great distress. The woman was Mrs. Hemstock and the girl was the sister of one of the girls that had been killed. The incident is illustrative of the very great sympathy that is felt on all hands for the victims of the accident and their friends. Especially will there be sympathy throughout the county for former supervisor Johnson, who is almost universally known and whose daughter was an only child.

From Nevada Representative July 23, 1912 (front page)

THE ACCIDENT AT CAMBRIDGE

Victims Buried--Coroner's Jury Blame Milwaukee.

The accident at Cambridge last Thursday wherein three girls in an automobile were killed by a Milwaukee passenger train, was followed on Saturday by the funeral of the three victims, Imo Maywald and Erma Ferguson, who were both killed outright-- and Helen Johnson, who died a few hours after the accident, and also on the same day by an inquest conducted by Dr. A. G. Olson, coroner of the county.

The funerals were all conducted at the Methodist church in Cambridge, and they were largely attended and the occasion for expressions of deepest sympathy. The inquest substantiated the facts of the case about as they had been previously reported. The automobile passed south through a narrow gap in the high grade which the Milwaukee had been building there for its new tracks, and it passed out immediately upon the old track where it was almost instantly hit by an east-bound passenger train. The automobile had had to slow up north of the gap for a man to come through with a horse and buggy, and it was still running slowly when it came out of the gap. The boy, Herman Maywald, who was running the automobile, turned the machine to the east in the effort to avoid the fast approaching train; but the train caught the rear of the car, crushing it against a near-by cement mixer with fatal results to the girls in the back seat. The engine whistled once somewhere; but the impression is that the whistle was for the town and not at a time to afford warning for persons at the crossing. Workman of the railroad brought water very quickly and put out the fire from the exploded gasoline. The visiting cousin, Florence Maywald of Kellogg, who was on the front seat of the automobile and came out of the accident without injury, testified at the inquest but the boy, Herman Maywald, who was driving the automobile, did not appear, and he is perhaps worse hurt than was at first believed. He had a fractured shoulder; but that injury was not counted serious, and the impression is that he was generally shattered by the shock of the accident and its consequences.

The coroner's jury consisted of F. W. Larson, A. M. Mason and C. J. Thomas, and after finding the general facts that the three girls were killed in an automobile by being hit by Milwaukee train No. 26 on the day stated they continued:

"We further find and believe that the said C. M. & St. P. R. R. Co. are guilty of gross neglect and carelessness in making a temporary crossing at said Vine street. This is both very unsafe and dangerous and not safe guarded by signal or flagman.

We further believe that the train crew on said train No. 26 were careless and neglectful in giving no signals on approaching said crossing.