Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1877-01-05

~C0A0 ~ oh0 IVA Wal0NAs
A KingSville writer speaks in high terms
of admiration Of. the humanity and energy
of Miss Sophie Harrington in looking after
and making provision for the wounded and
suffering. and jocosely remarks that had
she been at the head Of the fire department
water would have been used for patting
out the fires Of the burning wreck.
TIE coRoNER's INQUEST.
Sunday, December 81, 1876, 2 Pm
A L Stone duly sworn, and testifies as
follows: 1 reside at Ripley, New York
Am brakeman in the employ of the L. S.
4 II s. Railroad Company. Have been in
this employ about three years next Pebru-
sry. l was on train No. 5, bound west to
Cleveland, last Friday. That tram left
Erie with IL cars and 2 engines:-4 express
and baggage cars, 2 coaches, smokeI, l
drawing room and 3 sleepers, arranged ia
the order as above given beginning at the
front end Of the train. The employees on
that train. 50 far IS l can give, were: 1st
engineer Dan. Mcclure, of Cleveland;
engineer of the next engine, Folsom, of
Cleveland; Philip Mcneil, baggageman,
of Cleveland Conductor Bernhart Henn,
of Buffalo; WIN. Vosburgh, of Buffalo,
forward brakeman myself A. L Stone,
rear brakeman. The train left Erie at
somewhere about P. NJ, though cannot
tell the exact time. think there were on
the train about $50 passengers, besides
the children, when we left Erie, and not
Counting the railroad employees. I know
the name of the porter of the drawing
room csE. Charles Kane, think of Cleve-
land When the train approached the
Ashta6ula bridge l was in the state-roOm
Of the rear sleeping car, the OsseO, which
was the rear csr Of the train. There we're
IN thai car at the time two ladies, que gen
tlemAn, and the porter. The porter l do
not know One Of the ladies wsS Mrs
Lew; l have forgotten the name Of the
other. l do not know anything about the
number of passengers who got Oh or of
the train this side Of Erie. The frst no.
ilce that I had Of the accident, OF Of any
thing wrong at all, WAS q jar, 50 that knew
We were of the track, oy the jar Ireceived.
The hsxt thing I Was conscious of was
tsat we were going down and [ knew
where We were going by knowing the hne
Of the road, for I had sat looking out of
the window hot more than two minutes
before. When we stopped falling, my first
impulse Vas to protect the rear end of the
train, and got out through = window on
the left-nand side of the car, the south
side, which was the upper side as the car
lay. the car having partly carsened on its
side. When got out of the car [ went
into the creek clear up to my waist, on
piece of ice, which held me up. cannot
describe the situation of the wreck at that
time. except that 1t was a mas Of broken
timbers- discovered FIRE almost imme-
dIately not more than two minutes alter
ward-in the Osseo, and somewhere near
the engine. then went Immediately to
the depot and reported Q wreck, both ways
Ito Cleveland aud Buffalo and then went
back aud lent all the assistance / could to
the suffering. Three Of the parties in the
car with me, being all Of them who were
in the car except the porter, got out. l
know this because have seen and talked
with them since the accident. l cannot
describe the position or condition of the
cars any further, because was much ex-
cited and in a hurry. came up the stairs
on the west side Of the creek. know
the names of the saved whom I have seen
since the accident, as follows: Mr.. Foster
Swift and wife, who were going to Chicago
for residence, and WHO came from some
place in Massachusetts,; VIM. VOsburgh,
my partner as brakeman F. Osborn, of
Tecumseh, Michigan. There are two 9TH
eFs saved a. the Culver House, but / can
not remember their names. ! was not
acquainted with any passenger on the
train, before the wreck, so far as know.
/ have not been at the wreck since the
night of the disaster. think the train
was running at the rate of about l2 miles
an hour at the time of the accident Il
was slowing up for the station, We started
to cross the bridge q little faster than
usual, on account of the snow, in order to
get through. / was on the rear car all the
way from Buffalo. The only means had
of knowing the number of passengers on
the train was by having the Conductors
report in my pocket, which I got from the
Conductor at about 10 Friday night. It
was q written report and returned it to
the Conductor Saturday morning. With
the exception Of the smoking car, ell the
cars we're heated by the patent Baker
steam heaters. do not know whether
there we're stoves in the coaches or not.
There were two stoves in the smoking Car.
wood stoves. The ordinary coach will
seat about 70 passengers. Hard coal was
used in the cars, in the Baker heaters. At
Erie went through the train and lit up
the coaches At this time the passengers
were apparently all in their places, as we
we're about ready to start. have no idea
as to the number of children on the train.
When passed through the cars, in lighting
them up,I did not notice about the number
Of passengers in the smoking oar, which
was not well alled. The coaches were as
we'll allied as usual ct this time of the year.
The draEssu9y- room car had only passen-
gers out tom Buffalo. did not notice
about the passengers in the sleeping cars
when went through. It took four en-
gines, two in front and two behind, to
start US out from Erie depot. The two
sDgines ahead kept OF all the time, but
lhe two behind went only through the
gard. We never draw any empty coaches
west at this season, unless specially or
iered. We always run as small trains as
possible in suoh weather. ! think we
eould have got along that night with one
ess coach, without crowding the passen-
gers. The car was in first took fre at
he rear, where the heater was. The train |
vas lit by sperm candles throughout. I |
there was a train following us,
md my whole thoughts were to protect |
'A4aS SAo4a AEOu buO SaSC VI OuESs
There was Q regular train due behind US,
md we were on the time of that tIaip, |
out behind its regular time. In the day |
lime the sleeping cars are run not very
heavily loaded, but at night they are gen
rally well filed. We generally run about |
hrse sleepers and drawing-roOm car on |
rains Nos and 6. The drawing-roOm
ar on this train never runs farther than
cleveland. The next two slsepers were
destined fer Chicago, and the third sGF
XIV. Il Il ssss sts5''SI@So SI@So Chicago
leepers there were about 80 passengers,
n both have forgotten the exact num-
'er which was ON the Conductor report
me Conductors report will not show the
Orreet number of passengers on the train
t the time Of the accident; but if we had
rriVed safely in Cleveland it would have
hOwn the right number there. Tha rule
) to take the greatest number Of passen-
ers st any one time on the road. His re-
'ort would show the number of way pas
engers, simply by counting them in each
zach separately, with the names of those
q the drawing-room and sleepers. I
ave no record of the dead head pasaen-
ers. correct my statement, by saying
hat there were on the train Mr.. Reed,
of Bridges Of the road,
nd MF. Tilden, Superintendent of Water
Works. These men were not included in
be list Of passengers, as believe. The
spoFt which the Conductor took Of this
rain Was taken on leaving Buffalo. |
ssd. when 1eoented train, to copnt all
be passengers, dead beads and all, ex-
aptind children. When the Conductor