The white cascade, p.33
The White Cascade, page 33
“Superintendent O’Neill has handled the railroad end” from the SS of the same date.
The discovery of the A-16 was announced in a telegram of Friday, March 4, 2:45 P.M., and was described in the SIH of March 4 and the ST of March 5. The description of Blackburn’s body by W. J. Manley (“in an attitude as if he had been sleeping”) as reported in the ST of March 5. Blackburn’s gift of the Morris chair (a joint gift with Dowling and Devery) is acknowledged in the O’Neill family scrapbooks.
“Last night, when he dropped to rest on the floor” from the SIH of March 4.
The trouble with the foreign laborers and the arrest of “Robert Roberts” as reported in the SDC and the SPI of March 5. The account of following bloody trails in the melting snow was in the TDL of March 4. The blizzard on Friday night was reported in the SIH of March 5 and in a telegram dated March 4 at 7:30 P.M. The story of the three stranded telegraphers is from the ST of March 4. The unidentified body in the river was reported in the WDW of March 5. And the slide at Drury that killed the watchman is mentioned in a telegram of March 1, 5:00 P.M.
The incident of the snow sliding off the hotel roof is reported in the SIH of March 4. Bailets mentions taking his family to sleep on the outfit cars on the spur tracks in his inquest testimony (CIT, p. 343). O’Neill’s nightly trips through the tunnel as per the SPI of March 4. The alleged quotation from Charles Andrews—“Moved by a power”—was printed in the SPI of March 3 and elsewhere, but Andrews denied the story in his court affidavit. The other bogus SPI reports are from the editions of March 4 (mountain lions and wolves; car with ten survivors) and March 5 (surviving baby; eating a cat). The French newspaper that picked up the erroneous SPI story was L’Humanité of March 5.
Underwood tells of his encounter with O’Neill in an article entitled “I Scooped the Wellington Disaster” published in True West, January-February 1961, p. 20. “Death everywhere” from ST of March 3, while “The task of digging for the dead” appeared in the ST of March 4. Underwood’s remark that the women insisted on the train being taken out of the tunnel appeared in his ST report of March 3.
“I was greatly distressed” is from a letter from Charles Steele to Hill dated March 3, 1910 (James J. Hill Papers). The eighty-five deaths figure is from the March 1 entry in the general manager’s office diaries (GN Corporate Records, Minnesota Historical Society). The Pueblo, Colorado, train wreck as described by Edgar A. Haine in his Railroad Wrecks (New York: Cornwall Books, 1993), p. 31. The issue of the thirty laborers in the smoking car as reported in EDH of March 7.
“The snow was packed so hard about the bodies” was said by Detective Wells and reported in the ST of March 7. O’Neill’s estimate of one month to find all of the bodies was reported in the SEC of March 8. His idea of melting the snow with steam as reported in the ST of the same day.
“How puny is man” from the SS of March 7.
“The greatest blockade of a railway system” from the ST of March 10. The buildup of delayed freight as per the SPI of March 5.
The details of the east-side cleanup come primarily from two sources: John Brady’s superior court testimony (SCT, pp. 804-16) and an article later written by Brady, “The Great Slide,” originally published in Railroad Magazine in 1946 but reprinted in Locomotives of the Empire Builder by Charles F. Martin (Chicago: Normandie House, 1972). “One of the largest I have ever seen,” from Brady’s testimony, SCT, p. 808. The arrival of Northern Pacific No. 2 as per the telegram of 8:00 P.M., Thursday, March 3. “Have had considerable trouble holding men” from a telegram from E. L. Brown to O’Neill et al., 10:45 P.M., Saturday, March 5. The packing in of coal and the revival of the stalled double rotary as per Dowling (SCT, pp. 752 and 756) and the SEC of March 6.
Interference between the body evacuations and the plowing efforts was reported in the ST of March 9. Forsyth and Laville’s descent as described in the TDL of March 3. The descent of Clary, Purcell, and Bates as per the SS of same date. The “pathetic procession” was described in the SS of March 7. “I’d rather take a chance on dying,” “You can tell the people for me,” and “It’s not half-bad coming down that hill” as quoted in the ST of March 7.
O’Neill’s ordering of the Alaskan sleds as per the SPI of March 5. “We left Wellington at noon” from the ST of March 6. Bill J. Moore’s experience evacuating O’Reilly’s body (“I seen 90 bodies”) is from his handwritten margin notes in his personal copy of the Ruby El Hult book.
The discovery of the mail cars comes from Hult, Northwest Disaster, p. 88. The WDW of March 10 reported that there were still over two dozen bodies to be accounted for. The unearthing of part of the smoking car as per the ST of March 7. Carrie Phillips’s climb to be with her husband was reported in Hult, p. 70. “Confined to the hospital” and “Let me die” are from the SS of March 7. “Here is a young man” and further quotes from that scene are from Sherlock, p. 24. The encounter between O’Neill and Sherlock as described in Sherlock, pp. 22-23.
“Why, get them to give me another engine” was quoted in the ST of March 11. Tegtmeier’s early detection of Gruber’s train as per the ST of March 10. The evacuation of the last nine of the injured as reported in the ST of March 11 and from transcribed notes of an interview with A. B. Hensel by Keith Yates (Robert Kelly collection). The Starretts’ dread of getting back on a train as per the SIH of March 3.
The exact time of the rotaries’ meeting was announced in a March 12 (10:49 A.M.) telegram from Gruber to Lewis Hill, cited in T. Gary Sherman’s Conquest and Catastrophe (Bloomington, IN: Author House, 2004), p. 146. “The siege of snows is ended” was from the ST of March 12. Hill’s congratulations are from two telegrams to Gruber dated March 8 and March 9 (Minnesota Historical Society).
The slide that hit the rotary was described in the special mail edition of the ST dated both March 14 and 15. That the laborer was not found for weeks was cited in the Argus of April 2. The majority of mail was recovered according to the ST of March 13. O’Neill’s visits to the Longcoys and to Lewis Walker’s widow are mentioned in unidentified newspaper clippings in the O’Neill family scrapbooks.
14: Inquest
The opening quotation—“That thousands of tons of snow”—is from the SUR of March 12.
“O’NEILL HAILED NOW AS KING OF SNOW FIGHTERS” and the subsequent quotation (“He always is cool”) are from the ST of March 6. “What proved to be the most dangerous place possible” from the ST of March 3. “DOLLAR-A-DAY JAP COULD HAVE PREVENTED SLIDE” and the following quotation (“Had the slope been wooded”) are from the SS of March 5. “[I] could not help wondering” from the Seattle Argus of the same date, “DID PENNY SQUEEZING COST 100 LIVES AT WELLINGTON?” and the following quotation (“The Great Northern railroad will never hire able men”) are from the SS of the same date.
“Relatives and friends of the dead men” from the SSR of March 17. “It was positively known for weeks” from the SUR of March 12.
(NB: Despite the charges of the switchmen’s union, the GN claimed to be at full operational efficiency at the time of the storm. In a letter to Armstrong dated March 11 [GN Legal Department Files], Dorety, while admitting that four cars of coal were indeed en route to Stevens Pass from Leavenworth at the time of the blockade, points out that the coal bunkers at Wellington at this time were already full. This suggests that the delay of those four cars may have been the result of a lack of urgency rather than a lack of efficiency.)
Publication of Hill’s Highways as per Martin, p. 557. Stevens’s “penny-wise, pound-wise” quip comes from his An Engineer’s Recollections (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1935), p. 33.
Coroner Snyder’s desire to have all bodies accounted for before the inquest as reported in the SPI of March 14. That there were still nine unidentified bodies at the morgue by the commencement of the inquest is from the SPI of March 14. The misidentification of Ned Topping was reported in the SPI of March 11 and elsewhere. The Joseph Benier anecdote (“My friends say that you have me downstairs dead”) comes from the WDW of March 22. The difficulties with the Brockman family imposters as per the ST of March 20.
The disposition of the bodies was reported in the newspapers as follows: Nellie Sharp (SPI of March 6), George and Thelma Davis (SSR of March 12), the Beck family (ST of March 14), and the memorial service in Everett (EDH of March 14). Sarah Jane Covington’s funeral was reported in the Olympia Chronicle of March 12 and in other documents in the Covington/Brokaw family records. The letter from Mrs. Gray to Luther Covington (“Dear Friend”) is also from that collection.
The GN’s moving behind the scenes as per a letter from Armstrong to F. V Brown of March 9 (GN Legal Department Files), in which Armstrong states, “I am strongly of the opinion that if an inquest can be prevented it should not be held.”
“Nothing in the company’s affairs is of greater importance” is from a March 15 letter to Dorety from Armstrong (GN Legal Department Files). “Effort should be made to secure jury” is from a telegram pink slip from Armstrong to Brown dated March 16. The company’s concern about the inquest testimony and verdict as a possible basis for future lawsuits is expressed in the March 11 letter from Dorety to Armstrong. “We are making every effort to block” from the same letter. The article citing the opinions of local lawyers appeared in the ST of March 4.
The original transcript of the coroner’s inquest (CIT) has been missing for many years, but at least one copy recently turned up in a private collection, a second-generation copy of which is now in the Puget Sound Regional Branch of the Washington State Archives, Bellevue, WA. All of these copies are missing the testimony of R. M. Laville, but his major statements were widely reported in the newspaper accounts of the inquest.
O’Neill’s arrival with the other railroaders as per the SPI of March 19. “Deep furrows are plowed” as per the EDH of March 7. The function of the railroad commission at the inquest as per the commissioner’s testimony (CIT, p. 526). That this was the first train accident in Washington history to prompt an inquest is likewise mentioned in testimony (CIT, p. 526). “All kinds of rumors are in circulation” is from the Argus of March 12. The Argus of May 7 contained the story about White’s being refused compensation “even for the shirt on his back.”
O’Neill’s attire as per an artist’s rendering in the SPI of March 19. “I gave them orders” from CIT, p. 11. “O’NEILL ASSUMES ALL BLAME” from the ST of March 18. Laville’s testimony (“Fear was in every heart” etc.) as reported in the ST of March 20. “I never met nicer gentlemen in my life” from CIT, p. 268. Perley’s testimony as per CIT, p. 317. Bailets’s testimony (“I asked them, I says”) from CIT, p. 344. “These three tracks here contained” is from CIT, p. 369. The three questions about the spur tracks are from CIT, pp. 410-15. The claim that the railroaders backed their judgment “with their lives—and lost” comes from the Argus of March 12.
“So, through lack of coal and lack of help” from CIT, p. 424. Dorety’s attempt to recover (“Don’t you know that”) from CIT, p. 438. For the record, the three non-GN officials testifying at the end of the inquest were F. E. Weymouth, superintendent of the NP’s Seattle Division; F. E. Willard, trainmaster on the Milwaukee Road, and J. E. Campbell, trainmaster on the NP’s Seattle Division. “For the present, I can only say” is from a March 22 letter to Armstrong from Brown (GN Legal Department Files). The Chelan County coroner’s findings are reported in the WDW of March 22. “If I was the manager of a railroad” is from the Argus of March 26.
The text of the jury’s verdict is from CIT, pp. 526ff. A copy sent by Mrs. George Anderson is in the Covington/Brokaw family collection. “Hermaphrodite verdict” is the work of L. C. Gilman in a letter to Lewis W. Hill dated April 1. Brown’s telegram—“WE FEEL POSITIVE NO FOUNDATION”—as cited in a March 25 letter from Armstrong to L. C. Gilman. Brown’s statement to the newspapers as per the ST of March 25. “The verdict itself” comes from a March 25 letter from Armstrong to Brown. “If the evidence at the Coroner’s Inquest” is from a March 15 letter from Armstrong to Dorety. (Letters and telegrams are from the GN Legal Department Files.)
15: Act of God
The opening headline—“WELLINGTON SLIDE LAWSUIT ON TRIAL”—is from the WDW of October 21, 1913.
Description of “the Cruel Castle” from History Link’s “Seattle’s First Hill: King County Courthouse and Harborview Hospital” (www.historylink.org). Details of the Starretts’ experiences after leaving Wellington, including the judgment of the GN as “most kind,” are from the notes of an interview conducted by Ruby El Hult with Raymond Starrett dated February 24, 1957 (Hult Papers), and from newspaper accounts. Hensel material is from family documents and from Yates’s “Survivor,” p. 43. Details of the Hensel trial can be found in the WDW of May 7, the SSR of June 24, 1911, and in trial documents from the Robert Kelly collection.
Most details of the trial come from the complete transcript (SCT) in the Robert Kelly collection. Other court records, including copies of pretrial motions, are held in microfilm at the archives of the Superior Court of King County in Seattle. Two hundred witnesses as per the WDW of October 22, 1913. Samuel Hill’s letter to James J. Hill of March 23 is from the archives of the James J. Hill Reference Library in St. Paul. Hill’s response (“You can say to Governor Hay”) is from his letter to Samuel Hill dated March 26 from the same collection. (This letter was later published in full in newspapers such as the WDW of April 2.) The railroad commission’s exoneration of the GN is reported in a letter to L. C. Gilman from Armstrong dated March 31 (GN Legal Department Files).
The WDW of March 22 contained a report of the clearing of the last of the wreckage at Wellington. Hill’s subsequent trip west as reported in the WDW of April 29. Commissioner Lawrence’s speech (“The work will run”) was quoted in the WDW of July 25.
The change of Wellington’s name to Tye was announced in the General Manager’s Circular of October 15, 1910 (GN Corporate Records).
“Those chumps would slander their parents” is from the SUR of March 26. Settlement terms of the strike as reported in the SUR of April 16 and the WDW of April 1 and 29. (NB: Although the switchmen working the line west of Havre got their five cents an hour, those working the line east got only a three-cent raise.)
Hill’s various remarks were always widely reported in the press. “The people are living at a tremendous rate” was from the WDW of May 2. “The rise in the wage rate is the biggest factor” from the SPI of March 18. “There is a popular idea that a railroad may be compelled” from the WDW of June 10. For the rising tide of progressivism between 1910 and 1913, see Hofstadter, p. 248ff. “Claimed the privilege of completing” from Wiebe, p. 217. For Hill’s relationships with individual presidents, I’m indebted to W. Thomas White’s “A Gilded Age Businessman in Politics.”
Basil Sherlock’s report on the GN lawyers’ collection of “every record and every bit of paper that had any writing on it” is from a letter to Ruby El Hult dated March 8, 1960 (Ruby El Hult Papers). The GN’s denial of claims to all comers as per a letter of April 1 from Gilman to Louis W. Hill and other letters. The issue of ensuring the goodwill of surviving employees for the sake of the trial is explicitly mentioned in the April 1 letter from Gilman to Hill. Settlement terms for dead trainmen are cited in an undated (probably April 14) letter from Armstrong to Brown. The special compensation request from Mrs. Pettit as per a letter from L. C. Gilman to E. C. Lindley of June 7, 1910. (All from the GN Legal Department Files.)
“I believe that no employee made a single statement” is from a March 26 letter from Dorety to Armstrong (GN Legal Department Files). McFadgen’s dissenting opinions discussed in a March 25 letter from Dorety to Brown. The “reasonable and prudent person” test for negligence is cited in the judge’s instructions to the jury (SCT, p. 852) and is discussed in a March 29 letter from Armstrong to Dorety (GN Legal Department Files).
Judge Humphries’s determination to let a jury decide the case, rather than taking presumptive action himself, is from his remarkable admission (cited later in the text—“Were I permitted, I’d like to unravel the case for you”) reported in the WDW of October 24, 1913. The setting aside of one month for the trial as per the ST of October 21, 1913.
The exchange about the communication of officials on trains Nos. 2 and 27 is from SCT, p. 11. (It’s worth noting that, many years later, Ross Phillips would claim that train No. 25 was also told that it would never make it over the mountains—Jackson, p. 40.) “I presume these questions are all proper” from SCT, p. 259. Williams bickers with the judge on p. 693 and makes fun of a witness’s grammar on p. 773. The exchange between Williams and White (“Were you conscious when the coach went over?”) is from SCT, p. 136.
(NB: A letter of September 7, 1910, from J. M. Gruber to E. C. Lindley describes an earlier, much smaller slide at Wellington that in February 1903 destroyed the sand house and killed three or four men, but this apparently happened at a point significantly west of where the trains were standing on March 1, 1910.)
For a good example of the litany of “unprecedenteds,” see the testimony of J. C. Wright (SCT, p. 379). “It will be conceded by everyone” is from a March 26 letter from Dorety to Armstrong (GN Legal Department Files). “I will say, in justice to Superintendent O’Neill” is from the same letter. The birth of James O’Neill Jr. while James Sr. was at Stevens Pass as evidenced by telegrams preserved in the O’Neill family scrapbooks. The calculation of 1,350 trains per year in snowstorms as per SCT, p. 494. “I submit the motion is frivolous” is from SCT, p. 512. “Why were [the trains] put on the passing track?” is from SCT, pp. 518-19.
“Now, Mr. O’Neill, to meet such a condition” comes from SCT, pp. 605-6. “It would have buried them in” is from SCT, p. 607. Williams’s frustrated wild shot (“Wouldn’t it have been better”) is from SCT, p. 608.
