The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1877-01-04
HORRIBLE ACCIDENT,
The Giving Way of the Bridge at Ash.
g tnbula. Ohi0-Nearly 200 Human Be
fngs Precipftated into the Depths
Below over 100 Lives Lost.

Below Over 100 Lives Cost.
CLEVELAND, Dec 81.
At 7:S0 o'clock last evening an iron bridge
over the Ashtabula River on the Lake Shors
q Michigan Southern Railroad gave way un-
der the Pacific express, a train which con-
sisted of eleven cars drawn by two engines.
The forward engine had Just cleared the
bridge when it fell, and, by the breaking of
q coupling-pin, was left on the track The
rest of the train fell distance of seventy
| five feet into the water below.
| The crash of the falling bridge and train
was heard at a distance of a mile from the
scene, and was Immediately followed by a
brilliant illumination of the sky, caused by
| the burning cars, which took fire almost in
stant& Crowds of people were soon on the
| ground rendering what assistance was in
| their power which was little enough. About
hfty were picked up from the wreck, and
taken to ncighboring houses. OF these sew
| eral have already died. -
The most heart-rending incidents are told.
Several persons firmly wedgod between
heavy timbers, yet not mortally hurt, were
burned to death before the eyes of helpless
| bystanderS. man, woman and a Child
| are now known 10 have died in this way.
The man was roasted for full half an hour,
uttering the most pitlful cries for aid mean
while before death came. One of the most
! remarkable escapes recorded Is that of a
| gentleman, one of a party of four playing
whist in double seat. Two of his compan-
| ions were crushed and the third was mortally
hurt hut he escaped uninjurcd.
Two babes were taken from the wreck alive
and not fatally injured There is no one to
claim them.
A special to the Chicago Tribune, of the
31st, says:
The disaster was dramatically complete
No element of horror was wanting. First,
fha raSh nf thn hriI Irra fha lot,
| ments OF suspense as the seven laden cars
plunged down their fearful leap to the icy
river-bcd; then the fire, which came to de-
YOUR all that had been left alive by the
crash; then the water, which gurgled up
from under the broken ice, and offered an
other form of death; and, finally, the biting
| blast filled with snow, which froze and be-
numbed those who had escaped water and
fire. 1t was an ideal tragedy
The scene of the accident was the valley
| of the creek which, flowing down past the
eastern margin of Ashtabula village, passes
under the railway three or four hundred
| yards east of the station. Here for many
years after the Lake Shore Road was built
| there was long wooden trestle-work, but as
the road was improved this was superseded
| about ten years ago with an iron Howe
Truss built at the Cleveland shops, and rest
ing at either end upon high stone piers,
| tanked by heavy earthern embankm' nts.
The iron structure was single span
of 159 feet, crossed by a double track
seventy feet above the water, which at
| that point is now from three to six
feet deep, and covered with eight inches of
| ice. The descent into the valley on either
side is prccipitous, and, as the hills and
slopes are piled with heavy drifts of snow,
there was no little difficulty in reaching the
wreck after the disaster became known.
The disaster occurred shortly before eight
o'clock. 1t was the widest winter night of
the year. Three hours behind its time the
Pacific express, which had left New York the
night before, struggled along through the
drifts and the binding storm. The eleven
cars were heavy burden to the two engines,
and when the leading locomotive broke
through the drifts beyond the ravine, and
rolled on across the bridge, the train was
moving Mt less than ten miles an hour. The
head lamp threw but short and dim flash
OF light In the front, 80 thick WAS the air
with the driving snow. The train crept
across the bridge, the leading engine had
had just given it steam, when something
In the undcrgearing OF the bridge snapped.
For IN instant there was confused crack
ling of beams and girders, ending with
tremendous crash, as the whole train but
the leading engine broke through the
framework, and fell in heap of crushed and
splintered ruins at the bottom. Notwithstand-
ing the wind and storm the crash was heard
by people within-doors half a mile away.
For moment there was silence, stunned
sensation among the survivors. who, in all
stages of mutilation, lay piled among the
dying and dead. Then arose the cries of
manned and suffering; the few who re-
manned unhurt hastened to escape from the
shattered.cars. They crawled out of windows
into freezing water waist-dcep. Men,
women and children, with limbs bruised
and broken, pinched between timbers and
transfxed by Jagged splinters, begged with
their last breath for aid that no human
power could give.
Five minutes after the train fell the fire
broke out in the cars piled against the abut-
ments at either end. A moment later flames
broke from the smoking car and first coach
piled across. each other near the middle of
the stream. In less than ten minutes after
the catastrophe every car in the wreck was
on fire, and the flames, fed by he dry var
nshcd work and famed by the icy gale,
| licked up the ruins as though they had been
tinder Destruction was SO swift that mer-
cy was baffled.
Men who in the bewilderment of the shock,
sprang out and reached the solid ice, went
| back after wives and children, and found
them suffocating and roasting in the flames.
The neighboring residents, startled by the
crash, were lighted to the scene by the con-
| fagration, which made even their prompt
assistance toe late. By midnight the crema-
| ton was complete. The storm had sub
sided, but the wind still blew tercely, and
the cold was more intense. When morning
came, all that remained Of the Pacific express
was winrow of car-wheels, axles, brake
| irons, tfuck-frames and twisted rails lying
| in black pool at the bottom of the
gorge. The wood had burned completely
away, and the ruins were covered with white
ashes. Here and there mass of charred,
smoldering substance sent up little cloud
1 of. .f< inb frlA haf
human flesh slowly yielding to the corrosion
| of the fire. On the crest OF the western
abutment, half buried in the snow, stood the
rescued locomotive, all that remained of the
fated train. AS the bridge fell, Its driver
had given it a quick head Of steam, which
| tore the drawhead from its tender, and the
liberated engine shot forward and buried
its III in the snow. The other locomotive,
drawn backward by the falling train,
tumbled over the pier and fell bottom up
ward on the express car next behind. The
| engineer, Folsom, escaped with broken
leg. How he cannot tell, nor can any one
else imagine. The three charred shapeless
Jumps recovered up to noon to-day are be-
yond all hope of recognition Old or young,
male or female, black or white, no man can
tell They are alike in the crucible Of death.
For the rest, there are piles Of white ashes
in which glsten the crumbling particles OF
calcined bones; in other places masses OF
black, charred debris, half under water,
which may contain fragments OF bodies, but
nothing of human semblance.
Among the victims Of the disaster were
P. p Bliss, of Chicago, the we'll com.
poser of several popular pieces of sacred
music, and his wife. 1t was at first thought
| that his two children were also among the
killed, but 1t was subsequently, ascertained
that they had been left behind ut Rome, Pa,
and consequently had escaped the terrible
fate of their parents. Mr.. Bliss was on MS
| way to Chicago, to take part in the revival
services at the Tabernacle in that city. He
has been associated with Mr.. Whittle in re-
vival movements in several parts OF the
West, and was very popular and effectlve
singer The Tabernacle in Chicago was al
once draped in mourning, on the reception
of the news Of his sad death, and memorial
services were held there and in other West
ern localities. ~
The list of the dead was very incomplete
up to the 1st, as the names Of all on hoarf
the train had not yet been ascertalned. q
reporter of the Cleveland Leader telegrapheG
on the night of the 31st that in all thirty si1
bodies had been found in all stages OF dis
figurement. A few which were under waite
show very little mutilation. Others wer
burned away SO that all that was left of {
man or woman could be put in cigar-b
They were all laid out in the freight
house of Ashtabu'a, and more horri
4 bic sight human eye never looked
upon. Some were without heads, other
without hands or arms, others still all burnet
away except the large bones Of the trunk
The bones were either calcined to snow,
whiteness or covered with black, charre,
a flesh. In some the bowels alone res ste'
the fire. The faces Of such as were best pre-
served by water wore look of fearful hor
ror-eyes open and staring. tongues pro
truding, and hands clenched in hair or cloth
Ing, or held as If to ward of blow from
above.
THE DEAD.
AsHTABULA, Jan. 1.
Following is a revised and complete Lis
, | nff tho daai as far n Eucuyp. 4