from The Republican (Danville, Indiana)--issue of Thursday, August 10, 1905—page 1, column 4:
GRADE CROSSING ACCIDENT
Fast Train Strikes Buggy With Three Girls
Daughters of Robert Westerfield in Frightful Wreck
One dead, one still hovering between life and death and one suffering from painful injuries is the record of a terrible grade crossing accident at the Big Four tracks east of the Danville station Friday afternoon.
The victims were three daughters of Robert Westerfield—Callie, age eight, Lulu, age fifteen, and Rose, age nineteen. Lulu died about four hours after the accident. Callie still lives and Rose was the least injured. Rose had been employed in Danville and her two sisters had come to take her home. The three girls started home in a single buggy. They drove upon the crossing just as the fast west bound express came along. The buggy was not upon the track. The engine, rubbing probably sixty miles an hour, struck the horse. The girls were thrown from the buggy which was torn to pieces. The horse was caught by the pilot of the engine and dragged between the curbing of the station platform and the pilot, portions of the animal working down under the wheels and being wedged in the machinery when the train was stopped 150 yards west of the accident.
Lulu Westerfield was driving. She was thrown about 100 feet west upon the cement platform. Her body rolled under the wheels of the train. Her right foot was cut off just above the ankle and the left at the calf of the leg. Her left shoulder was crushed and the arm broken in several places. One bone of the right arm was dislocated at the wrist and the other bone was broken. She was bruised about the body and chest. Her body was found between the curbing and the rail.
Callie was thrown against the cement walk, her eye and face being bruised. She sustained a concussion of the brain with possibly a fracture of the skill. Her right leg was terribly bruised. When found she was in the wreck of the buggy.
Rose was injured on the left side of the face. A piece of a spoke was forced into her arm four or five inches. This was pulled out by someone who arrived early at the scene of the wreck. Her injuries are not serious.
It seems that no one saw the immediate accident. But the stopping of the train showed that something was wrong and people at the station, passengers from the train and neighbors rushed to the crossing. The conductor and trainmen helped in taking care of the wounded. Callie was taken to Edward Courtney's home, Lulu to Albert Marsh's and Rose to O.W. Wilhoite's.
Physicians were called and relief administered. Drs. Rogers and Dorsey came from Indianapolis on the evening train on the suggestion of the railroad company but they could do nothing more than had been done. Rose was taken home before night, Lulu died about eight o'clock and Callie still lingers.
No. 19, the train that struck them is one of the fastest trains on the road. In talking about the accident, Rose says the whistle did not sound. Others say the same and still others say that it did. There seems no doubt that the girls approached the crossing in a swinging trot without stopping. They did not see the train until their horse was upon the track and the train a short distance away. The horse may have been slightly checked but escape was impossible.
George Walters, roadmaster, was on the engine. He was in the fireman's seat, looking up the track. He did not see the horse or buggy, showing that the horse was hardly fairly upon the track. The crossing has long been known as most dangerous but this is the first accident there.
Miss Lulu's funeral was Sunday morning, interment being in the South cemetery.
Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday scores of people visited the scene and they shuddered as they saw the most visible evidence of the tragedy, the impression of a bloody hand upon the cement platform.
Coroner Curtis is holding an inquest.