Iowa Old Press
Fort Madison Evening Democrat, Tue, Dec 9, 1902 – Page 2, Col 3
SANTA FE LIMITED HAS FATAL WRECK.
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Train Goes Into Ditch at Rothville, Mo. --- Engineer and Fireman Killed
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FOUR PEOPLE BADLY INJURED.
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Engineer Samuel Wise and Fireman Alex Hevlin Die After Reaching Hospital
The Santa Fe California limited train No. 3, due here at 2 a.m., westbound, was wrecked at Rothville, Mo., Monday, resulting in the death of the engineer and fireman and serious injury to four other people.
The dead are:
Samuel Wise, engineer, aged 48 years, Argentine, Kansas, married; fatally scalded and compound fracture of the skull.
Alexander Hevlin, fireman, aged 37 years, Topeka, Kansas, married; fatally scalded and compund fracture of the right leg.
The injured are:
Alfred S. Bazzett, Chicago, dining car waiter, aged 47 years and married; right arm fractured.
J. R. Jones, Chicago, dining car waiter, aged 37 years, married; severely contused left side.
Chas. Copps, Chicago, 37 years old, married; porter; slight contusion on head, left arm and back.
Geo. B. Rose, Chicago, 28 years old, married, train barber; contused right arm and left side, not serious.
Engineer Wise died almost immediately on reaching the hospital in this city and Fireman Hevlin died about the same time.
The injured people are being cared for at the hospital and though some of them are very severely injured it is thought that all will recover. Some of the passengers were slightly injured, but all were able to continue their trip.
No. 3 is due here at 2 a.m., but owing to a freight wreck on the east end did not reach Fort Madison until about 9:30, about six hours late. It is due at Marceline, Mo., at 7:10 a.m. and calculating from this, without allowing for any time made up in that instance the accident must have happened between 12 and 1 o'clock p.m.
Rothville is a small station eight miles west of Marceline and the accident happened at the switch frog in that place while, it is said, the train was running about sixty miles an hour. The engine was one of the big one hundred ton prairie type, No. 1004 and in the mix-up was turned completely around. There were six cars in the train and four of them were badly wrecked, the other two remaining on the track. It is reported that a broken rail caused the accident, but railroad people are inclined to believe that it was the result of a defective frog. It is the worst wreck the Santa Fe has had since the Cama wreck last summer and it is remarkable that so few people were injured.
Engineer Wise was well known in Fort Madison, where he had many friends who lament his violent and untimely end. Fireman Hevlin was not acquainted here only among the Santa Fe people. He was found after the wreck lying in the stock yards.
The cars of the train that left the track, it is said, ran into the stock yards and killed several head of stock.
Mrs. Wise, the wife of the dead engineer, came in this morning accompanied by Chase Wise, a brother of the deceased, and also an engineer, and will accompany the body home on No. 5, at 1:10 Wednesday morning. The dead man was a member of the B. of L. E. and also a Shriner.
Fireman Hevlin is survived by a wife and six children. The wife will arrive tonight when the body will be shipped to Topeka for interment. At the time of the big Burlington Route strike the deceased was a fireman on that line and lived at Creston.
[transcribed by L.Z., May 2020]