Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1877-01-26

the hill of two
ing fftv dollars
ifornia; one of d
was in his inside vest pocket and the
other in his pants pocket; saved his
watch by placing 1t inside his wool
en- shirt; his mother and sister were
both on the train and both perished,
but the dresses which they wore an
hour before the accident were found.
Joseph A. Thompson of the same
State, was next sworn. He lives
with Mr.. TruewOrthy; noticed moth
ing that would indicate that the car
was off the track; when he first got
out he did not notice any car on fire.
Charles B. Leek, telegraph opera
tor at the depot, went Immediately
to the wreck, in about half an hour
returned to the telegraph office and
STAYED there till morning; heard no
dispatch in regard to throwing water
on the wreck; thinks he would have
known of 1t had any such message
been received.
Wednesday,, Jan. "a.
Mayor Hepburn was examined be-
fore the Coroner's jury, at length.
He testified that he was at the bridge
within half an hour after the acci-
dent; at the same time he got there
the whole wreck was wrapped in
flames, burning fiercely; met Mr..
Strong near the bridge, who said to
him: eve want to make a road to
the pump-house. Will you help us?''
Witness in a company of about fifty
or sixty citizens, went to make the
road through the drifts to the pump
house, where the wounded lay; he
thinks that none could have been
taken from the burning wreck after
he reached the bottom of the hill:
assisted the wounded in getting to
places of shelter; overlook one of
the fire companies on their way to
the bridge and was asked if thev
would be needed; he replied that
they would by all means, and had
better hurry down there; his opin-
ion is that if water had been thrown
when he first got there that it would
have scalded to death any who were
still alive in the wreck and saved no
lives; he is assistant civil engineer
of the Franklin division of the Lake
Shore Railroad; he gave no orders
concerning the throwing of water on
that night, and knew nothing of
any orders being given that water
should not be thrown; he was at the
depot about ten days before the dis
aster and saw two engines passing
over the bridge at the same time.
Tuesday, Jan. %.
The coroner's inquest was resum-
ed at about 10 a. m, Tues
day. The first witness examined
was Mr.. John D. Burton. who lives
at Ashtabula, and is employed as
telegraph operator at the Lake Shore
depot. He was on duty in his office
on the night of the late bridge dis
aster, and knows nothing of any
message or instructions of any kind
being sent or received that night by
any officer of the railroad company
concerning the use of water to ex-
tingulsh the fire, or concerning the
fire in any way. No conversation
relating to such a message, was held
in the Office during that night in his
hearing. John Manning and Charles
Leek were the only operators in
the office beside the witness until the
arrival of the special train from
Cleveland, which was between one
and two O'Clock in the morning.
Both of these have been examined,
and gave the same testimony as that
OF Burton. There does not seem to
be the slightest foundation for the
story, which had such a wide circu-
lation, that orders had been received
from Cleveland by Mr.. Strong not
to have any water put on the fire,
but to let it burn.
Thursday, Jan. 25.
The examination was resumed
this morning. Mr.. E. A. Bee
bout, Civil Engineer of the Canton
Bridge Company, having made fur
ther examination of the bridge, was
recalled. He considered the system
of lower lateral bracing employed
as insufficient. He thinks the bridge
was not as strong to resist the later
al motion as it would have been had |
the track been on the lower cord in
stead of the upper, for the reason
that there were no laterals from the |
top of the angle block to the abut-
ment. He thinks the lateral braces
should have been attached at the |
same point on the lower cord. A
model of the bridge has been made |
for the instruction of the jury, and |
the afternoon was devoted to its ex-
animation.
At Columbus, Thursday, the spec
ial committee of the Legislature ex-
amined Mr.. Rogers, who had charge |
of the bridge at the time it was
built. His testimony was a repeti-
ton of that given before the coro-
ner's jury.
Parson Brownlow, in the Knox
vile Chronicle, believes that the
Democratic party has made more
surrenders in less time than any po-