Engineer R.B. Hill Killed, Five Others Injured When Train Derails, May 1919

From The Daily Times, Wilson, N.C., May 3, 1919

Engineer Killed; Five Others Hurt

Wadesboro, May 2—Engineer R.B. Hill of Hamlet was killed and five others injured, one seriously, at 9:30 o’clock tonight when Seaboard Air Line passenger train No. 13 from Wilmington to Charlotte was wrecked at Lilesville, five miles east of this place. The injured are Ernest Hammond, colored porter; L.C. Mimms, express messenger, and two others whose injuries are slight. A spreading rail is believed to have been the cause of the derailment.

The injured were rushed to hospitals as soon as a relief train was made up at the ballast pit near here. Hammond, Mimms and Bailey were taken to Hamlet, while the other two injured were brought to this city.

The engine turned over and all the remainder of the train left the track, except the Pullman. None of the passengers were injured. All of them, however, assisted the injured until the arrival of physicians.

The train was running at the usual speed when, according to the fireman, Engineer Hill observed an obstacle on the track. He applied the emergency brakes at once and the sudden pressure of the brakes, it is believed, produced a spreading of the rails.

Physicians from this place and Hamlet were called to the scene of the wreck and rendered first aid treatment before sending the injured to hospitals. Drs. Terry, James and Kinsman accompanied three of the injured men back to Hamlet.