The first delay came at the Desjardins Canal where the track had been thrown out of line and had been impassable for several days. There the passengers had to disembark, and they and their luggage were placed on other cars. At Paris more difficulties arose, and the immigrants were divided. Only those in the second-class passenger cars were sent on by the day express train. This train, carrying only some of the immigrants reached Rochester, about 20 miles [32 kilometres] from Windsor, by about 9:00 p.m. that evening. There an accident had occurred earlier in the day because the extremely hot summer weather had caused the rails to expand. A gravelling engine had derailed at the switch, obstructing the lines. At this point, the night express travelling from Windsor met the incoming day express carrying the immigrants. The conductors agreed to exchange passengers and “back up,” each returning to Windsor and Chatham, respectively. Although the exchange of the first-class passengers were made, the second-class passengers, including the Norwegian immigrants, were not accepted since the night express did not have any second-class cars to receive them. Instead, the conductor backed the train to a small station named Baptiste Creek, intending to take the entire train back to Chatham. However, finding that wood and water were in low supply because of the delay, at midnight he left the immigrant cars on the siding with instructions that they be attached to the next train going through to Windsor, due to arrive in Baptiste Creek about 5:00 in the morning. He then set out with the other cars for Chatham. The immigrants were left in the abandoned cars in circumstances described in detail in the inquest held the following November:
It was a very hot and sultry night. Two or three of the emigrants could speak a little English, and inquired when the train would come for them; also whether food could be procured, and when. Many of them, although warned not to wander lest they should miss the train, did wander away to procure food. . . . The country around Baptiste Creek Station is a marsh, which will not support the weight of human beings. The only roads are the railroad track and a plank pathway to Mason’s. The only water to be had to drink at the Station was swamp water or creek water.8
Within the cars the Norwegian emigrants tried to sleep in spite of the extreme heat, and the crowded conditions. The trainman who was left in charge of them reported at the inquest:
The emigrants were lying on the floor so closely packed together that witness could hardly get through. Thinks there were altogether about one hundred and fifty of them. Did not repeat his visit to the car. Did not consider it his duty to make any further enquiry about them. Did not think that they could understand him. Cannot say how many children there were in the car, but there were many.
One died in the night, and was buried in the morning. Two men in the morning were taken out of the cars, and laid on some planks under the shed; they appeared to be very sick. One, who spoke a little English, told witness that they had the cramps or the cholera. Witness did not approach them nor give them assistance; there was nothing that could be done for them.9
Driven by thirst some of the Norwegians drank the swamp water. Their food supplies, stored in their trunks, were not with them but in cars which had been returned to Chatham. As the morning passed with no sign of rescue, in spite of instructions not to do so, some Norwegians set out in search of food. A farmer living some kilometres from Baptiste Creek gave the following report at the inquest:
Remembers the occasion of certain Norwegian emigrants having been left in car on the railway track at Baptiste Creek. It occurred early in July, on a Sunday. The weather was very hot. Some of the French people living about there called in the morning to say that foreigners were in car on the track, and that they had sickness among them. Did not go down to the Creek to see, having a large and young family of his own, and not choosing to run risk of infection. Several of the people - the passengers in the cars — they were foreigners — believes them to have been Dutch or Norwegians — came to this deponent’s house seeking for food or milk. They spoke just enough English to make their wants understood. They demanded “pred,” “pred.” Furnished them with all they had. They appeared to be ravenous, eating voraciously. This was about nine o’clock in the morning of Sunday. Some of them eat the food up at once; others went down with it to the car, deponent supposes, to their families. They could have had no other water while at the Creek than swamp water or creek water, which deponent considers to be most unwholesome drink.10
The immigrant railway cars were finally taken into Windsor by the train which arrived in Baptiste Creek on Sunday afternoon. An eyewitness described its arrival in Windsor as follows:
I recollect the arrival of a train of cars from the east on Sunday, the second day of July last; it was the only train of cars that arrived at Windsor on that day; it consisted of nine freight cars and two second-class passenger cars, and two or three first-class passengers. They arrived at the Windsor Station at about half-past four in the afternoon. Six of the freight cars contained Norwegian emigrants; another of the freight cars contained emigrants and baggage; the two second-class cars also contained emigrants; the two other freight cars contained baggage. . . . There were about 600 passengers in all arrived by this train . . . There was one person dead in the first of the freight cars containing emigrants in the train when it reached Windsor, and there were thirty-three of the emigrants fell upon the platform of the Station just after they got out of the cars, having been attacked with cholera.11
Dr Alfred E. Dewson, the only physician in the village of Windsor, was called to the Station House to attend the sick. He described the experience as follows:
On repairing to the Station House I found three or more cars standing there; I cannot say precisely how many cars, but the passengers had been disembarked and were scattered about; they were about 200 in number; they were all foreigners; emigrants; Norwegians, as I was told; I could not understand their language nor could they make themselves understood; my attention was first drawn to body of a man lying dead in one of the freight cars; he had died of cholera; I was informed that he had died that day on his way down from Baptiste Creek from whence I was told those emigrants had been brought; I forthwith gave all the attention in my power to the remainder of the emigrants; I found several of them sick in various stages of cholera. . . .
My impression is that there were no cases of cholera out of the second-class cars; those persons who fell upon the platform, after the arrival of the cars, came out of the freight cars. The freight cars are twenty-nine feet by eight feet and a half inside measure. I am quite satisfied that the emigrants who died of cholera were all, or nearly all, among those that were detained at Baptiste Creek.12
Dr. Dewson, with the permission of the railway authorities, took all of the sick Norwegians to a storehouse belonging to the Great Western Railway, where he provided them with food and blankets. The weather at the time was intensely hot.
The following morning, Monday 3 July, a farmer from Amherstburg came to Windsor and found a distressing scene at the Station House. At the inquest he described it as follows:
On arriving, was informed that a large number of Emigrants, foreigners, supposed to be Norwegians, had arrived in Windsor, by a train of the Great Western Railway Company, on the preceding evening, and that many of them were sick of the cholera. He immediately offered his assistance to attend upon the sick, and continued to attend upon them during the whole month of July. At this time there were about sixty persons lying sick, some about the Railway Depot, and others who had been conveyed to Troy [Moy]. To the best of my estimation fifty, at least, died of Cholera or of its effects. Heard that about six hundred Emigrants had been brought to Windsor, and this led him to inquire into the manner and means of conveyance provided for them. Found that a great portion of the said Emigrants had been conveyed to Windsor in freight cars temporarily fitted for their reception. . . .
From the enquiries made personally, as well as from the evidence produced before the Inquest, understood