George Huber, Obituary/Death NoticePorter County obituaries and death notices . . . .
George Huber
Particulars of Geo. Huber's Death.
We clip from the Whitehall Times, of Wisconsin, the following relative to the sad death of Mr. Huber.
A man on horse-back brought news to Whitehall that the passenger train was wrecked two miles west of the village by the washing out of a culvert, and that the engineer and fireman were both killed and Mr. Geo. Hibbardm the mail agent, injured. A Times reporter was at the scene of the terrible disaster in thirty minutes, and found the report of the courier too true. He found the hind driving wheels of the locomotive embedded in sand and water up to the bottom of the cab, and where the cab would have been if it had not been completely demolished. The front driving wheels were not so deep, the head of the boiler being about on a level with the roadbed, the boiler sloping sharply to the rear. A rail had pearced the front of the engine and run through the length of the boiler, projecting about four feet. As the culvert timbers were swept entirely away we cannot conceive how the wrecked engine could have attained this position, especially if the train was running as slowly as reported. The tender stood on its forward end, perpendicular, leaning somewhat toward the locomotive, and jammed against the furnace, bending and twisting the levers, guages, etc. The cab was entirely gone, and crushed between the top of the water tank and furnace were fast the mangled forms of the engineer and fireman, Geo. Huber and Moses Belrose, dead at their posts. The coal, about four tons, had tunbled down about their lower limbs, and their heads were flattened against the hot furnace. But a small portion of their faces and the right hand of the engineer could be seen amid the debris of splinters of wood, iron and coal. Their death must have been instantaneous. It is possible that they saw the danger in time to have jumped, but as the air brake was turned on and the lever reversed, it is evident that the brave fellows faced death cooly and sacrified their lived for the sake of their fellow-men in the rear.
About 10 o'clock in the evening a large party of our young men went down and rendered valuable assistance in getting the dead bodies out from their horrible position, placing the mutilated remains on boards and winding ropes about them to keep their bodies together. The engineer and fireman were mutilated beyond recognition.
The culvert where the train went down is what is termed as a dry culvert, i. e., there is ordinarily no water running through it, but it is simply for drainage from the ditch on the south side of the track to the river on the north. No one would look for a wash-out at this place, but just beyond, not six rods west of the culvert spoken of, the water from the Trempealeau had washed with greater force along the side of the track for a trains length, and the track was just ready to tip over into the river so that, had not the accident happened as it did, the whole train would have been precipitated into the river and in all likelihood a far more disastrous accident occurred, so far as life and limb are concerned. It is conjectured that the engineer saw the peril at this point and reversed his engine and put on the air-brake, just before reaching the culvert, where he met his death.
The engineer and fireman were much respected by their fellow-employees, and were highly esteemed by the manager, Mr. Case, as careful, sober men.
Mr. Huber, the engineer, had just buried one of his children last week, and his wife had gone to her former home in Indiana on a visit. Mr. Belrose, the fireman, was an unmarried man, his people living at Two Rivers. We understand he was to be married to a young lady in Green Bay, the coming fall. This is the first accident, resulting fatally, since the road has been in operation, and speaks well for the caution and care of its men. Trains have been ditched before, but this is the first loss of life resulting from accident to train. It is generally the case in railroad accidents to lay the blame on some one, but thus far no blame is attributed to any person. Mr. Buckman, the conductor, formerly road-master, and as well acquainted with every rod of the line as any man on the road, is a very careful man, and noticing that a good deal of rain had fallen at this place, went forward and told the engineer to run slow, and, we are informed by one of the passengers, was just about to pull their check cord to check the speed of the train when the locomotive made the terrible plunge.
Mr. Huber, the engineer, met with a narrow escape at Duck Creek bridge early last spring, and told one of his comrades that he had presentment that he would never come out of another accident alive.
Newspaper: Porter County Vidette
Date of Publication: August 5, 1880
Volume Number: 24
Issue Number: 32
Page: 2
Column(s): 6 and 7
Key to Newspaper Publication Locations:
Newspapers Published in Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana
Chesterton Tribune
The Tribune
Westchester Tribune
Newspapers Published in Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana
Porter County Vidette
Practical Observer
Valparaiso Practical Observer
Vidette and Republic
Western Ranger
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Obituary/death notice transcribed by Steven R. Shook