John D. McDonald and his wife planned a trip in 1909 to the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition that was held in Seattle from June 1, 1909 to October 16, 1909. This was a World’s Fair publicizing the development of the Pacific Northwest. They made plans to stop over on Spokane to visit old time friends ( The Mangler’s) and that placed them as passengers on an ill fated train on July 31 at approximately 4:45pm that was hit head on near Caldwell, Idaho (small station about twenty-five miles east of Spokane).
The accident occurred on the Coeur d’ Alene and Spokane Electric Railroad. Both of the trains were filled with tourists and others who had come to register for the Indian Land Opening. This Land Opening was occurring from July 15 to August 5 and the interested parties had only 22 days to register their desires. Of interest, is that the Coeur d’ Alene Land Office received 286,848 applications for 4,160 available claims. This exceeded the famous Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889.
The Spokane & Inland Empire Railroad Company that began in 1906, was an alliance of small, local interurban railroads linking Spokane and surrounding communities with Coeur d’ Alene. This interurban railroads usually had three or more cars coupled together. The cars had platforms in the front and rear with seating in the center section. These platforms were standing room only and no restrictions were placed on how many persons were allowed to board the cars. The Company was transporting 6,000 to 10,000 people a day on these trains to the land rush.
Among the casualties were people from every state in the Union. The stated cause of the accident was that the motorman of the west bound train had orders from the dispatcher to pull out at Coeur d’ Alene and take a siding about three quarters of a mile down the track to let the regular east bound train pass. He passed the siding either because he missed it or thought he could make it to the next siding about another mile down the track. The motorman stated he understood he was to meet the other train about five miles from where the accident occurred.
The motormen caught sight of each other when the trains were 800 feet apart, too late to prevent a collision. Train No.20 came to a complete stop in 200 feet and people in the lead car began jumping off the train. Train No. 5 attempted to stop but being so heavily overloaded they ran into the other train still traveling about 20 miles an hour. The impact telescoped the two lead cars into each other. This immediately killed 12 people and maimed more than 100 others. The final death count in the Spokane paper was 16 persons listed as dead and these names included Mr. A.B. McDonald and Mrs. A.B. McDonald of Drummond, Montana.
By August 4th the McDonald’s had been correctly identified as J.D. and their bodies returned to Drummond. Their funeral took place the next day. “Mrs. McDonald’s breast was pierced by a large splinter and she probably never knew what happened.” stated the August 6th Mail article. Survivors were: Daughters Flo McDonald and Mrs. Frank M. Morse of Drummond; Mrs. McDonald’s brothers: M. Wylie of Drummond and I.H. Wylie of Hamilton and Alex McDonald of Butte was J.D.’s brother.
They are buried in the Valley View cemetery under the names of John D. McDonald and Mrs. John D. McDonald. Who knows her first name?
This is what I know about them. They were born and reared in Bruce County, Ontario and after marriage moved to Duluth and lived there eight years. Sometime after arriving in Montana, J.D became employed by the Northern Pacific Railroad: first at Bonita, then Bearmouth and lastly Drummond. The earliest news article was July 6th 1893 where John was one of the delegates elected to represent the Flint Creek District at the Helena Silver Convention. In 1894, he had unclaimed letters advertised in the Philipsburg Mail in August and in December he was one of the “old timers” that arrived in Granite the week of the 13th. In 1897, he came down from Gold Coin and stayed with his cousin Murdock for a few days and was able to find employment at the Sunrise in July. In December, 1899, he received a telegram regarding the death of a brother in Canada. By 1901 John was very active in “The Order of Washington” and performed as Floor Manager in their Grand Ball February, 22 at the Firemen’s Hall. He was installed as the Porter in the Home Forum Lodge #1884 on January 11th and installed as Sentinel in Union #65 on July 3rd.
No comments:
Post a Comment