Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1868-04-24
The New York 81 Erie Accident.
A New York telegram of the 10th gives
the following account of the accident:


the following account of the accident:
"The train on the Erie Railway which
left Buffalo at 800 on Tuesday afternoon,
in charge of conductor Judd, and Charles
Douglas, Superintendent of the division,
and carrying three sleeping cars, two first
class and one second-class Car, two bag
gage cars, and one postal car, proceeded
on time, making the usual stoppages, until
evening, when the passengers in the Sleep
ing cars retired for the night. At about
five o'clock yesterday morning, Mr.. Ames
and Mr.. Horton, of the General Postof1ce,
in charge of the postal Car, saw the bell
rope straighten out and break in two, when
Conductor Judd Immediately remarked to
one of the officers that he had lost his rear
cars. They run to the platform of the car,
when the four rear cars were seen running
down q precipice from seventy. five to q
hundred feet high The scene of the acct
dent is thirteen miles beyond Port Jer-
Wis, on the Delaware Division of the
road. The sides Of. the pecipice are
formed of jagged rocks. In the descent,
the cars were broken to pieces. At the
bottom is culvert, through which flows a
stream of water emptying into the Della
ware. An impression prevails that the
disaster was caused by q broken rail, which
threw the rear Car from the track. This
displaced the three cars Immediately in
front, and, the connections breaking, the
whole were precipitated down the en-
bsnkment. Conductor Judd and Division
Superintendent Douglas were slightly in
jured. The cars, in going over the en-
bankment, turned ever several times be-
fore the bottom was reached, and were
nearly demolished The sleeping cars were
entirely consumed by fire. The passengers
of the cars that were left standing on the
track Immediately began to rescue the
wounded and to remove the bodies of the
killed. Many of the latter could not be
recognized. Seven persons were burned
to death and six others were killed by
coming in contact with jagged rocks, &c.
"The following are the names of the
killed; Ephraim Hoyt, Chenango Fork
Mrs. z. Hoyt, Chenango Fork; an un-
known man; Mary E. Cobb, Hornells-
vile; e. Blossom, saloonkeeper at Sus-
Ithaca; B. 81. Corwin, supposed from
Geneva, N. Y; woman unknown, COM
monty dressed; boy unknown: j. y. Dur
ham, Binghamton; MIR. G. K. LOOMS,
Buffalo; Elijah ]. Knapp, jamestown, N.
j luOIiidS H. l. lluCCtCu, 1O0 DIOdOWdy,
New York. Fifty-two are known to have
been wounded, and have been cared for"
A Port Jervis dispatch states that
twenty lives were lost by the accident,
while several others will die of their
wounds, and that thirteen people were
consumed in the burning cars.
Mr.. Blakesly, of Clean, N. Y, who was
in one of the cars that went down the EN-.
bankment, states: "The train was the Gin
cinnsti Express, due in New York at s
o'clock Wednesday morning. AL four OF
the cars that went down the embankment
were completely demolished, and think
twenty five to thirty were killed outright.
saw five or six ladies taken from the
ruins quite dead, and number wounded.
The rear car took fire from the stove a
short time after the living persons were
removed from it, and / should judge there
were about seven dead bodies burned up.
There were in addition, three dead bodies
taken out before the fire reached them.
The car ahead of the one in which was
stopping also took fire, but the flames were
speedily extinguished. The catastrophe,
of course, took place in the darkness of the
night, and the confusion and terror was
appalling, and the horror was greatly in.
creased by the agonizing shrieks and
groans of the wounded and dying"