Tallmadge, Ohio Train Wreck
January 14, 1889
A SERIOUS WRECK.
A Bad Collision on the New York, Pennsylvania &
Ohio.
Eight Persons Killed and a Dozen or More Injured
-- Several of the Victims Cremated in Burning
Passenger Coaches.
CLEVELAND, O., Jan. 15, --- A frightful
wreck occurred on the New York, Pennsylvania &
Ohio railroad, near Tallmadge, O., at half-past
two o'clock yesterday morning, an east-bound
passenger train coliding [sic] with one section
of a frieght [sic] train which had broken in
two. Eight persons were killed and a dozen
injured. The list is as follows:
THE KILLED.
ROBERT HUNTINGTON,
of Galion, O.; passenger engineer.
WILLIAM WALTERS, of Galion; passenger
fireman.
J. F. RUSHFORD, of Galion; freight
brakeman.
WILLIAM LUNDY, of Salamanca, N. Y.;
Wells, Fargo & Co's. Express messenger.
THREE CHINAMEN.
MARY ANN LYON, of Idaho, aged six;
ticketed, second class, to Cherry Creek, N. Y.
THE INJURED.
DAVID THOMAS,
of Galion, baggage master; badly injured
– at first reported killed.
ROBERT OWEN, of Kent, newsboy; one
shoulder dislocated, and bad cuts and bruises.
SAM DOUGLASS, engineer, of Galion,
traveling in passenger coach; leg and head cut,
and bruised and burned about the abdomen.
JAMES BOYD, of Patterson, N. J.,
severely hurt on head and back.
GEORGE SHAW, of Galion, freight
breakman; cut and bruised.
THOMAS FAIRFAX, colored, of
Cleveland; leg broken in two places below the
knee, and bad cuts on head.
Other passengers, whose names were not
learned received slight injuries.
The freight train had broken in two and the
crew resorted to the common expedient of
“doubling” the grade. The flagman who had been
sent to guard the rear section misunderstood the
signals and came in before the track was clear.
The freight had barely got under motion when the
express came along. The passenger engine was
crushed into bits and
Engineer HUNTINGTON and
Fireman WALTERS were terribly
crushed.
A combination baggage and smoking car and a
coach took fire immediately after the crash. In
the smoker were eight Chinamen. Five were pulled
out alive, but half-dead from freight. Three
were never seen after the collision. Bones and
bits of charred flesh gathered up in a bag were
all that were found of them.
A most pathetic scene attended the death of
little MARY LYON.
She was an orphan, and was being sent
through to relatives in Cherry Creek, N. Y.
EDWARD PELTZER, a passenger in one of
the sleepers, took much interest in the little
girl, and when the crash came his first thought
was of her. He found her wedged down by a seat,
the flames already surrounding her. This so
unnerved MR. PELTZER
that he threw himself upon the ground
and sobbed.
Another eye-witness says that the little
girl, whose shrieks were heart-rending, released
herself just before the fire got to her, and for
a moment groped wildly about, then fell over,
choked by smoke, the flames quickly coming up to
complete the dreadful work.
The passengers in the sleepers were hardly
aroused by the concussion. The track was not
cleared until one o'clock in the afternoon.
The Rolla New Era Missouri 1889-01-19
Submitted & transcribed by Stu
Beitler Thank you,
Stu!
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