I have a photo of my Grandmother as a young woman posed in front of a wreaked train in Kalamazoo. Unfortunately, there is no date, but the clothing suggests this same time period. According to my grandmother's niece, they late found that the train was carrying dynamite! Pat Marshall pgmarshall@comcast.net ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bonny Goldberg" <bonjogo@sbcglobal.net> To: <MI-GENEALOGY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2004 9:34 PM Subject: Re: [MI-Genealogy] Train Wreck 1903 > Thank-you Debra, I too am interested in this information. > > Bonny in Chicago > > Debra K Briggs <deb213@sbcglobal.net> wrote: > I checked the public library records in Kalamazoo and there is no mention > of a train wreck in 1903 but there are several articles on one in 1907. > When I go there I'll get copies of them and send them to you if you would > like me to. > > Deb in Kalamazoo > > Homelybin@aol.com wrote: > I am looking for information on a train wreck which occurred 1903 between > Grand Rapides and Grand Haven. Can anyone help with a date this train > wreck took > place and what caused the accident? This was a small train line, I've been > told. > Would there be any newspaper articles on this wreck on line and a list of > those who died? > > Thanks in advance for any help. > Barbara in Louisiana email address: homelybin@aol.com > > > ==== MI-GENEALOGY Mailing List ==== > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/usa/MI/misc.html > This is the index for the list. Scroll down the page until you come to : > MI-GENEALOGY. From there you may subscribe and unsubscribe from the list > plus browse or search our archives, plus contact the list Admin. > > ============================== > Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration > Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237 > > > ==== MI-GENEALOGY Mailing List ==== > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/usa/MI/misc.html > This is the index for the list. Scroll down the page until you come to : > MI-GENEALOGY. From there you may subscribe and unsubscribe from the list > plus browse or search our archives, plus contact the list Admin. > > ============================== > Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration > Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237 > > > ==== MI-GENEALOGY Mailing List ==== > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/usa/MI/misc.html > This is the index for the list. Scroll down the page until you come to : > MI-GENEALOGY. From there you may subscribe and unsubscribe from the list > plus browse or search our archives, plus contact the list Admin. > > ============================== > Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration > Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237 > >

HI , Here are three train wrecks that took place in Michigan in 1903. The first is most likely to be the one you want, as Paris is near Grand Rapids. The second is near Kalamazoo, The third is near Detroit and is quite a ways from GR. I found it on this railroad website: http://www.michiganrailroads.com/RRHX/Wrecks/WrecksMenu.htm#Detroit,%20MI %201903 East Paris, 1903. It was Saturday evening, December 26, 1903, and it was snowing heavily. Both westbound Number 5 and eastbound Number 6 were running late. Before No. 6 left Grand Rapids it was given a train order directing it to meet No. 5 at Fox siding, two miles east of East Paris, rather than the usual meeting place of Oakdale Park. No. 6 got the order, but No. 5 passed the station at Alto before the dispatcher could finish writing the order. The dispatcher than sent the order to the McCords station. The telegrapher put his signal at "stop" to indicate to No. 5 that he had a train order for it. Running in heavy snow and darkness the engineman on No. 5 never saw the McCords "stop" signal. He went through at a full sixty miles per hour. Not knowing he was to stop in just a few miles for the other train, he barreled on. The two trains met head-on near East Paris. The collision caused the instant death of nineteen and injured about forty more. Two others died later. The McCords operator later stated that the wind had extinguished his signal light; not knowing that he did not go out to try to flag down the train. The engineman of No. 5 survived the wreck, cleared his name in a subsequent trial, but later left his family and disappeared still feeling the guilt. More details of the East Paris wreck are in Art Million's "Wreck at East Paris" in Pere Marquette Rails no. 14. Durand, 1903. After the day's show at Charlotte the two sections of the Wallace circus train were rolling toward Lapeer for the next performance. A little before 4 a.m. on Friday, August 4, 1903, the first section was brought to a stop a half mile west of the Durand station by the flagman of a livestock train stopped ahead of it. The flagman of the circus train started back but before he got far he saw the second section coming up fast. Engineman Charles Probst, when he saw the flagman, applied his air brakes, reversed his engine, and whistled for hand brakes. But at the speed he was running he could not stop his train in time. He and his fireman jumped before the crash. His engine demolished the caboose of the first section and plowed into the sleeping car ahead of it. When it stopped the locomotive was resting on its side. The sleeping workers never knew what hit them. Many died instantly. Townspeople quickly came to aid in the rescue. The Hotel Richelieu was made into a temporary hospital and morgue. There were forty-eight riding in the last sleeper, twenty of them died. Three others also died and at least forty were injured. The circus missed two performances, at Lapeer and Caro, but then opened on schedule at Bay City. The wreck also claimed three camels, a dog, and an elephant, all of them from the second section. The animals were buried about 1,500 feet west of the South Oak Street crossing. The coroner's jury later held that engineer Probst was at fault, claiming had he watched his air gauge he might have prevented the collision. Detroit, MI, 1903. Accident occurred on May 4 at Canfield Avenue on the GTW s line to Brush Street Station. Earlier in the day, a LS&MS train brought a group of people from Toledo to a Polish festival held at St Josaphat's Church and Harmonia Hall. When the train returned at 8:00 p.m. that evening it stopped on the main line to pick up passengers. This was not a regular station stop and the train apparently did not send out an employee to flag the track. At 8:30 p.m., a GTW train from Chicago was heading for Brush Street station. It was most likely No. 8. The crew knew nothing abut the train at Canfield Avenue until they were right on top of it and had no chance to stop the train in time. Hearings showed that the crew on the excursion train were all "off the extra board" and not acquainted with the area and took too much for granted. [MRC-4/1976] -------Original Message------- From: MI-GENEALOGY-L@rootsweb.com Date: 03/06/05 03:42:27 To: MI-GENEALOGY-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [MI-Genealogy] Train Wreck 1903 I have a photo of my Grandmother as a young woman posed in front of a wreaked train in Kalamazoo. Unfortunately, there is no date, but the clothing suggests this same time period. According to my grandmother's niece, they late found that the train was carrying dynamite! Pat Marshall pgmarshall@comcast.net ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bonny Goldberg" <bonjogo@sbcglobal.net> To: <MI-GENEALOGY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2004 9:34 PM Subject: Re: [MI-Genealogy] Train Wreck 1903 > Thank-you Debra, I too am interested in this information. > > Bonny in Chicago > > Debra K Briggs <deb213@sbcglobal.net> wrote: > I checked the public library records in Kalamazoo and there is no mention > of a train wreck in 1903 but there are several articles on one in 1907. > When I go there I'll get copies of them and send them to you if you would > like me to. > > Deb in Kalamazoo > > Homelybin@aol.com wrote: > I am looking for information on a train wreck which occurred 1903 between > Grand Rapides and Grand Haven. Can anyone help with a date this train > wreck took > place and what caused the accident? This was a small train line, I've been > told. > Would there be any newspaper articles on this wreck on line and a list of > those who died? > > Thanks in advance for any help. > Barbara in Louisiana email address: homelybin@aol.com > > > ==== MI-GENEALOGY Mailing List ==== > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/usa/MI/misc.html > This is the index for the list. Scroll down the page until you come to : > MI-GENEALOGY. From there you may subscribe and unsubscribe from the list > plus browse or search our archives, plus contact the list Admin. > > ============================== > Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration > Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237 > > > ==== MI-GENEALOGY Mailing List ==== > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/usa/MI/misc.html > This is the index for the list. Scroll down the page until you come to : > MI-GENEALOGY. From there you may subscribe and unsubscribe from the list > plus browse or search our archives, plus contact the list Admin. > > ============================== > Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration > Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237 > > > ==== MI-GENEALOGY Mailing List ==== > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/usa/MI/misc.html > This is the index for the list. Scroll down the page until you come to : > MI-GENEALOGY. From there you may subscribe and unsubscribe from the list > plus browse or search our archives, plus contact the list Admin. > > ============================== > Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration > Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. 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