Chester, Massachusetts
Train Wreck
September 8, 1893
A TRAIN'S FATAL PLUNGE
IT GOES THROUGH A BRIDGE IN MASSACHUSETTS
The Locomotive Got Across Safely, But Four
Wagner Cars Plunged Into the Stream – Many
Persons Killed or Injured – The Scene at the
Wreck.
The Chicago limited express train for Boston
broke through a frail iron bridge on the Boston
and Albany Railroad one mile and a half east of
Chester, Mass., at noon, and four Wagner cars
were crushed, killing fourteen or fifteen
persons, fatally injuring several others, while
at least twenty were badly hurt. The wreck is
the worst ever known on the road. The bridge was
being strengthened for the big locomotives, and
the workingmen who were putting on the plates
were at dinner when the crash came. The
locomotive passed over the structure, but was
smashed, the water tank being thrown a long
distance.
The buffet car, two sleepers and a dining car
were smashed to kindling wood when they struck
the stream twenty feet below, but two day
coaches and a smoker in the rear did not leave
the track. The dead are:
MISS EMMA DELERTY,
Columbus, Ohio;
M. C. IVES, Chicago;
T. EVERETT,
Sedgewick; PALMER,
express messenger;
JAMES McMASTERS, Springfield,
brakeman; J. H. MURRAY,
Greenbush, N. Y., baggage master;
GEORGE H. MORSE, Boston, Wagner car
conductor; J. C.
STACKPOLE, Hartford, Conn.;
R. C. HITCHCOCK, Bellows Falls, Vt.;
J. E. DeWITT,
Portland, Me., President of the Union
Mutual Life Insurance Company;
THOMAS KELLY,
Boston, blanket manufacturer;
MISS SUSIE CUTTING, Boston;
MRS. C. BISBORN,
Philadelphia;
MRS. J. S. WINCHELL, Oneida, N. Y.;
Unknown woman, plainly dressed, apparently about
twenty-five years of age.
Several of the wounded were hurt so seriously
it was thought they would die.
The train was seven minutes late at Chester, and
the railroad hands say it was going at the rate
of twenty miles an hour when it struck the first
of the two spans across the Westfield River. The
locomotive seemed to leap across the bridge, as
the trusses collapsed and fell over to the
south.
The bridge was built in 1874. It was a
two-span lattice structure 221 feet long. It
stretched across the west branch of the
Westfield River.
The ill-fated train was one of the fastest
expresses on the road, stopping only at
Pittsfield in its run from Albany, N. Y., to
Springfield, Mass. It carries the largest engine
and best cars of any train running west of
Springfield.
The scene of the accident is but a short
distance below Chester, and is just below the
steep grade going up the mountain. Word was
carried to the village promptly and the people
did their best to care for the injured.
Two wrecking trains left Springfield
immediately after the accident. On the second
train were Medical
Examiner BRECK and DR. SEELYE, of Springfield.
Superintendent CONE,
of Chester, who has charge of the mountain
division of the road, took charge of the wreck,
and with the assistance of the extra engines and
section hands did much toward clearing away the
wreck before the arrival of the wreckers from
Springfield. The physicians of Huntington
arrived on the scene and did much to relieve the
sufferings of the injured.
The heroes of the work of rescue were
DOCTOR GEORGE L. WOOD,
of Collinsville, who went to the train to meet
his wife, and the colored porters and waiters in
the dining car. Although their faces were
bruised and cut and covered with blood, they did
splendid work.
The hospital was a group of apple trees in an
adjoining orchard, where scores were taken. Ox
teams arrived with loads of straw, cushions,
bedding and food. The wounded were soon removed
to the houses of N. A.
HARWOOD, WASHINGTON MOORE and J. C. CROCKER,
and all that remained on the apple-strewn ground
were thirteen bodies covered with red blankets
from an adjoining stable.
The dead were many of them horribly
mutilated, heads crushed in, limbs torn, and
often only recognizable from the clothing. The
injured were conveyed in a special train to
Boston.
The Cranbury Press New Jersey 1893-09-08
Submitted & transcribed by Stu
Beitler Thank you,
Stu!
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