100 years ago in Spokane: Six train workers, including strikebearers, were killed in a devastating crash

A passenger train barreled into the rear of a work train at Parkwater, just east of Spokane, killing six train workers and injuring several more.

The work train, being pushed by a switch engine, was apparently shunted on to the main line by mistake in the Parkwater yards. The passenger train locomotive then slammed into the switch engine. Both engineers were among the dead. The damage on the passenger train was limited mostly to the locomotive, and none of the passengers was injured. The men on the work train did not fare as well.

“I was sitting in the first coach with my two buddies, Adams and Kerr, when I heard the grinding of brakes and then the crash,” said John M. Corbett, who was on the work train. “The next thing I knew I was picking myself up beside a shanty 50 feet from the track. I was thrown clear through a window. Blood was flowing from gashes in my scalp and I was cut all over. Dazed, I started looking around for my pals. I saw them pinned under the wreckage. I ran to the roundhouse for help and when I returned, I found Kerr and Adams stretched out on the ground.”

All three had been working as strikebreakers in the ongoing rail shopmen’s strike.

One of the survivors said, from his hospital bed, “Last night was the first time the engineer on the work train failed to wait for No. 41 (the passenger train) to pass before taking the main line.”

From the booze beat: Harry Phillips, the mystery man who apparently tried to bribe a Spokane County prosecutor candidate, was identified as a notorious local gambler.

A police fingerprinting expert discovered that Phillips was the same man who had been arrested twice during gambling raids.

Prosecutor candidate Harry L. Cohn said Phillips had approached him as the representative of the city’s “Wet Brigade” (those who were opposed to Prohibition). Cohn said Phillips offered to bankroll his campaign in exchange for a promise to go easy on liquor violators.