The last reunion was held, as noted, in the public park at Chatsworth Thursday, August 10, 1937, with nine survivors present. They vvere: George
A. Smith and Louis E. Retterman, Peoria, Ill.; B. M. Judd, Colfax, Ill.; E. F. Swearingen, Canton, 111.; Mrs. Mary R. Barran and Mrs. W. K. Sharp, Pont iac, Ill.; B. F. Quisenberry, Atlanta, Ill.; W. B. McDonough, Macomb, Ill.;
and A, T. Cunnington, Chatsworth,
 
A group of 200 people assembled to bid these hardy survivors welcome to the reunion. L. J. Haberkom, who just missed being in the wreck, but who was one of the first men to reach the terrible carnage, was chairman.

The always lovely sacred song, "Nearer My God to Thee," which was being sung by four young people in the train at the zero moment of the crash, was sung by a quartet composed of Mrs. Alfred Wisthuff, Mrs. Phil Koerner, Albert V/alter and J. W. Heiken, as the theme song of the final reunion. The chairman and the quartet were seated in the bandstand in the park.

Program of Last Beunion.

Dr. John Ryan gave a report on the wreck. He was living in Colfax, III., a few miles southwest of Chatsworth, and rode across the country in a buggy with a Colfax physician when news
came of the tragedy. Both men worked heroically when they reached the wreck.

The survivors were taken to the site of the wreck in automobiles for their last survey of the locale which carried for them so many terrible memories.

Mrs Barron, who was 89 years of age at the time of the last reunion, related that she was accompanied on the ill-fated train by her son, then six  years of age, but he had passed away before the last reunion, dying, indeed,
before his mother.

1937 reunion from Clive Burford
 
The Chatsworth Plaindealer in its issue of August 12, 1937, carried an excellent story of "the last round-up" with a group picture of the nine survivors, Mr. Haberkorn, Dr. Ryan and a few others. We have incorporated
into this volume all of the facts of the Plaindealer's story.

 

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