Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/234

 From an investigation made by the Railway Commissioners the following facts were gathered: the Society of Union Pacific Pioneers of Nebraska had arranged for a special train to carry the members and their families, to the number of 1,200 on an excursion to Logan. There were sixteen passenger coaches filled with men, women and children. When the party was ready to return the train was on a side track at Logan about 6.40 p. m. awaiting the regular east bound passenger train to pass that point, as it does not stop at Logan. This train came on time and carried a signal that another train was following it. Disregarding this danger signal the engineer and conductor of the excursion train started out on the main track and at a curve about a quarter of a mile west of Logan collided with the east bound fast mail train running at a speed of thirty-five miles an hour. The shock was terrible as the heavy engines struck each other and a moment later cries and groans of the mutilated passengers arose from the wreck of the crowded cars of the excursion train. Men, women and children were crushed and mangled beneath the broken and twisted fragments of wood and iron in an awful scene of confusion, terror and agony that defies description. Twenty-seven persons were killed and thirty-two injured, some of them fatally. The citizens of Logan rendered every assistance in their power and were untiring in their efforts to relieve the suffering. The Railway Commissioners made an investigation of the affair and found the facts as here stated.