NEWS: Mount Union Train Wreck, February 27, 1917, Huntingdon County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Nancy Lorz

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Huntingdon Daily News    
Accident occurred February 27, 1917

NO SURVIVORS OR INJURED IN CAR AFTER RAMMING BY FREIGHT IN MOUNT UNION

Entire Family of Seven Persons on Way to Funeral Wiped out

Preference Freight Runs Past Two Signals Striking Rear Car of Train No. 6

All the passengers, numbering 19 and the porter in the steel Pullman our 
Bellwood were killed, and the engineer and fireman on engine No. 614 and hauling 
preference freight of No. 2 were injured at 12:08 o'clock this morning when the 
preference freight crashed into the rear end of Mercantile Express No. 6 in the 
Mount Union station.
The dead are:
Chester A. Minds, Ramey, Clearfield county.
Mrs. Chester A. Minds
Owen Minds, 3 weeks old, son of Chester A. Minds.
Miss Maude Minds, 20 sister of Chester A. Minds
Richard Owen 7 years old, nephew of Mrs. Minds.
Dottie Owen, 6 years old, niece of Mrs. Minds.
Jean Owen, 4 years old, niece of Mrs. Minds.
Miss A. Segurdeling, Cleveland, Ohio.
M. A. Caflich, (sp?) 20 years old, Confer, N. Y. brother of Mrs. Minds.
Charles Levine, 35 Nassau Street, New York.
Philip D. Poland, 56 Laspenard Street, New York.
Milton Hynes, 474 West 158th Street, New York.
P. R. Fanning Platteville, Wisconsin.
Mrs. P. R. Fanning, Platteville, Wisconsin.
Miss Etta P. Hayt, 2600 Colfax Ave. Denver, Col.
C. Medsked, 308 West 46th Street, New York.
Nathaniel Bright, colored, porter of the Bellwood.
Three unidentified dead.
The injured are:
A. T. Cook engineer of freight  Slight injuries about the feet.
E. E. Fagan, fireman on freight.  Slight injuries about the feet.

All the dead were occupants of the steel Pullman Bellwood, the last car of the 
train.  When the engine of the freight hit the Bellwood, it drove that car 
against the Pullman Bruceville, the next car ahead.  The front end of the 
Bellwood gave way before the strain and permitted the rear end of the Bruceville 
to push it into the interior just as a gun rammer pushes **** through the 
barrel.

All the interior fittings of the Bellwood were pushed into the extreme rear end 
of the car along with passengers, berths and the berths and the passengers'  
(there seems to be a line missing here)  shock was taken up by the Bellwood and 
its helpless passengers.  

The freight engine remained on the truck but six coal cars rolled down the 
embankment to the street below.

Immediately after the accident the Huntingdon and Mifflin wreck crews were 
ordered out, and a special relief train was made up in Altoona carried Supt. N. 
W. Smith Division Engineer H. H. Russell, Asst. pass. train master L. L. Banks 
and freight Trainmaster J. B. Phelan with physicians to the scene of the 
accident.  This train stopped at Huntingdon where it picked up Coroner Dr. F. L. 
Schum, Dr. H. C. Frontz, Dr. G. G. Harmon, Dr. H. C. Chisholm, and Dr. H. B. 
Fetterhoof.

When they arrived there was little work for the physicians to do.  It remained 
only to care for the dead.

These were got out of the wreck and seven taken to the undertaking establishment 
of Mssrs. Barben (sp?) and Dunmire in Mt. Union and 13 of them brought to 
Huntingdon to the undertaking establishments of Mssrs. Brown and Dick.

Only a few of them were badly mutilated.

While railroad officials are reticent as to the cause of the accident it said 
that the engineer of the prefrence freight ran past two signals set against him.  
The flagman of Train No. 6 was in the rear end of the train.  When he saw the 
freight approach he made futile efforts to stop it, but apparently with no 
success.