Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-05-25
A Curious Incidenf of the Erie
Railroad Accident.

kkaIlrOaQ ACciOcmts
fsln Mr.. Bringhurst. proprietor of the Jour
nal, Logansport, Indiana, was among the
wounded by the Erie murder. He is de-
scribed as herculean looking fellow,
very model of manly strength, was Col
onel of the Forty-sixth Indiana regiment,
and was for four years in the thick of
Z the fight. Having perhaps morbid
dislike to sleeping cars. Mr.. Bringhurst
had occupied a seat with his little girl
o. in the seventh car-last but two. Mary,
a pretty child eight years old, was seat
p p ed in his lap, her head leaning
against his shoulder. His seat was on
p the north side of the car, and in about
the middle of it. He had slept on and
off during the night, and with the others
was concious during his waking moments
3 that the train was going at great speed.
Mr.. Bringhurst uses expressive phrases
s now and then. He said, "She was
going like old Harry" The first incli-
nation that there was something wrong
was the humping of the car ahead of
him on the sleepers, then that of his
own. He leaped from his seat, sat the
little girl down on it, her head toward
the aisle, and made for the bell rope. A
fellow passenger, young man, had al
ready seized it; it came away in his
. hand; it was broken further ahead. The
car now began to tilt, and he to realize
what was about to happen. The people
g began to rise. He made toward his
child, but before he reached her the car
turned over, and with the first concus
sion he lost all consciousness.
When he recovered his senses, or ra-
ther partially recovered them, he found
himself seated on the ruins of a car. He
had at this time no consciousness what
ever of W hat had happened, felt no pain,
remembered nothing about his little girl.
But he did feel rather uncomfortably
seated, got up and moved back few
PAGES. and sat down again upon some
: timber, (probably one Of the uprooted
telegraph poles), with his face toward
the ruins.
As the flames rose up from the burn
ling car before him, and the shrieks of
the wounded and dying, and the shouts
e.. of others rose with them, he fancied he
4 was in theater-among the spectators
iis of new sensation. He remembers
clearly his feeling of annoyance at the
scene. He thought they were carrying
the spectacular drama too far; he thought
it was too real. The continued shriek-
ing Of the people and the loud voices of
men close by him, gradually brought
him to the impression that something
- was the matter, but what he could not
y make out.
sra How long be sat in this condition of
semi-insanity he does not remember,
. perhaps only a minute, possibly 20 or
go. At last he began to surmise that
things were not Just as they should be,
4 and he hailed man he saw passing -
:. -Halloa. where am ?" "Well. you
are pretty near Port Jarvis, guess"
was the reply. "Don't think it, said
Mr.. Bringhurst: "what in the world
would bring me that road % "Don't
you wantto go up above2" said the man
with the lantern. Il guess you'd better;
you're shook up a bit-look at yourself"
He did so--his clothes were in rags;
there was blood upon his hands and
s. face. He thought he had better co.
They brought a stretcher, put him on,
and carried him up the embankment to
the cars.
= He had not once thought of little Mary
all this time. After he had been laid
on a seat, and before his recollection had
sufficiently returned, SO that he could
recognize that he was alone, somebody
came to him and said: Don't be un-
easy, friend your little girls all right"
good" said Mr.. Bringhurst /;
+ . bring her along So Mary was
brought, uninjurad. save BY a slight scalp
= = wound. But what was Mary's story !?
Stranger than her fathers. Mary says
"a that what she remembers is, that she
I. woke up suddenly, (she was asleep when
= her father set her down), found herself
IN the bank, and saw the cars rolling
down before her! She sat there untils some
body took her away. How did she get
ont Of the car all but unhurt? How did