Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-09-01
THE CARR'S ROCK DISASTER.
Confession of The Man who Caused II.

Confession of The Man who Caused II.
On the 18th of April, 1865, the pub
/ lie were Mortified by the occurrence of
a distressing accident on the Erie
] Railway, near Carr's Hope. The de-
| tails of the affair have not been forgot
! ten, and ever since detectives employ
! ed by the road have been searching
/ for the parties by whom it was sup
posed it had been caused. A Mr..
! knight was arrested on suspicion, but
released for want of evidence. On the
/ 2jth of May, 1863, John Bowen. the
man who had first aroused suspicious
against Knight, was committed to
/ Jail on 4 charge of tampering with
| the track. and of having committed
| perjury in swearing that he saw
| Knight engaged in the same way on
| the night previous to the accident.
Soon after his committal, Bowen
made partial confession eXonerating
Knight from the alleged crime, and
acknowledging that he himself un-
fastened the rail, and then charged it
upon Knight, for the purpose of Sc
curing the reward of s., 900, which
had been publicly offered by the COM
pLny for the detection of any person
Yesterday Bowen sent a message
to Mr.. RedingtOn, Superintendent of
the Delaware Division of the Erie
Railway, stating that he desired an
interview with him, as he had an inn
portant communication to make
Mr.. Redington accordingly visited
Bowen in his cell. Bowen made the fol-
lowing confession 1t was made vol
unfairly on the part of Bowen, Mr.
RedingtOn having assured him that
he need not expect to receive any
leniency from the company if he had
been guilty of the crimes mentioned.
The following is the confession:
al reside in Orange county. l have
read the Bible and prayed lately, and
hoped to get some of my sins pardon
ed. may not live long, and DON'T
like TO die with so much on my con-
science. 1 wish to Tighten it a little.
About between summer and fall, three |
years ago, on the Erie Railway, be- |
tween the Delaware Bridge at Saw !
mill Rift and Kenncdy's Cut, l was |
going along [ was not working for /
the company one day, and kicked a /
stone from the middle of the road to |
the edge Ofthe track against the chair; |
there it lodged. | didn't think il /
would do any damage, but it did; it /
started two or three cars off the track. |
Some time in February, one year ago,
there was a crooked rail at Rosa's |
switch, near the chair. / took a piece /
of iron and pushed the rail out of the |
chair, and raised it up and put spike
under il at the bended place on a I'd
quarter tie; l showed it back into the
the chair, but it wouldn't 20 in with
out something heavy to force it in: |
left it at that, and along came a freight
train and broke it off, and the train
ran off down the bank. About the
18th, year ago last March April, at
o'clock in the morning, l came down
the track i left my place early, and
had been at LackawaXen; / went to
see about a mine l had burning there.
dropped a stone OH my foot, which
hurt me so l walked slowly down the
track until / came to Carr's Rock a
freight train passed me there, going
West; l stepped aside till iU passed;
/ saw Ton the river side a rail (crOoI-
ed which was working up and down
As the train passed; took a piece of
the cap OFF 4 rail and tried to fix it as
well as | could; showed the rail out
of the chair and put block under it
to raise il; l put a spike under the
quarter-tie, in order to make it come
straight to its place again. / didn't
think it was going 10 do any damage
at all. / Travelled on from half mile
to three quarters down the track, then
| heard great noise. l thought it
was the stones slipped down into the
water; instead of the stones il was a
train going east, and in two or three
days l heard it was the train instead
of the stoneS. That was the Carr's
Rock calamity 1 felt very sorry from
that day to this; since L have been
here | don't sleep nights. l was not
then in the employ of the Erie Conn
pany; before any of the occurrences l
had been employed by the Erie Conn
pany, and had been discharged by the
and sent to Jail under a
charge of forgery. l knew when L
put the spike under that rail, if a
heavy train came upon that rail after
ward, it would break that rail, but if
Il train had come from the East, it
would have drove it down. didn't
know from which way the next train
was coming. JOHN BOWEN"
The confession was made by John
Bowen, August Is, 1863, at the Mil
ford Jail, Pike county, Penn, where
he is confined 10 answer the double
crime of tearing railroad track, and
committing perjury by charging one
James Knight with the Offense. The
crimes for which he is confined were
in the spring of this year.
JOHN ID. BIDDIS, Attorney at Law.
Milford, August 10, 1869.