Butler County KS Archives Obituaries.....Finefock, Milton September 1903 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Peggy Luce pegsue59@cox.net January 11, 2007, 10:14 pm Walnut Valley Times, September 18, 1903, Volume XXXIV, Number 35 Walnut Valley Times September 18, 1903 Volume XXXIV, Number 35 CAR OF POWDER EXPLODES THREE MEN KILLED AND TWO SERIOUSLY INJURED – RUNAWAY CAR OF POWDER CRASHES INTO FREIGHT TRAIN NEAR BEAUMONT The dead: MILTON FINEFOCK, fireman, Enid, Oklahoma B. WADSOCK, thresher, Atlanta, Kansas J. N. HOLT, brakeman, of Vernon, Texas The injured: Engineer Lew Bird of Blackwell O. T.; formerly of El Dorado B. Orrill, thresher, Springfield, Mo. Fred Orr, thresher, Atlanta, Kansas. A runaway car loaded with gun powder crashed into a freight train three miles south of Beaumont last night at 8:30. Part of the powder ignited and a terrific explosion followed which killed two men and seriously maimed three others. A freight train which had the powder car stopped at Beaumont to do some switching. The trainmen were afraid of the powder car and while working the rest of the train set it out on the branch of the road leading southwest from Beaumont to Winfield and into Oklahoma. The brakeman on the car tried to set the brakes but they would not work. The car was on a down grade and when the brakeman found that he could not stop it he jumped off. The switch engine started after the runaway car and the mad race against death was on. The engine men knew the freight train was approaching from the south. The clumsy locomotive was sent along over the rough track under full headway and frightful speed in endeavor to catch the runaway car, which by this time was running swiftly and carrying the messenger of death to human beings. Three times they bumped into the car but the couplers failed to connect. As they rounded a curve they saw the headlight of the approaching freight. The race against death was over and they had to stop to save their own lives, but a short distance from where the collision occurred. The collision was terrific – an awful, unmeasureable force. The powder car was blown to atoms and the engine and several other cars were demolished. The jar was so great the earth trembled and to such an extent that it was felt in El Dorado, a distance of twenty-eight miles. Windows were broken out in Beaumont and buildings in Keighley, Latham and Leon were violently shaken. The greater force of the explosion was in an upward direction. The bodies of the men who were killed were blown to a great height and fell about fifty feet from the place of the exposion. The engineer of the freight train jumped before the collision occurred and escaped with a few severe bruises and slight burns. The fireman and a thresher who was beating his way in a car of threshing machinery were killed. The fireman only lived a few minutes but the other man lived until about two o’clock this morning. The fireman’s body was horribly burned and lacerated. The other had a piece of wood or iron driven nearly through his body. The head brakeman and another thresher, a companion of the one who was killed, were seriously injured. They were taken to Springfield, Missouri, last night, to the hospital. The conductor and rear brakeman were in the caboose when the explosion occurred and escaped injury. Brakeman Holt died before he reached the hospital. When the jar of the earth was felt here and at other points in the county, and the flare of light was seen there was much speculation as to the cause. It was reported at first that a meteor had fallen in the vicinity of Keighley and many believed it to be an earthquake. A passenger train was following within about three miles of the freight train. R. C. Ruland, a young man whose home is in Augusta, and who was in the city today was among the passengers who were on it. He aided in caring for the maimed and the dead and tells a graphic story of the disaster, confusion, the dead, the agaony and sufferings of the injured, and the awful scene he witnessed by the fitful glare of the lanterns. Coroner Hunt, Sheriff Young and County Attorney Rees drove to Beaumont today. Some young men from Beaumont who took a hand car to go to a dance south of the town, had been off the track but a few minutes when the runaway car passed. If they had been a few minutes later doubtless all would have been killed. Soon after the explosion an inquiry was received from Yates Center, asking what had happened over here. Trainmen say the shock could be felt there – a distance of about fifty miles. Wm. Morledge, who was down from Sycamore, says the concussion could be felt there – twenty miles north of El Dorado. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/butler/obits/f/finefock686ob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ksfiles/ File size: 5.1 Kb