Grayson County TXGenWeb

The Interurban

Van Alstyne Leader
Thursday, August 12, 1926
Page 1

One Dead and Several Injured When Interurban Leaves Track

The Interurban car on the lines of the Texas Electric Company which left Dallas at 6 p.m. Sunday, August 8, and which was due in Van Alstyne at 7:57 p.m., was wrecked at a point 1/2 mile south of Van Alstyne between 7:30 and 8 o'clock. The wreck was said by officials of the road to be due to a "sun kink" in the track this causing the axle on the front truck to break and throwing the car from the track. The track was badly torn up for a distance of 200 feet or more, and the car was almost turned around when it finally stopped. Live wires were torn from their fastenings and came into contact with the ground causing a vivid electrical display.
E. F. Bristow, 45, motorman on the car, whose home is at Denison, was taken from the wreck, fatally injured. He was brought to the office of Dr. J. M. Slaughter but died just as he was placed on the operating table. The immediate cause of death was a blow, evidently from the control lever, just above the heart, a hemorrhage resulting therefore and causing death. It is thought that Mr. Bristow was thrown against the lever when the car collided with a pole on the right-of-way. The body was taken in charge by R. R. Waldo of the Van Alstyne Undertaking Company and prepared for shipment to Mr. Bristow's home at Denison, where funeral services were held on Tuesday. Mrs. Bristow and their daughter, Miss Nolah Bristow, came to Van Alstyne and accompanied the body home. Mr. Bristow has been in the employ of the Texas Electric Company for about ten years and was highly regarded by the officials of the company and his fellow-employees. He was a member of the Baptist church and was a Mason, the interment at Denison being according to the rites of Masonry and conducted by the lodge of that city.
There were eleven passengers on the car at the time of the accident. Among those the following were injured:

Ben Richey, Van Alstyne, three broken ribs.
Howard Potts, Sherman, fractures collar bone and other injuries.
Miss Mamie Taylor, Sherman, dislocated hip and minor injuries.
W.A. Smith, conductor, slight injuries to leg.
Levis Hall, Sherman, slightly bruised and back injured.
J.D. Mantooth, Mrs. Mantooth and their four children, of Denison, and Miss Alma Craighead of Anna, were also passengers, but were not injured.

Of the injured all were treated by Dr. Slaughter except Miss Taylor and Mr. Hall, who were taken to Sherman.
News of the wreck spread rapidly and hundreds of people gathered at the interurban station and at other centers. A number from Sherman and other places came to Van Alstyne anxious to know if relatives or friends of theirs were passengers on the car.
This is the first serious wreck to occur on the Interurban in a number of years, and, so we are informed, the first time in 15 years that a fatality has resulted from a wreck, a coincidence being that in that instance as in this, a motorman was the victim of the wreck. It has never happened that a passenger on this line has been fatally injured in a wreck.
Superintendent M. T. Loftus of Sherman was on the scene shortly after the accident and took charge of the work of clearing the track. Passengers were transferred on Sunday night, and cars were running through Monday morning.