Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1877-01-05
A Railroad Horror.

WYNN thiS ONCuluSs hSSCuBer trail
No. 5, on the Lake Shore & Michigan
Southern Railroad, coming west, will
two engines, had reached the bridge owe
the Ashtabula River, few rods east O
the depot, in safety in spite of heav,
drifts of snow along the track. Just al
the foremost engine had cleared th,
bridge it gave way, and the entire train
consisting of eleven cars, four of which
were sleepers, was precipitated into The
river, distance of seventy-fve feet. By
the breaking of a coupling-pin the heat
engine escaped the general destruction
For moment it would have been posi-
BILE to escape the conflagration which
followed by the quick use of a bucket Of
water, but no one could reach the
place in time, and in moment the flames
gathered and spread, and the whole mass
became a sheet of fire.
The scene which followed could have
no description that would portray it,
awful horrors. The crash of the falling
bridge was heard for over mile, anC
the lurid light that reflected on the sky
a moment later brought men with ropes
and buckets to the rescue. Those who
could be picked from the wreck, about
fifty in number, many of whom were
fatally injured, were rescued before the
flames reached them, and among these
were the conductor and train boy. Heart.
rending shrieFs from victims that could
not be reached rent the air and froze the
blood of strong men, who would gladly
have risked their own lives but were
powerless to save. -.
Ot those on board large majority
| perished. One man relates that he was
in double seat with three others over a
game of cards, and when the train went
down two were instantly crushed to
death and the third terribly injured. He
alone was saved. Two little babies were
rescued, but one in an almost lifeless
condition. In another place fire and
smoke came in such volumes and so sud
denly that the men were driven back
just as they were on the point of reach
ing a woman and child, who were
wedged in mass of tlmbers, but still
alive. One man was fastened in near
the engine, and there, for full thirty
minutes, heroic endeavors were made to
loosen the weight above him, but in
vain. Of those taken out many have al.
ready died.
Citizens have thrown open their
houses, and the sufferers are receiving
all the care that human interest can be-
stow. Two were at once conveyed to
the residence of the Mayor, whose efforts
to save and care for the injured were un-
firing. The latest estimate places the
number of killed at 100.
AsHTABuLA, Dec. 81.
During the entire day over 100 men
have continued the labor of clearing
away the debris of the wrecked train
and bridge in Ashtabula River, tearing
and carrying away SO much of the
destroyed train as may be nova
BILE. The approaches to the river are
thronged. Upon the high abutment men
are at work with improvised derricks,
lowering timbers for the temporary
bridge. Over the ice in the river plank
walks are laid, for the men to walk upon.
Looking from the west abutment, seven
ty.two feet down into the river, is diz-
zy, sickening sight, as one attempts to
imagine the horrible descent of this i'll.
fated train. Stretching across the river,
at the left, looking eastward, lies what
is left of the iron truss bridge whose
fatal flaw can never now be discovered,
the structure is so bent and twisted out
of all resemblance to its former angular
self. This netted, tangled chain of iron,
as it lies black and distorted, seems
almost to writhe. At the right of
it and of the original line of the
bridge the train had lain Now, Heaven
only knows what is under this wreck
of car-trucks and iron framework which
the flames have left unconsumed. There
are none of the cars left. They are all
burned, and one hardly recognizes at
once what this mangled ruin had once
been. The locomotive alone is unmis-
taxable. 1t lies near the foot of the tall ma,
sonry upon the summit of which its front
end rested when the bridge broke, turned
completely upside down, the cab
smashed and filled with twisted5 rods
and splinters, the side broken and
bent nearly double, the guide bars
twisted out of place and sll the mocha
nism of the link motion torn from under
the boiler. The smoke stack and upper
surface of the boileris under the ice and
water. That this monster fen from that
great height is awful, but that within
that shattered cab, upside down, two hu-
man beings were carried down, yet not to
immediate death, is miraculous. Itsounds
80 in the telling, but the sight of the tall
abutment and the mangled engine at its
base puts it beyond the reach of human
ingenuity to conceive how Mr.. Folsom,
the engineer, and his fireman ever lived
moment. The fireman died to-day.
A horse is employed in pulling out the
heaviest pieces of the wreck, and from
time to time the laborers turn up some
fragment OF human flesh or raiment.
Boxes of all sizes, from soap box to a
coffin, stand about to receive what is
found. In one box are a lock of hair
upon apiece of the scalp, a single vertebra,
a shred or two of smoked or burned
flesh, a strip of cloth with large white
buttons, and u charred bone, pocket
book, charred and soaked with water,
and sample card of porcelain buttons
lie near. An overcoat folded and frozen
solid has just been carried up the hill
Thus the relics are taken out.
In the freight depot the bodies lie in
boxes, numbered when unidentified.
There are over thirty bodies or frag-
ments here, and the sight of them is too
horrible to describe. One here, a mere
cinder; another, trunk, headless, limb.
less; here body, burned black, all ex-
cept a single arm and hand, that proba-
bly, reached down into the water, the
hand clenched in the fearful struggle
with fire; only few of them, perhaps
seventeen or eighteen, can be identified,
and even the sex of many cannot be de-
termined The bodies are all frozen
solid, and thus are more easily handled
without crumbling. .f
The relief train from Cleveland, which
came up last night, took back to- day
twenty-five of the less. seriously injured.
The Coroner summoned jury to-day
and commenced the inquest.
Mr.. j. E. Burchell, of Chicago, one of
the survivors, has made the following
statement Was in the next car to the
parlor-oar, the third sleeper from the
rear; there were two sleepers behind me
there were eleven cars in the train; left
Buffalo at about two o'clock Friday
"a 81.