The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1877-01-13
ANOTHER RAILWAY HORROR,
A Passenger Train Plunges Through an
Iron Bridge near Ashtabula, O.
Nearly One Hundred Persons Crushed, Drowned,
Burned, or Frozen to Death.

phe that ever happened in the United
States, if not in the whole world, oc-
CURED near Ashtabula, Ohio, Friday
night, December 29th. Train No. 5.
ON the Lake Shore and Michigan
Southern Railroad, consisting of two
tirst-class coaches, one smoking car,
one drawing-room car, three sleeping
cars and four express and baggage cars,
drawn by two locomotives, was cross
ing the railroad bridge over the Ashta-
bula river a short distance east of Ash
tabula, when the structure gave way
and precipitated the whole train, with
the exception of the leading engine,
INTO the river bed below, a distance of
sixty feet. The wrecked train immedi-
ately took fire from the stoves, and
burned with such rapidity that many
persons who were pinned down by the
debris were burned to death, in many
Instances in sight of agonized friends
who could render no assistance on &C
count of the intense heat. In about an
hour the fire consumed the train, and
nothing was left but smouldering
mass of ruins, among which the
charred and disfgured remains of the
victims could be seen in great numbers.
THE TRAINS LOAD.
The total number of passengers on
the fatal train, according to the con-
ductor's report, was III, besides an un-
known number of children. In addi-
ton to these were the conductor, Mr..
HEM, and the newsboy, George Covey,
of Buffalo, who escaped almost unin-
jured; Mr.. T. d. Wait, United States
express messenger, who was killed, and
whose remains were identified; Law
renee Lonegan, of Cleveland, express
assistant, taken out dead; Philip Nc
Nall, baggage-master, missing; Harry
Wagner, conductor of sleeping cars,
killed; three colored porters killed, and
six train-m en-, who escaped, making a
total of at least 185 persons, besides the
children. Of them all, so far as now
known, but 70 were saved alive from
the wreck, and one of them, Mr.. G. n.
Gage, Of Charleston, ILL.,, has since
died.
STATEMENT OF A SURVIVOR.
Miss Marian Shepard, of Ripon, Wis,
one of the passengers, makes the fol-
lowing statement. Miss Shepard suf-
fered no bodily injuries, coming off
with mere scratch on the wrist, and,
although fresh from tn scene of horror,
was perfectly cool and collected in her
manner, and able to give a very con-
nected and interesting account of all
she saw:
Said she: I left Albany last Thurs
day night about two o'clock, and had a
berth in the sleeper Palatine. There
were twenty passengers on the car;
two ladies when we started and two
mere afterwards. A very severe snow
storm set in at Rochester, and we all
expected to be showed in. At Ashta-
bula bridge we were three or four
hours behind; this was between s and
9 in the evening. | think we were
running faster than we did few mo-
ments previously. The people in the
car were talking, eating or playing
cards, and the first warning of any inl-
pending danger was given by candle
being knocked down, the glass in the
lamps being shattered, and the bell
rope breaking. The other lights fell;
there was bump, then horrible
crash.
A gentleman near me said: Cob!
my God, we're going down." Then we
commenced to fall, and we went down,
down, down. Some remained in their
seats, grasping them, while others
rose. It was quite dark now. stood
up in the center of the aisle, holding
on to the seat, and thinking / would
be less liable to be injured by the
breaking glass and splinters from the
sides of the car. AS we went down
everything was as silent as the grave,
but, when we had struck, a terrible
shrek arose from the wreck. There
was another crash at the same time,
but not so loud as the first. When we
went down, splinters, glass, ETC., were
whirling around in the car, the berths
were slipping down, and there was gen.
eral confusion. Something fell on me,
but it was nothing very heavy.
1t was dark and / could not
see. Some gentleman also fell
over me, but recovered himself a mo-
ment afterwards. | could not tell who
it was, as it was dark. Some man said
the car would. be on fire In minute,
and we must hurry out. Another
said, "The water is coming in and we
will be drowned" On my way out a
perfectly uninjured man grabbed me
as 1 CROPPED my way along on hands
and knees, and said, go, help me;
don't leave me; save me-" and ever SO
many such things as that, but
couldn't see his face. A woman
wanted me to help her husband who
was jammed In between the floor and q
berth. / tried to get him out but
could not. Some men called out and
said they would come and help him.
Then I went to the door, walking over
the furnace in my course. There was
no fire caught in our car.
How to get out alive | could not
imagine. The cars around me were
either ablaze or covered with such
masses of rubbish as to almost COM
pletely hem me in. But ] saw man
climbing up the rubbish, and | followed
him. I got on to the side of the car,
which had turned over, and crawled
along on it. 1t seemed to be
filed with people jammed together,
for holm