The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1877-01-09
THE DISASTER |!
FULL DETAILS OF THE
ASHTABULA HORROR.
A Connected Account of the
Catastrophe. y

| @sssApPnVs
Detailed stasemsnss es some Of shs
survivors.
Scene and incidents OF the Wreck
The Lstsss TeieEraphie Reperss.
CLRvELAsp. December 30.-The pro-
portions Of the AshtabuIa horror are
now approximately known. Daylight,
which gave an opportunity to find aud
ennmerate the saved, reveals the fact
that two ont Of every three passengers
on the fated train are lost. or the l60
passengers whom the conductor reports
as having been on board, but fifty-nine
can be found or accounted for. The
remaining hundred, burned TO ashes or
shapeless Jumps Of charred flesh, lie
under the ruins OF the bridge and
train. The disaster was dramatically
complete; no element of horror was
wanting. First, the crash of the
bridge, the agonizipg moments OF sus-
pense as the seven laden cars plnpged
down TO the icy bed OF the river; then
came the ire TO destroy all who had
been left alive by the crash, the water
gurgled up from beneath the ice aud
offered another form Of death, aud I'm
ally the biting blast, filed with snow,
froze and benumbed those who had es.
caped water aud fire. 1t was an ideal
tragedy. The scene Of the accident
was the valley OF the creek which, flow.
ing down past the eastern margin OF
Ashtabula village, passes under the
railway 800 or 400 yards east of the
station. Here for many years after
the Lake Shore Road was built there
was long wooden trestle work, but
when the road was improved, about ten
years ago, this WAS superseded with an
iron Howe truss, built at the Cleveland
shops, and resting at either end upon
high stone piers, hanked by heavy
earthen embankments. The iron struc.
ture was . single span of l59 feet,
crossed by q double track, seventy
feet above the water, which at that
point is from three to ak feet deep,
and covered with eight inches Of ice
The descent to the valley on either eide
10 precipitous, and as the hills and
slopes are piled with heavy drifts of
SLOW there was no little difficulty in
reaching the wreck after the disaster
became known.
THE BROKEN BRIpoR.
The bridge has been regarded as one
OF the very best Of the kind in tho
country. 1t has been tested with six
locomotives. aud trains frequently
crossed on both tracks simultaneously
without causing more than q slight de-
| hection OF the structure. 1t was in
tended to be as strong as iron and ma
sonry could make it, and it required q
sight Of the wreck to convince the chief
engineer Of tho road that the bridge
bad fallen under the weight Of single
train. The disaster occurred shortly
before eight o'clock. It was the wild
ost winter night Of the year. Three
hours behind its time the Pacific ex-
press, which had left New York She
evening before, struggled along through
the drifts and the binding st0rn. The
eleven cars were heavy burden to the
two engines. and when the leading To-
comotivs broke through the drifts be-
yond the ravine and rolled across the
bridge. the train was moving at less
than ten miles an hour. The head
lamp threw but short and dina fiash
OF light in front, 30 thick was the air
with the driving snow. The train crept
across the bridge. The leading engine
had reached the solid ground beyond,
and its driver had just given IL steam,
when something In the undergearing Of
the bridge snapped. For an instant
there WAS confused cracking OF
beams and girders. ending with a tre-
] h.. NJl..
cept the leading engine, broke through
the framework and fell in heap Of
crushed aud splintsred ruins at the
bottom. Notwithstanding the wind
aud storm, the crash was heard by peo.
pie indoors 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 the dead. The
few who remained unhurt hastened to
escape from the shattered cars. They
crawled out Of windows into freezing
water waist deep, men, women and
children with limbs bruised and brok.
en-, pinched between timbers, and
transhIed by jagged splinters. begged
with their last breath for aid that no
human power conld give.
COMMENCEMENT OF TIE rIRK.
Five minutes after the train fell, the
fire broke out IN the cars piled against
the abutments at either end. A mo-
ment later, flames broke from the
sleeping-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 tire, and the flames, fed
by the dry, vanished woodwork and
famed by the icy gale, consumed the
ruins as though they had been finder.
Men who in the bewilderment of the
shock sprang out and reached the solid
ice, went back after wives aud children
aud found them suffocating and roast.
ing in the flames. The neighboripp
residepts, startled by the crash, were
lighted TO the scene by the conhagra.
ton, which made even their prompt MS.
sistsnce too late. BY midnight the de.
struction was complete. Tho storn
J had subsidized; but the wind blew still
! fiercely and the cold became even more
, intense. When morning came all thai
} remained OF the Pacific express was {
shapeless mass Of car-wheels, axles
brake.irops, truck frames and twistec
rails, lying in black pool at the bot
tom of the gorge. The wood haC
burned completely away aud the ruin'
we're covered with white ashes. Or
the crest OF the western abutment, bal
, buried in the snow, stood the rescnet
locomotive. As the bridge fell 10
driver bad given ii 0 quick head o
steam, which tore the drswhead from
, it's tender and the liberated engine sho
forward aud buried itself in the snow
. The other locomotive drawn brsck war,
1 by the falling train, tumbled over tb
. pier, fell, bottom upward, over the ex
. press car next behind. The engineer
Folsom, escaped With O broken les
how he cannot tell nor can any one els
, imagine.
There are no remains that can eve
be identified. The thres charred
sbapeless Jumps recovered MP 10 moo
. to-day are beyond all hope Of recogpi
. tiop. Whether they ara old or youpe
> male or female, black or white. no ma
: can tell. II 10 thought that there ma
!. be o lev corpses under the Ice. bu
a none have been thus far recovered. >
DAVID currrESpEy. !.
4 geoessl passenger agent for the foxt
b was on board OF the train was undoub
edly lost. He left Clessland Thufsda
morning and went 10 Oil City, intenc
ing 10 return Friday night. A fe
: minutes before the crash he was cor