History whispers throughout Missouri, nudging us to learn more about the past. One summer day more than a century ago, for example, the calm of a small town in Jefferson County was shattered when a train crashed, killing several dozen and injuring many more. The Sulphur Springs Train Crash in Missouri remains the worst train accident in the state’s history.
August 5, 1922 was, by all accounts, a normal summer evening in the small town of Sulphur Springs, when a train traveling from Hoxie, Arkansas to St. Louis arrived in the town’s train station.
The #32 train was carrying 190 passengers, in wooden passenger cars, among them boy scouts who were returning home after a week at camp. It stopped in Sulphur Springs to take on water.
At the time it was stopped, the latter half of the train was sat on the bridge that spanned Glaize Creek. Another train, a so-called “fast train,” came barreling through. It rear ended the #32 train.
Fate had brought the two trains on the track at the same time, because the #32 train was running on a two-hour delay. When the #32 arrived and stopped in Sulphur Springs, the driver was instructed to allow the fast train to pass.
The driver on the fast train, although told to pass the #32 train, somehow failed to see signs warning that there was a train stopped on the tracks. It slammed right into the back of the #32.
Witnesses have stated that the crash could be heard several miles away. Several of the wooden passenger cars, at the back of the train that was on the bridge, tumbled down an embankment.
All told, 34 passengers were killed in the horrific wreck while 150 others suffered serious injuries. To this day, the train crash remains the worst in Missouri’s history.
The youngest passenger killed, Robert Degonia of St. Louis, was just three months old. His five and six-year-old brothers and seven-year-old sister and mother were also killed. His father also later died in the hospital.
Investigators would later find the engineer of the fast train, Matthew Glenn, who also died that day, was responsible for missing the signs and causing the crash.
Had you already heard about the Sulphur Springs Train Crash in Missouri? Join the conversation in the comments! For more about our state’s past, check out these 16 things you might not have known about Missouri history.
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