NEWS: Serious Wreck near Flemingsburg, 1907, Fleming Co. KY

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Submitted by: Jan Gillespie gillespie1949@yahoo.com
Date: 6 June 2000
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The Vanceburg Sun, May 16, 1907 (typed as published)
Serious Wreck Near Flemingsburg

Flemingsburg, Ky., May 10.

-Two dead, ten seriously injured and five slightly injured was the result of the worst 
wreck in the history of the Cincinnati, Flemingsburg and Southeastern railroad, which 
occurred at 3:30 o'clock this afternoon, three miles eat of this city, when the narrow 
gauge combination passenger and freight train went through a fifty-foot trestle over 
Fleming Creek.

The dead are:
Charles Thomas, Covington, Ky.
Thos. A. Fowler, Morehead

The seriously injured are:
D. Rankin, Covington, chest, hips and head crushed; dying
Mrs. Rankin, crushed; will die
Baby Rankin, head mashed, legs mashed; will die.
Clarence Browning, Flemingsburg, fireman, head crushed.
Mat Bramble, Flemingsburg, legs crushed and arm broken.
Addie Newman, Grange City, 18, hips broken and internally injured, probable fatal.
John Moore, Flemingsburg, conductor, arms broken and internally injured.
Curd Moore, Flemingsburg, engineer, internally injured.
Charles Dudley, Flemingsburg, Assistant Superintendent of road, head cut and legs broken.
Mae Rawlins, aged 14, arms and leg broken. 

The wreck was caused by the collapse of the rotten timbers in the bridge as the engine entered 
from the east side, and before engineer Moore could check the train, the wooden structure, the 
engine, passenger coach and freight car dropped in a pile into the creek.

There were 17 persons on the train and not one escaped injury.

The slightly injured were brought here, where the homes of the residents were thrown open and 
they were so scattered that only a partial list could be secured.  Within 20 minutes after the 
wreck 300 people from this city were on the grounds.

Women converted themselves into nurses, and physicians from Elizaville, Ewing, Mt. Carmel and 
Poplar Plains were summoned to attend the suffering.

Lake Dudley, General Manager of the road, was at the scene, and with the assistance of the 
farmers living near the wreck the dying and injured were brought here without delay.  The 
trestle where the wreck occurred, was regarded as one of the most dangerous places on the road. 
 In fact was looked upon as a death-trap.

One of the most striking features of the wreck was that the ill-fated train was a funeral train 
bearing the corpse of Rankin's brother from Covington to Hillsboro to be interred.  The corpse 
was mangled almost beyond recognition.  

The body was precipitated into the water and the pine box was broken in splinters, but the 
casket was uninjured.

The rolling stock of the road is old and the wooden structure has stood for years.  It is 
supposed that the age and the wet weather combined to cause the accident.

Mr. Hood Armstrong was an eyewitness to the accident, which occurred just in from of his 
residence.  He saw the trestle give away, allowing the entire train to fall in a mass with the 
coach standing upon end, thus allowing the engine and tender a chance to crush it,which explains 
why all the passengers were hurt.

The man Thomas mentioned in the dispatch as having been instantly killed is Harry Thomas, a 
barber, whose home is at 1801 Eastern Avenue, Cincinnati.  He, his wife, three daughters and 
son, Dallas, aged 16 months were accompanying the remains of Mrs. Thomas' father, E. D. Rankin, 
to Hillsboro, Ky., where they were to be buried.  Mr. Rankin died two days ago, at 844 Banklick 
Street, Covington, where he had been making his home for some time past.