The Palimpsest

English

The Palimpsest, vol.68 no.4, Winter 1987

Graber, William Bernard

A Farm Family Enters the Modern World

The Palimpsest, vol.68 no.2, Summer 1987

Swaim, Ginalie

208 The Palimpsest
An Announcement and
an Invitation
Dear Readers:
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— The Editor


An Announcement and and Invitation

Pierce, Fred J

Orders M isunderstood
An Illinois Central Train Wreck at Raymond
by Fred J. Pierce
W hen Illinois Central passenger trainNo. 2 steamed serenely out of Water-✓
loo, Iowa, at 2:33 a . m . on June 19, 1903, a 
terrible destiny waited just seven miles away. 
Any notion of an impending disaster was far 
from the minds of the train crew, mail clerks, 
and many passengers aboard.
Passenger train No. 2 routinely left Fort 
Dodge eastbound and arrived in Waterloo 
about 2 : 0 0  a . m . ,  where it would meet a train 
coming from Minneapolis. In Waterloo the 
cars on the Minneapolis train were usually con­
nected to No. 2 headed for Chicago. On 
June 19, however, the Minneapolis train was 
almost an hour and a half late. Train schedulers 
had decided that No. 2 would leave at its reg­
ular time and that when the Minneapolis train 
arrived in Waterloo, a second section would be 
made up and would depart for Chicago. Pas­
senger train No. 2 continued on its way.
John R. Griffin, from Waterloo, was the 
engineer of the passenger train. The locomo­
tive was a relatively new “Prairie type, consid­
ered the ultimate in rail motive power when 
first put into use. It pulled an express car, a 
mail car, two smaller freight or baggage cars, 
four coaches, and two passenger cars.
The predawn hours were calm, and the 
exhilarating air was fragrant with the pleasant 
odors of a growing outdoor world. But it was 
still dark, and no moon revealed the varied
© State Historical Society of Iowa 1986 0031—0360/86/1112— 
0202 $1.00
features of the landscape as the train picked up 
momentum after leaving the Waterloo depot.
In less than a half-hour, passenger train 
No. 2 reached a place referred to by trainmen 
as Raymond Hill, a quarter-mile west of the 
Raymond depot. There the terrain sloped
downward into Raymond from the east and the✓
west. The train traveled at top speed, acceler­
ated by the downward slope.
Another train, freight train No. 87 pulled by 
Engine No. 44, was coming from the east. It, 
too, moved at top speed.
Fate decreed a further tragic twist: the trains 
were headed toward a deep cut and a curve 
where vision was almost totally obscured. At 
another place their headlights, though dim by
todav s standards, could have been seen.✓ *
At about 3:00 a . m . the freight train and pas­
senger train collided head on. The terrific crash 
almost welded the two locomotives together. 
Two lead cars of the passenger train were 
demolished, and seven freight cars were splin­
tered to kindling. The sound of escaping steam 
mingled with the cries of the injured and 
dying.
The wrecked trains lay in complete dark­ness; dawn had not yet broken. Nearby
farmers and Raymond residents arrived with✓
lanterns to help in the rescue work. The two 
locomotives, seven freight cars, and two lead 
cars of the passenger train lay scrambled in a 
pile as high as the telegraph poles. Other
The Palimpsest 203
freight and passenger cars were derailed and in 
various degrees of damage.
In an account published in the Dubuque 
Morning Telegraph, June 20, C.J. Mek- 
kleston, a passenger, described the crash and 
the time leading up to it:
We pulled slowly out of Waterloo and 
gained a high rate of speed as time passed. 
When about 7 miles this side of Waterloo near 
Raymond, after the engineer whistled for the 
approach, an awful crash came. Everybody 
was shaken up. Women and children ran 
about crying and trying to get out. Conductor 
Quinlan and the newsboy held them down 
well and assured them that there was no dan­
ger. The crying and wailing continued for a 
long time. Several men, of which I was one, 
managed to get out of our car and we immedi­
ately went forward to the front of the train. 
There were no lights and those which had 
been on the train were extinguished. After a 
little time had elapsed a couple of lights were 
secured. Farmers came to the scene. The
sight was appalling. The wreckage was piled 
high. Groaning and cries for help were heard 
on all sides.
Passengers, too, tried to help the injured. 
The same news story reported that “A woman 
passenger entered the baggage car and took off 
her jacket and started in to work. To the 
injured she was a comfort. Through long hours 
of the morning she remained with the dying 
and dead. She worked hard attending to their 
wants. She modestly refused to give her 
name.”
E.N. Birdsall, a passenger from Waterloo, 
had been sitting at the window smoking a cigal­
as the train approached Raymond. He had 
heard the engineer give the signal and shut off 
the steam to go down the grade. “While round­
ing a curve,” he explained in a Waterloo Daily 
Reporter story on June 20,
the trains came together. There was nothing 
seen of the freight engine. It was smashed and 
covered by debris. The cars were piled up
. f r o m  
M in n e a p o l is
Wreck at Raymond, Iowa 
June 19, 1903
f r o m  
F t. D o d g e
INDEPENDENCE
f 1 1 HE 1
Passenger Train 
Leaves About 
2 :30 a.m.
Trains Collide 
About 
3 :0 0 a.m.
Freight Train 
Receives Message 
Between
T-00 and 2 :00  a.m.
MAP BY KAY CHAMBERS
204 The Palimpsest
high. The front cars of the freight train were 
telescoped. Groaning was heard on all sides. 
When the shock first came, the cushions on 
the seats were thrown in the air. I was thrown 
underneath a seat on the opposite side. The 
men on the car started the relief of the victims 
as fast as they could.
We found Griffin [engineer of the pas­
senger train] at the right of his engine with his 
legs cut oil and covered with debris. When 
day began to dawn we walked to the right side 
of the wreckage. In a ditch a little distance 
from the scene, Engineer Stoneman of the 
freight train was found. He appeared to have 
been killed instantly.
Rescue work began immediately. At the time of the crash the operator of the Ray­
mond depot, which was only a day station, had 
been asleep at his home nearby. I le went to the 
depot at once and notified division headquar­
ters at Waterloo and Dubuque. Every avail­
able doctor in Waterloo was called to the train 
there, and both cities rushed relief trains to 
Raymond. The Waterloo train carried the 
injured and dead back to Waterloo.
Three from the freight train crew had been 
killed: engineer Fred J. Stoneman, fireman 
I.D. Mills, and head brakeman E.L. Sticknev. 
From the crew of the passenger train, two were 
dead: engineer John R. Griffin and fireman 
D.J. Bantz. All five were from Waterloo.
Frank L. Groom, a passenger from Du­
buque, died from injuries that morning in a 
Waterloo hospital. Frank Klein of Epworth and 
W. II. Ricketts of Hopkinton were riding in a 
forward boxcar and died in the crash. Klein was 
reportedly traveling to Waterloo to visit his 
brother, who was a fireman for Illinois Central 
and who would assist in rescue work, not know­
ing that the body of his younger brother would 
he found. Ricketts, who worked for a telephone 
company, was accompanying telephone equip­
ment destined for Hawarden.
Three men who were riding “blind baggage
(stealing a ride) in a boxcar also died of injuries. 
Two were identified as John O’Neil of Syra­
cuse, New York, and sixteen-year-old Earl 
Book, of New York City or of Murphysboro, 
Illinois, where his stepfather lived. A third 
man was not identified.
Several persons on the passenger train sus­
tained bruises and a few broken hones, hut 
none were seriously injured. The wooden 
coaches then in use provided little protection 
compared to the steel coaches introduced 
later. It was theorized that the large passenger 
engine took most of the impact and saved the 
lives of many passengers. Tom Quinlan was the 
conductor on the passenger train. In the Du­
buque Morning Telegraph, June 20, his 
account of the moment of impact described 
little panic or confusion in the passenger cars:
Surprising as it may seem, the concussion was 
not as great as one would expect after seeing 
the wreckage. The passengers did not become 
greatly alarmed and there was little or no 
confusion, many not knowing what had hap­
pened and others thinking that we had merely 
made a sudden stop. I immediately went 
through the train to see whether or not any of 
the passengers had been hurt, for as soon as 
the crash came I knew that there was a colli­
sion. Some of the passengers in the sleepers 
were not awakened hv the [impact], which 
surprised me very much. I did not know what 
was the cause of the wreck at this time, for I 
was certain that we were running alright and I 
knew just where we were as the engineer had 
whistled for Raymond.J
Quinlan continued:
The engine on the passenger train was one 
of the largest owned by the company, and to 
this fact is due doubtless the escape of the 
passengers. There were six or eight boxcars in 
the fore part of the f reight train and they were 
shattered by the crash and went flying over 
both engines. The wreckage was deep and 
difficult to remove. I could not see the freight
The Palimpsest 205
crew as I think they were buried beneath the 
wreckage.
In the freight train at least three others rid­
ing the “blind” were injured hut survived. One 
of the injured was found hanging hv his ankles 
in a shattered boxcar. Two young men stealing 
a ride on the outside of a passenger car had 
been put off at Waterloo but had gotten on 
again when the train started. One received a 
serious head injury and the other a broken arm.
Quinlan, quoted in the Waterloo Morning 
Telegraph, attested to the crews sense of duty:
I do not know whether or not the men had 
time to jump. I do not think that they did, for 
the position they were in when found shows 
that they had remained true to their post of 
duty until the last. Moreover, we felt the 
application of the air brakes.
The train had not advanced two car lengths 
before the crash came. Going outside of the 
train, we began to look for the injured. . . . 
Griffin, the engineer of the passenger, was 
found lying under the engine, dead. Bantz, 
the fireman, was a little farther awav. He was 
terribly injured and it was seen at a glance that 
he would die. . . .  As soon as possible I 
instituted a search for the mail clerks, and 
several times I ran around the mail car shout­
ing their names, but got no response. I 
thought that all had been killed, but in a 
moment [W.W. or W.A.] Ingalls appeared 
from the wrecked car and began to talk to me. 
He assured me that neither he nor [John] 
Crisford [Cresford] was badly hurt. The only 
injury that Ingalls received was a slight burn 
in the neck caused by a lamp. The mail clerks 
had a large amount of money in their keeping,
I think, and this [fear of looters] doubtless was 
the reason of their silence.
^  hile daylight spread across the scene, 
work began on clearing the wreckage and lay- 
ing new track. Two undamaged day coaches 
and the two sleepers with their passengers 
were pulled back to Waterloo. With a new 
engine, a new baggage car, and a train crew,
the reassembled train was detoured on the 
Great Western as far as Dyersville, where it 
was switched onto Illinois Central tracks and 
started for Dubuque. It arrived at 11:30 a . m . 
With unusual composure, Conductor Quinlan 
managed to stay at his post and finish the trip.
Possible explanations of the disaster were quickly pieced together. Sometime be­
tween 1:00 and 2:00 a . m . the freight train had 
gone through Independence. There Conduc­
tor Charles Judd and Engineer Stoneman 
received a telegraphic order from Dubuque 
that stated, “Second No. 2, engine unknown, 
will run one (1) hour and thirty (30) minutes 
late Waterloo to Manchester.”
Some people speculated that the wreck 
might have been caused by careless handwrit­
ing. According to one story, the order had been 
handwritten and although it stated that Second 
No. 2 was running late, the word “Second” 
had been abbreviated and written as “2nd” 
near the left-hand margin of the order sheet. 
The person reading the order might have inad­
vertently held his thumb over “2nd.”
Without realizing that the passenger train 
was running in two sections (which was rarely 
done), the conductor and the engineer of the 
freight train both had apparently assumed that 
the regular No. 2 was an hour and a half late, 
giving them a clear track and ample time to 
reach Waterloo.
According to another story, shortly before 
the collision a brakeman in the caboose had 
asked to look at the order. He read: “Second 
No. 2 will run. . .’ Then he asked, “But where 
do we meet No. 1?” A moment later the 
answer came as he was thrown to the floor in 
the thunderous crash.
W ithin twenty-four hours, an official in­quest began in Waterloo. Justice of the 
Peace J.H. Kuhns presided as acting coroner. 
Jury members Frank L. McCune, C W. Cot­
ton, and A. S. Thompson heard testimony from
206 The Palimpsest
three witnesses — two freight crew members 
and the trainmaster from Dubuque. The other 
two men from the freight train who shared 
responsibility for orders — Stoneman and 
Mills — had been killed in the wreck.
The focus of the inquest was the order 
received by the freight crew. (The crew on the 
passenger train had received no order because 
passenger trains generally had right of way.)
Conductor Judd affirmed that he and Stone- 
man had received the orders, handed to each of 
them on hoops while the train was still in 
motion. According to the Waterloo Daily 
Reporter story on the inquest, Judd stated that
he entirely overlooked the word “second and 
thought the order referred to train No. 2
which he supposed was running as one train. 
According to Mr. Judd’s own statement the 
order was entirely legible and it was purely an 
oversight on both his part and [the] engineer 
that it was not properly read.
Trainmaster F. J. Bechley explained the pro­
cedure for distributing orders:
Engineers are required to read all orders to 
their firemen, who are supposed to also read 
and remember them, so that in case of any 
violation of the order on the part of the 
engineer the fireman can correct him. This 
same rule is required in the case of conductor 
and brakeman. There are just four men on 
every train who are responsible for the proper
The impact oj the trains created a mass of twisted cars as high as the telegraph poles, (courtesy the author)
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The Palimpsest 207
execution of all train orders and they are the 
engineer, fireman, conductor and rear brake- 
man.
Bechley stated that “These two men, up to this 
time, had good records as railroad men. In fact 
no one had any better, but they seemed to have 
entirely overlooked or forgotten that there was 
a first section of No. 2. ”
Rear brakeman M.F. Gerin testified that the 
order concerning a second No. 2 had not been 
read to him, nor had any mention been made of 
a second section.
The inquest jury ruled that the collision 
occurred because ‘the conductor, engineer, 
brakeman and fireman on said freight train 
No. 8< mistakenly misread the order they had* j
received for the moving and handling of said 
train.”
Waterloo citizens mourned the five train­
men who died at Raymond. The wreck was 
called Waterloo’s greatest disaster in terms of 
loss of life. The Waterloo Daily Reporter com­
pared the wreck to the Burlington, Cedar 
Rapids and Northern wreck in Mav 1899 (in
j  \
which more were injured) but confessed that it 
did not so deeply affect the people of Water­
loo, as none of those whose lives were lost at 
that time were residents of this citv.j
Area newspapers covered in detail the funer­
als of the five Waterloo trainmen. Griffin was a 
longtime resident of Waterloo, well known in 
the community. The minister presiding at Grif­
fin s funeral eulogized, “He knew what it was to 
ride out into the darkness at a rate of thirty- 
five, forty-five, yea, and even a higher rate of 
speed. . . . Oft times with insufficient sleep 
and rest, he has been called to take charge of
the monster steam horse, and for nearly a
0
quarter of a century that he has been leading 
this life, he has never been found wanting,
always readv when duty demanded." 0
Griffin was about 45 when he died. Stone- 
man, the freight engineer, was only 31. At 
^  inthrop, Iowa, where his parents lived,
twelve hundred people attended his funeral at 
the Opera House. The Illinois Central pro­
vided a special train from Waterloo for mem­
bers of different fraternal orders who wished to 
attend the young freight engineer s funeral.
N ews stories reported that both locomo­tives were smashed beyond repair. But 
evidently No. 1008, the passenger engine, was 
rebuilt. In a 1937 news release, Harmon Buck- 
ley, Illinois Central engineer, said that 
No. 1008 in the Raymond wreck was still in 
active service on the Freeport division.
By coincidence, a Rock Island 2-6-0 “Mogul 
locomotive — involved in the Green Mountain 
train wreck on March 21, 1910, in which fifty- 
five died — also bore the number 1008.
There was not much coincidence, however, 
about the number of train wrecks at the turn of 
the century. Railroading was plagued with 
accidents caused by defective equipment, 
inadequate tracks, unsophisticated signal sys­
tems, and human error. Automatic block sig­
nals might have prevented the Raymond train 
wreck by alerting each crew to the presence of 
the other train on the track, but automatic 
block signals were rarely in use anywhere in 
the United States in 1903.
A June 19 story in the Waterloo Daily 
Reporter underscored the risk of trainmen mis­
understanding orders and the generally "dan­
gerous character of the life [trainmen] are 
called upon to lead. As one engineer long in the 
service said, AVe are always facing death when 
on the road with an engine.’ ” □
NOTE ON SOURCES
This article was compiled from newspaper coverage of the 
collision and inquest in the Dubuque Morning Telegraph, 
the Waterloo Daily Reporter, the Waterloo Times-Trib- 
une, the Buchanan County Review, and other uniden­
tified newspaper clippings handed down in the family of 
engineer Fred J. Stoneman and now in the possession of 
Stoneman s nephew, the author of this article.


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The Palimpsest, vol.68 no.4, Winter 1987

A Farm Family Enters the Modern World

The Palimpsest, vol.68 no.2, Summer 1987

An Announcement and and Invitation

Orders Misunderstood: An Illinois Central Train Wreck at Raymond

Harriet Ketcham, Resolute Artist

The Iowa Soldiers; and Sailors' Monument

Marquis Childs - Interpreter of the Mississippi River

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