ALLEY, BALDWIN, BURNS, DECKER, GOODMAN, GUNN, HOLMES, IUEN, JACKSON, KARNES, LIPMAN, LONGAN, McCLANAHAN, MORSE, NICHOL, NORBERG, RICE, SCOTT, SMITH, VENABLE, WALKER, WEBER, WICKEFF "The Kansas City Journal" (Missouri) Thursday, October 7, 1897 (page 3) FELL TWENTY FEET. Fifteenth Street Depot Platform Gives Way. NINETEEN WERE INJURED. Over 100 Were On The Platform At The Time. By the giving away of rotten timbers supporting a portion of the platform of the Kansas City & Independence electric line depot, at Fifteenth street and Askew avenue, last night at 7 o'clock, 100 people, men, women and children, were precipitated eighteen feet into a hold beneath the platform. The portion of the platform which gave way under the pressure of its human weight was sixteen feet square. The people shot through the aperture like a flash, not being given an instant's warning of what was coming. Nineteen were lifted out with broken ribs and arms, injured heads and bruised and bleeding bodies, but no one is thought to be fatally injured. But for the soft condition of the ground upon which the people fell there would doubtless have been many lives lost. A complete list of the injured, most of whom were from Independence, Mo., is given below: Mrs. L. W. BALDWIN, aged 58, Independence; sprained spine; thought to have internal injuries; also compound fracture lower jaw; sent to All Saints' hospital; perhaps the worst injured of any. Mrs. W. C. RICE, aged 38, Independence, slight contusion left elbow and right leg; head also slightly bruised. Went home. Miss Sallie RICE, aged 9, Independence, right arm broken in two places above the elbow; scalp wound, Sent to All Saints' hospital. Mrs. G. M. NICHOL, aged 50, Independence, serious internal injuries about lower portion of abdomen caused by falling across a joist. Sent to All Saints' hospital. Miss Nellie NICHOL, aged 20, Independence, right shoulder bruised. Sent home. Mrs. R. M. VENABLE, Independence, dislocation right shoulder. Sent home. Mrs. T. J. WALKER, Independence, right leg broken above the knee. Sent to All Saints' hospital. Mrs. O. H. GOODMAN, Independence, slight internal injuries. Sent home. Mrs. J. McCLANAHAN, Independence, slight internal injuries. Sent home. Miss Emma JACKSON, colored, Independence, contusion on left shoulder. Miss Nora SMITH, aged 18, Washington park, slight contusion of head. Miss Mary BURNS, Sheffield, slightly injured. Miss Ella ALLEY, aged 19, Blue Springs. left leg badly lacerated and inside of left thigh punctured. Sent to All Saints' hospital. Lil SCOTT, Sheffield, left jaw punctured. Miss Annie WICKEFF, aged 26, Webb City, Mo., slight bruises. Miss Madge DECKER, aged 16, Webb City, head cut slightly and suffering from concussion of the brain. Sent to All Saints'. Warren DECKER, aged 19, Webb City, right arm and nose bruised. E. L. MORSE, Excelsior Springs, internal injuries. Went home. Mrs. J. W. GUNN, aged 29, 3925 Highland avenue, left foot sprained and puncture under foot. The accident occurred at a time when travel was at its height. Hundreds of people from Independence and the towns reached by the electric line, who had been in the city to see the Flower parade, were crowded into the depot and upon the platforms waiting for their cars. As they procured their tickets the people passed through the gates to the platform to the north of the depot, where the cars line up to wait for passengers. Cars were being loaded as fast as possible. A dozen special policemen in the employ of the Metropolitan Street Car Company, which operates the electric line, were directing the people onto the platform and aboard the cars. The crowd was large and happy. It surged to and fro and jostled and talked. As the 7 o'clock car was backed into place, about 150 people were admitted through the gates to board it. They were impatient and made a mad rush for the car steps. Only a few had boarded the car when suddenly there was a crash and a section of the platform, near the rear end of the car, and upon which at least 100 persons were standing, gave way amid the crashing of timbers and the shouts and shrieks of the men and women. The timbers on the east of the defective section of the platform gave way first, and the west timbers, acting as a sort of hinge, let the passengers down, much after the fashion of the slide down a cellar door. The platform was built on piles about eighteen feet high, but there was none under the section that fell. A small stream which flows near the depot tends to keep the ground moist and muddy. The people were precipitated into the mud and water, head over heels, and upon one another. There were groans from the wounded and shouts from those who were not hurt. Above them on one side stood the car which they had so vainly tried to enter. On the other side were huge piles and broken tiling. The work of carrying out the injured was begun in an instant. People who were not on the defective platform went bravely to work with the Metropolitan employees. Telephone messages were sent to Central police station and Police Surgeon LONGAN and Assistant NORBERG responded with the ambulance and two policemen. Lieutenant WEBER and a squad of officers from No. 4 station also went to the scene, in answer to a telephone message. General Superintendent W. H. HOLMES and Claim Agent J. L. KARNES, of the railway company, with the company's surgeons, Frank and Will IUEN, and Dr. LIPMAN, were also soon on the scene. Improvised stretchers were provided, and the wounded, as fast as they were taken out of the hole, were carried into the depot waiting rooms, where immediate surgical and medical attention was given them. Those with broken bones were supplied with temporary bandages and sent in the police ambulance and several undertakers' ambulances to All Saints' hospital. Many of the lesser injured did not wait to be treated, but went home. Among those was E. L. MORSE, of the Wabash road, who lives at Excelsior Springs. He stated before he left that his injuries were not serious. Mr. MORSE is a prominent Republican politician in Missouri. Few of the injured were able to talk of their experience because of excitement. Miss NICHOL, of Independence, said: "I was just stepping into the car when the platform fell, and I went down. I know a half dozen people fell upon me." Superintendent W. H. HOLMES said the platform was rebuilt last July, save the piling and joists. The great crowds on Labor day and subsequent Sundays and Fourth of July were all hauled over the platform. Mrs. Lil SCOTT lost a valuable gold watch in the mud. She went down with her husband, but was not hurt. ====================================================== ----- Original Message ----- From: IVY To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, July 24, 2005 6:56 PM Subject: LOOK UP REQUEST John, I have just found deposition for a law suit against the Metropolitan Street Railway Co. I wonder if there is anything in the paper about the accident. On 10/6/1897 Georgia Walker was on the platform preparing to board the 15th st. car when the platform collapsed. Georgia is the g-grandmother of my husband. Thanks IVY