The Wabash Postcards

A Trip down The Wabash in Old Postcards - Attica

Attica, Indiana is approximately 210 miles from the source of the Wabash in Grand Lake, Ohio.

Wabash River Bridge, Attica

This postcard, posted in Attica on September 20th, 1911, has the printed text...

Pub. by The B. H. Grimes Co., Frankfort, Ind.

Wabash River Bridge, Attica

This unused postcard has the printed text...

Workinger ??
Wabash Wreck 6 April '14

It was only by a little manipulation in Photoshop that I could read most of the text. The AZO stamp box dates the postcard as being made between 1904 and 1918. I've no idea what "workinger" means but I was able to dind a little about this bridge collapse and train crash in which 3 people were killed and 40 people injured.

The following comes from the Edwardsville Intelligencer, Edwardsville, Illinois, 6th Apr 1914

Attica, Indiana
Wabash Train Wreck
April 6, 1914

3 KILLED AS TRAIN PLUNGES IN RIVER

EASTBOUND WABASH LIMITED GOES THROUGH BRIDGE NEAR ATTICA, IND.

FORTY PERSONS ARE INJURED

Railroad Men Killed After Instructions to Cross Structure Weakened by a Former Accident – Scores Were Rescued.

Aticca, Ind., April 6. – Three persons were killed and about 40 others injured, some seriously, when the eastbound Wabash passenger train No. 4, known as the Continental Limited, was wrecked when the bridge over the Wabash river, just west of here, gave way. The engine, a baggage car and the day coach dropped into the water.

When the cars left the bridge the day coach, which was crowded, fell with the rear end out of the water and, though the majority of the injured were in this car, none of them was killed. The car partly had settled in the water before the work of rescuing the passengers was commenced and in a few minutes all had been taken out. They were taken to a hospital at Lafayette on a special train.

Dead and Injured.

The dead:

J. L. MILLER, Peru, Ind., fireman; scalded.
TIMOTHY P. HULL, Peru, Ind., engineer; crushed beneath engine.
HARRY THOMAS, Huntington, Ind., expressman; crushed by trunks.

A partial list of injured follows:

WILLIAM MOSS, St. Louis,
J. E. PRICE, St. Louis;
S. PALMER, St. Louis;
A. O. ADAMS, Lagro, Ind.;
S. H. WINTERS, Liberty Center, O.;
F. JOHNSON, Williamsport, Ind.;
CHARLES SCHISHER, Catlin, Ill.;
T. W. CUNINGHAM, Tulsa, Ok.;
CHARLES SIUSSON, Cataline, Ill.;
WALTER KRUSCH, Georgetown, Ill.;
FRANK KRAUSE, Wheeling, W. Va.;
CHARLES GRACE, Delphos, O.;
HERMAN BAUMGART, Danville, Ill,;
MRS. GEORGE TAYLOR, Clinton;
SAMUEL WHEELER, Indianapolis;
H. G. ENGLISH, Danville, Ill.;
MRS. FRED L. GEMMER, Indianapolis;
LORENZE GEMMER, Indianapolis;
MISS MARIE KRAMER, West Lafayette, Ind.;
WARREN C. SCOTT, Attica, Ind.;
REV. A. WOOD, Lafayette, Ind.;
W. E. SQUIER, Quincy, Ill.;
WALTER MATHIS, Williamsport, Ind.;
VANCE POLEN, Keewana, Ind.;
J. E. WEBB, Peru;
J. W. SHAW, Lima, O.;
C. D. DUMOND, Maywood, Ill.;
FRANK WARTEN, Detroit, Mich.;
RAY WRITGHT, Lafayette, Ind.;
EARL LINCICUM, Homer, Ill,;
ED RIGGLE, Peru, Ind.;
FRANK BLISS, Detroit, Mich.;
LEONARD C. GORTON, Jerry City, Ill.;
H. O. BLACK, Danville;
J. W. BOSTON, Decatur, Ill.;
JACOB ANDERES, Farmingdale, Ind.,
EDWARD SUSANKA, Detroit;
JOHN YERION, ______;
EARL MAHAFF, Williamsport, Ind.;
GEORGE P. BLAIR, Peru, Ind.;
O. S. WEAVER, New London, Ind.;
LEIMOND GARDNER, Toledo, O.;
ALBERT SCHUSS, Attica, Ind.

Bridge Tested Before Wreck.

The railroad’s bridge over the Wabash river was weakened earlier in the day when a freight train was wrecked upon the structure, and the Continental Limited was stopped on the west side when it reached the place. A switch engine was sent across the bridge to determine whether the structure would hold the fast passenger train. Railroad officials believed it safe and the limited was ordered to proceed.

The train crept out on the bridge slowly and when about a hundred feet out upon the structure the bridge gave way beneath the weight of the train. The engineer was caught under his engine and crushed to death. The fireman, who jumped, was scalded to death.

The following comes from the 1966 Attica Ledger Tribune Centennial Edition

THREE PERSONS KILLED, 40 INJURED IN CRASH OF WABASH
APRIL 5, l9l4

The east bound Wabash Continental Limited train due in Attica at l:53 P.M. Sunday, April 5, l9l4, broke through the Wabash River Bridge just before the crossing. The wreck was the worst in the history of Attica, doing more damage to property and taking more lives than the Redwood wreck near West Lebanon two years before, killing three people and injuring 40 more.

Officials charged the railroad master, Solon Whitehead, with mistaken judgment in pronouncing the bridge safe after it had been damaged in a freight train wreck earlier the same day. Apparently a freight car derailed and knocked the bend out of line 2 to 3 feet.

Two 150 foot spans of the steel bridge, which had been weakened by the 11 freight wreck, gave way when the heavy Continental Limited pulled upon it letting the locomotive, tinder, mail car, combination baggage, express and smoker, and the day coach fall a distance of 25 feet.

The engine and tinder went down at the east end of the bridge at the point where the big steel post had been jolted...The mail car was next to the tinder and fell in a tilted position right side up on the river bank clear of the water. Following the mail car was the combination baggage and smoker which fell right side up but leaning to the north. This car fell almost wholly in the river, and water stood in it from a foot to three feet deep. The west end of the second span, which gave way, rested on the second pier. The day coach went down on this span, the east end falling into the river, while the coach as a whole rested on the declining span, which stood at an angle of about 45 degrees. The Pullman car and diner remained on that portion of the bridge left standing and were not derailed, although the east end of the Pullman hung out several feet over the second pier.

There were about 200 persons who witnessed the catastrophe, having gathered for the freight wreck earlier that morning. The wreckage had just been cleared away to allow the passenger train to pass.

Those killed in the wreck were Timothy Hull, engineer, from Peru, Indiana; Jacob S. Miller, fireman from Peru, Indiana; who died on the train en route to the Lafayette Hospital; and Harry Thomas, Wells Fargo express manager.

Among those injured were Tom Livingston of Williamsport, former employee of National Car Coupler Plant; Frank Johnson, Williamsport; Guy Smith, Attica, employed by National Car Coupler; and Ear Mehaffey of Williamsport. Several other local people were in the day coach but were only slightly injured. They were Warren Scott and Hicks Kittle of Attica, and Tom Powell, Tom Ferrell, Mrs. John Gregory and Miss Emily Boyd of Williamsport. Within half an hour of the wreck the railroad company had a crew clearing away the debris. Reconstruction of the bridge got under way shortly, and by the following Saturday trains was once again using the bridge.

Wabash River Bridge, Attica