Train Disaster Kills 16

Sixteen Persons Dead

The Fatal Work of a Kentucky Cloudburst

A Train Runs Into a Washout

Three of the Crew Were Killed - A Dozen Persons Reported Drowned - Six Bodies Have Been Recovered - Bull Creek Rose Two Feet Per Minute

Maysville, Ky., June 14. -- At Bull Creek, six miles above here, two dark clouds met and burst. The creek jumped over its banks and swept like drift several dwelling houses and their frightened occupants. The stone culvert on the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad over Mill creek was washed out into the river, and about midnight, while the storm was at its height, the west bound freight train ran into a washout, causing a fearful wreck.

Three Railroad Men Dead.

The engine and nine cars were piled on upon top of another, almost out of sight on the creek bottom. The killed were:
CHARLES FATON, brakeman.
MORRIS HONAKER, fireman.
C. C. ROADCAP, engineer.
They were buried beneath the wreck and their bodies have not been recovered. Conductor W. H. WATTS and Brakeman W. W. Love jumped from the hind car and escaped unhurt. The train was made up of thirty-two cars. Nine carloads of shoes and boots for Louisville went down in the wreck. A fast wrecking train, on the way to the scene, ran over FRANK SCOTT, a colored employe, and killed him.

A Dozen Reported Drowned.

About a dozen persons living on the banks of Bull creek are reported drowned. The following bodies have been found:
MISS BETTIE ESTLER.
MISS JULIA ESTLER.
MRS. LUCY ESTLER.
Two Sons of MRS. LUCY ESTLER.
JOHN RUGGLES, a well known fisherman.

Dashed Into Kindling Wood

The nineteen cars down in the washout were dashed into kindling wood. The train was the first section of freight No. 38, drawn by engine No. 154, which is one of the largest as well as finest engines on the road. The engine is now out of sight in quicksand. The train was running over thirty miles per hour. A little later an east bound mixed passenger train would have passed over the fatal culvert, when the loss of life would have been appalling.

Rose Two Feet Per Minute.

JAMES IRWIN, had a portable sawmill located several hundred yards up Bull creek, above the railroad. The clouds suddenly bursting caused a rapid rise in the creek, already badly swollen since the storm. Farmers say that the creek rose two feet per minute, and the water looked like a wall twenty feet high when it got to the railroad fill. The sawmill was lifted from its fastenings and with over 100 big logs hurled violently against the railroad stone culvert. This is probably what caused it to give way. Huge stones weighing several tons were carried by the creek long distances. The creek rose two feet higher than it has been in forty years.

The Trenton (New Jersey) Times, June 14, 1890