Butts County GaArchives News.....Train Wreck June 1901
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Don Bankston http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00024.html#0005864 January 6, 2013, 8:16 pm

Jackson Argus June 1901
Train Wreck
The Up Morning Train to Atlanta Had an Accident Tuesday.
As the u-morning passenger train was going into Atlanta Tuesday morning about 11 
o’clock, a switch engine dashed into the side f the train and completely 
demolished two passenger coaches, turning them over, killing three people and 
injuring many others.  Some say the engine was wild, while others declare that 
it was running by a yard conductor.  The “wild” theory seems to be the most 
probably of the two.  The dead and wounded are:
DEAD - Mrs. A. A. Lemon, McDonough, Ga., Irma Lemon, her daughter, age 8. H. H. 
Vickers, Flovilla.
INJURED – A. F. Bunn, McDonough, Ga., J. A. Fouche, McDonough, Ga., Mrs. Julia 
Kersey, Atlanta, Ga., N. H. Vickers, Flovilla, Ga., W. T. Tidwell, McDonough, 
Ga., D. A. George, Knot, Ga., Wm. Richardson, Stockbridge, Ga., Miss Rosa Lee, 
Stockbridge, Ga., Miss Alma Massenger, Washington, D. C., Mrs. J. E. Ridley, 
Huntsville, Ala., E. G. Eggleston, Atlanta, Ga., G. V. Harvey, Atlanta.
The Atlanta Constitution thus tells the story of the wreck:
While the combination passenger train, composed of cars from Macon and Fort 
Valley, was running into Atlanta Tuesday morning over the Southern road, another 
engine dashed into it from the side track leading from the old East Tennessee 
shops to the main line.
Three killed outright and many injured, some seriously, other but slightly, it 
is the result of the accident.  The first class coach of the passenger train was 
overturned and completely wrecked.  The handsome Pullman sleeper next to it, had 
one and end crushed in, while the car ahead of the first-class coach was also 
damaged.
Those killed in the wreck were Mrs. A. A. Lemon, of McDonough and her little 
daughter, Irma, and H. W. Vickers, of Flovilla.

Who They Were.
Mrs. Lemon was the wife of Alexander A. Lemon, a prominent business man of 
McDonough. Mr. Lemon is interested in the McDonough Mercantile company, is owner 
of the Brown house at the place and has a large farm near McDonough.  His 
daughter who was killed was about 8 years old.
Mrs. Lemon also ad one of her children, a baby less than a year old, in her arms 
at the time the collision took place.  The baby was not injured.  Her two other 
children, a boy and a girl, were also on the train with her, but they escaped 
injury.
Mr. Vickers was a prosperous young farmer of Flovilla.  He was on his way to 
Atlanta to have his eyes examined by a specialist and was accompanied by his 
brother, N. H. Vickers, who escaped with a few injuries.  Mr. Vickers was the 
son of  Jacob Vickers of Atlanta and had been married about two years.  He 
leaves a wife and child.
One Man Arrested                                                                    
                                   
Mystery seems to cloud the direct cause of the accident.  G. B. Dunton, a yard 
conductor for the road was arrested, pending investigation by the police 
authorities.  Employees of the road say that he was upon the engine, and C. O. 
Wallace, a switchman, is expected to give damaging testimony against Dunton.
Dunton declares he was not on the engine when it ran into the passenger train, 
and does not know who was.  He says he did board the engine and rang the bell to 
get hostlers to get the engine off the switch that he might move his own engine 
onto the main line to return to the North avenue yards.
He says that after ringing the bell he stepped off the engine, walked down the 
tracks, and was looking at the passenger train when the collision took place.  
He was wounded over the left eye, while his face was badly burned and scalded.
Jackson Argus – Week of June 7, 1901


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