The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1877-01-11
RAILROAD DISASTER.

A Rassengef Train Gees ThfeQgh q
Bridge at Ashtabula, Ohfos ara Falls
4 Distance Of seventy Feet, Into Ashs
tabu1a Rsitoe-The Cars Take Fire,
ana Of the 40 Passengers Al out 100
LAse Their Lives by Being Cftshed,
% BurnedS Frozen or DrOwned-AT Tale
OF HOrrofs
CLEVELAND, Dec. 81
At 1880 o'clock last evening an iron bridge
over the Ashtabula River ON the Lake Shore
q Michigan Southern Railroad gave way un.
der the Pacific express, 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 brealzing of
q coupling-pin, was left on the track. The
rest of the train fell a distance of seventy
five feet into the water below. 81
The crash of the falling bridge and train
was heard at q distance OF a mile from the
brilliant illumination Of the sky, caused by
the burning cars, which took fire almost in.
stantlA Crowds of people were soon on the
ground rendering what assistance was In
their power, which was little enough. About
fifty were picked up from the wreck, arc
taken to neighbOring houses. OF these sew
eral have already died.
The most hcart-rcnding incidents are told.
Several persons firmly wedged between
heavy timbers. yet not MORALLY hurt, were
burned to death before the eyes of helpless
bystandcrs. A man, q woman and child
are now known to have died in this way.
The man was roasted for full half an hour,
uttering the most pitiful cries for aid mean
while before death came. One of the most
gentleman, one of party of four playing
whist in double seat. Two of his compan
ions were crushed and the third was MORALLY
hurt, but he escaped uninjured.
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 clement Of horror was wanting First,
the crash of the bridge-the agonizing mo-
mcnts of suspense as the seven laden-cars
plunged down their fearful leap to the icy
river-bed; then the fire, which came to de-
YOUR all that had been left alive by the
crash; then the water, which gGrgled 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-
Eumbcd those who had escaped water and
fire. 1t was an ideal tragedy.
The scene of the accident was the valley
of t e creek which, flowing down past the
eastern margin Of Ashtabula village, passes
under the railway three or four hundred
yards cast Of the station. Here for many
years after the Lake Shore Road was built
there was q long wooden trestle-work, but as
the road was improved this was superseded
Truss built at the Cleveland shops, and rest
ing at either end upon high stone piers,
fanked by heavy carthern embankme nts.
The iron structure was a single span
of 153 feet, crossed by double track
seventy feet above the water, which at
that point is now from three to SIX
feet deep, and covered with eight inches Ut
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 ravinc, and
rolled on across the bridge, the train was
moving ut less than ten miles an hour. The
head lamp threw but short and dim flash
Of light in the front, so thick was the air
across the bridge, the leading engine had
reached solid ground beyond, and its driver
had just given 1t steam, when something
in the undergearing of the bridge snapped.
For an instant there was confused crack
ling of beams and girdcrs, ending with q
tremendous crash, as the whole train but
the leading engine broke through the
framework, and fell in a heap of crushed and
splintered ruins at the bottom. Notwithstand
ing the wind and storm the crash was heard
by people within-dOOrs half mile away
For a moment there was silence, a 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-
shattered(cars. They crawled out of windows
into freezing water waist-deep. Men
women and children, with limbs bruised
and broken, pinched between timbcrs and
transtixed 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 GU: in the cars piled against the abut
ments at either end. A moment later flame.
broke from the smoking car and first coacf
piled across each other near the middle o
the stream. In less than ten minutes aftel
| the catastrophe every car in the wreck wal
on fire, and the flames, fed by The dry var
nished work and famed by the icy gale
licked up the ruins as though they had beer
GlAuCls DCoIIuCLlOu WIS oO SWlS tudG L1CE
cy was bafflcd.
Men who in the bewilderment of the shock
sprang out and reached the solid ice, wen
back after wives and children, and found
them suffocating and roasting in the flames
The ncighboring residents, startled by thu
crash, were lighted to the scene hy the con
f1agration, which made even their promp
assistance too late. By midnight the crema
ton was complete. The storm had sub
sided, but the wind still blew ficrcely, ant
the cold was more intense. When morning
| came, all that remained Of the Pacific expires!
was winrow of car-whcels, aXles, brake
irons, truck-frames and twisted rails lying
| in a black pool at the bottom of TIL
gorge. The wood had burned completely
away, and the ruins were covered with whit,
ashes. Here and there mass of charrcd
| smoldering substance sent up q little cloud
| of sickening vapor, which told that it wal
human flesh slowly yielding to the corrosioI
| of the fire. On the crest of the western
| abutment, half buried in the snow, stood tn
rescued locomotive, all that remained of tn
fated train. AS the bridge fell, its drive
had given it quick head of steam, which
| tore the drawhcad from its tender, and tn,
liberated engine shot forward and buried
| it's elf 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. Tn
| cuRlucCIS GOlSOuS CSCuRCu UIOhCl
leg. How he cannot tell, nor can any OH
else imagine. The three charrcd shapeles
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 cal
tell. They are alike In the crucible of death
| For the rest, there are piles of white ashe
| in which glisten the crumbling particles Q
calcined bones; in other places masses Q
black, charred debris, half under water
which may contain fragments of bodies, bu
nothing of human semblance.
| Among the victims of the disaster wer
p. P. Bliss, of Chicago, the well-known CON
poser of several popular pieces of sacre
music, and his wife. 1t was at first though
that his two children were also among tn
killed, but 1t was subsequently ascertaine
that they had hcen left behind at Rome, Pa
and consequently had escaped the terribl
fate of their parents. Mr.. Bliss was on hi
| way to Chicago, to take part in the revivs
services at the Tabernacle in that city. H
has been associated with Mr.. Whittle in re
vival movements in several parts of tn
West, and was very popular and effectfv
singer. The Tabernacle in Chicago was q
once draped in mourning, on the reception
| of the news of his sad death, and memoirs
services were held there and in other West
ern localities.
The list of the dead was very incomplet
up to the LIST. as the names of all on boar
In In hod Vyof