Bellaire, Ohio Train Wreck

October 5, 1907

FIFTEEN KILLED IN A WRECK

OPERATOR GIVES TRAIN WRONG TRACK AND COLLISION IS RESULT.

ENGINEER'S LEG CUTOFF

“SPRING CHICKEN” THEATRICAL COMPANY ESCAPE WITH SHAKEUP.

Wheeling, W. Va. --- Fifteen men were killed and a score injured, a number fatally, at Bellaire, Ohio, Saturday afternoon, when the Chicago and Wheeling express train on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad crashed into a freight train which was moving slowly on a siding. RICHARD CARLE and his musical comedy organization “The Spring Chicken” company, were in the wreck.

ALFRED DOLBY musical director of the organization, is among the dead. JOHN JAMISON, manager of the company, is also injured.

The killed are:
EDWARD HEINZE, Wheeling.
WILLIAM SHAW, Wheeling.
KARL BERTRAM, Woodfield, Ohio.
L. N. GALBRAITH, Newark, Ohio.
F. E. MOTZ, Newark, Ohio.
T. A. DUNLAP, passenger fireman.
LIPSCOMB, passenger engineer.
W. J. JOHNSON, frieght [sic] engineer, Newark, Ohio
HARRY ENGLISH, Connorsville, Ohio.
CURTIS LAFFERTY, Cambridge, Ohio.
H. PETERSON, Hoboken, New Jersey.
JOHN HAWK.
ALFRED DOLBY, New York.
HAROLD ZEITZ, newsboy, Massilon, [sic] Ohio.
TWO UNKNOWN MEN.

List of Injured.
JOHN HAWK, Pittsburg, chest crushed.
AUGUST MEDER, New York, body crushed.
FRANK BROWN, New York, legs and back injured.
FOREST JACKSON, Cambridge, Ohio, neck badly hurt, legs injured.
CLARENCE JOHNSON, Cambridge, Ohio, back and hips injured.
LEO RALPH, Quaker City, Ohio, head and back crushed
D. E. CLOVER, Klee, Ohio, Crushed about chest and lungs.
WILLIAM B. BOKODICK, Benwood, West Virginia, hips crushed, one leg amputated.
WILLIAM ANDERSON, Mississippi, probably internally.
BARNEY DAILY, Pittsburgh, right leg cut off, head crushed.
JAMES GRIFFIN, Bayonne City, New Jersey, injured about hips.
WILLIAM FERRELL, Albany, New York, cut and bruised.
W. C. BESANT, chief mail clerk, Zanesville, Ohio, cut about head and body; will die.
C.E. KNER, Mt. Vernon, Ohio, mail clerk, head and back injured.
E. G. BLUGH, Mt. Vernon, Ohio, head injured and arm bruised.

GIVEN WRONG TRACK.

McGANN, the signal operator at the Bellaire yard office, gave the freight the eastbound track, instead of the westbound. Both engines were demolished, a portion of one rolling over a forty-foot embankment.

Nearly all of the injured were in the smoker. The dead and injured were pinioned under the wreckage, which caught fire. The Richard Carle “Spring Chicken” theatrical company occupied a parlor car upon the rear of the train which was demolished, but none of the company was injured.

Engineer LIPSCOMB, caught under the wreckage, called piteously, “Chop my leg off, will you?” to members of the yard force. An axe was secured, and, with the steam pouring in upon him, LIPSCOMB saw them amputate his leg. He died at the Boone hospital an hour later.

General Manager FITZGERALD'S train was at Benwood Junction, and was converted into a relief train, filled with doctors and nurses, and rushed to the scene of the wreck. The dead were removed to undertaking establishments here and the injured to the Boon hospital here and the Glendale hospital at Moundsville.

Summit County Journal Colorado 1907-10-05

Submitted & transcribed by Stu Beitler  Thank you, Stu!

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